Posted on 07/27/2021 6:41:20 AM PDT by deport
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Babysitter Terry McKirchy got a light sentence 36 years ago after pleading no contest to attempted murder for shaking 5-month-old Benjamin Dowling so severely that he suffered permanent brain damage — weekends in jail for three months and three years probation.
But now McKirchy is facing a possible life sentence after a Florida medical examiner says Dowling succumbed to those injuries when he died in 2019 at the age of 35 after a life with severe mental and physical disabilities.
Broward County grand jury recently indicted McKirchy, 59, with first-degree murder and she is now jailed near her home in Sugar Land, Texas, pending her return to Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Justice can be slow. And non-existent. She was free to shake all the babies she wanted to for 35 years. Causing brain damage to this person may as well had been the death penalty.
It used to be that if a victim survived an injury for one year, the assailant would/could not be charged with murder. Tough case. But for cripes sake, the original sentence was way too light.
A first-degree murder conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that she intended to kill the kid.
I highly doubt that’s gonna happen.
And, as has been mentioned earlier, classically if the victim survived for a year, then a subsequent death is not murder.
A year a day used to be the common law standard for most of American history. That began to be eroded by states in the 1990s. Finally, in a 2001 Supreme Court case, Rogers v. Tennessee, the Court held that the ending of these common law prohibitions of ‘a year and one day’ was not a violation of the Ex Post Facto clause or other due process protections. So, the flood gates were opened to these kinds of decades-long ‘delayed murder’ cases.
The most famous one was likely the Brady case from Reagan’s assassination attempt. When Brady finally died in 2014/2015, the state of VA found the cause of death to be ‘homicide.’ The feds declined to prosecute because of the previous finding of mental incompetence from his first trial.
Meanwhile the vaccine industry is done much worse to millions and millions of children destroying their lives forever murdering them ready right now I’m autistic and yet the Democrats and media and the medical pharmaceutical establishment pods them
Yeah, I see this as a form of double jeopardy.
When I was in 7th grade, a kid pulled my legs out from under me and I came down backwards straight on my head. I actually ended up in the nursing office because I got quite light headed for a few hours. Ignoring that he was a minor himself at the time (1967), if I died today and some doctor certified that it was a result of damage from that fall, should they be able to prosecute him for manslaughter, or maybe second degree murder?
I would think not. It certainly would not be fair to him or is family. It would not be “justice” in any form.
Uhhhh...no
The judge 35 years ago gave a stupid light sentence for a terrible crime..
This will open the door to judicial and prosecutorial misconduct the likes of which we will regret..
Think about the slow creep and the worst case scenarios that can result from this...
They will happen
This guy could have fallen or been in a car accident or any a number of spine jarring accidents in 35 years since the shaking. I’m no Doctor, but I can’t see how this can be directly contributed to this 36 year old case?!
It was a 24 hour a day 35 year sentence for his parents and caregivers. They had one child who sucks up all the care and resources, and a reduction for any siblings he might have, lost employment and savings opportunities, damage to a marriage that now has to center on care for a child that will never have a normal life.
I still agree with Cuban leaf and others that any charges should have been brought 34 years ago. This is defacto double jeopardy.
I have trouble with this charge. It’s akin to the George Floyd cop being convicted of both manslaughter and murder.
I think a child/young adolescent tripping another classmate, and an adult forcibly shaking a baby to cause the injuries this boy sustained are completely different, and criminal!
How is this not double jeopardy? Any Florida attorneys want to comment? In most states, there is no way you could try someone twice for the same factual scenario.
The government is out of control.
Screwing up the case the first time doesn’t give you that second bite at the apple. Wow. And I have knowledge of how devastating shaken baby syndrome is. But this is wrong.
While she deserved a much harsher sentence the first time around, this is just too close to double jeopardy. No, this will set precedent to try and retry people again and again never ending. Thirty years of life, even disabled, later, nope, sorry, that’s just, no.
Now . . . if we could only get the same justice for all the current and future damages from “The Jab”.
Whatever happened to *Double Jeopardy”?
She was tried, pled guilty, and served the sentence.
Both were bursts of anger. The kid that tripped me did it because I was making fun of him as he was described in a newspaper article (went on a cross atlantic sailing trip with his dad on their boat). I was making fun of the title they gave him in the article.
IOW, like the woman who shook the baby, he was angry and lashed out.
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