Posted on 10/02/2002 8:03:09 PM PDT by chance33_98
Woman who killed baby won’t serve time
By JASON SCHULTZ
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ — A judge commuted the sentence of Joanne De la Cruz, a former UC Santa Cruz student, who admitted to killing her baby in 1996, meaning she will not spend time in jail.
De la Cruz, 26, was supposed to start a six-month jail sentence Friday. Earlier this year she pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter for smothering her newborn baby in a UC Santa Cruz dorm room and dumping it in a trash bin.
Judge Art Danner on Tuesday commuted the 180-day jail sentence. She will be confined to her parents’ home in San Leandro, being allowed out to go to work, to see her therapist and to come to Santa Cruz County to perform 500 hours of court-ordered community service.
De la Cruz was sentenced in July. Part of her sentence included serving 90 days with the electronic monitor. She has served 60 days of that sentence, said her attorney Ben Rice, so the remaining 30 days will be added to the new 360-day sentence for a total of 390 days De la Cruz must spend under house arrest.
Rice said De la Cruz thought she would be able to serve time through a work furlough program at the Alameda County Jail. But in September, citing concerns for her safety, Alameda County rejected De la Cruz’s application for a work furlough, meaning she would have to serve 180 days in Santa Cruz County Jail.
Inmates convicted of violent crimes against children, molestations and former law enforcement officers are often targeted for violent attacks by other inmates.
Rice said it would be difficult for De la Cruz to find a short-term job here, making a work furlough program here not an option either. He said the same risks for her safety exist in Santa Cruz County Jail.
Assistant District Attorney Christine McGuire objected to the judge’s sentence change.
"Everybody that goes to jail has concerns," McGuire said. "That’s why jail is such an important part of the sentence, because it’s hard and nobody wants to spend time in jail. There has to be some punishment involved in this sentence."
The probation department said De la Cruz has been complying with all other aspects of her original sentence.
McGuire said De la Cruz has been coming to Santa Cruz County every Friday for weeks to publicize a state law that gives mothers the right to leave their babies at designated hospitals within 72 hours of the child’s birth without facing criminal charges. De la Cruz has put up posters and will start putting stickers on trash bins around Santa Cruz, and she will help behind the scenes on the production of two 30-second TV public service announcements.
Waste Management Inc., which maintains trash containers in the unincorporated areas, Capitola and Scotts Valley, has said it did not want stickers on its containers. McGuire said she got a call Tuesday from Debi Faris. who runs a cemetery for abandoned babies in Southern California. McGuire said Faris told her the corporate office of Waste Management had agreed to reconsider its policy.
I think that when judges, such as the one in this case, start off with the assumption that every woman has a right to kill her baby before its born, then it's not that big a jump to say that every woman has a right to a post-partum abortion too.
I think we must be missing some information here. Art Danner is a former DA, and he is no bleeding heart.
It's california, you have to ask? ;)
One thing we have lost, imho, is the depth of understanding and faith those who came before us had. People read the bible and don't do in depth studies like those in earlier centuries did. Many have gotten used to people thinking for them and telling them what to believe. If you have not read systematic theology or others like it I highly recommend it.
You can also find over 5000 books for free download in text format online at project guttenburg, including Evolution Of Theology: An Anthropological Study and other cool things like books from the start of this century and previous centuries, from authors like Shakespeare, Poe, Dante, as well as well-loved favorites like the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Tarzan and Mars books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alice's adventures in Wonderland as told by Lewis Carroll, and thousands of others.
Well, it only took 8 posts before someone said it, but you are right. If it had been a dog or a cat, she probably would have gotten 180 years, and not 180 days.
I don't think the first half is going to real great either, but I have a feeling that those people alive at the time this goes down, will realize the jig is up, and will call for the mountains to fall on them.
Will post an excerpt on FR probably Friday.
Thanks for asking
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