Posted on 02/10/2005 4:25:50 AM PST by Ellesu
An Atlanta mother who pleaded guilty to killing her newborn child has agreed to a medical sterilization procedure to avoid prison.
The plea deal Tuesday halted the murder trial of Carisa Ashe, 34, who has seven other children, after she consented to undergo a tubal ligation, in which the fallopian tubes are cut and tied to prevent pregnancy.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, whose office suggested the plea deal, said he agreed to reduce the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter because Ashe suffered from postpartum depression when she shook to death her 5-week-old daughter, Destiny, on Dec. 16, 1998.
The premature infant had been hospitalized for weeks and was killed two days after going home to her mother. Ashe told police the child simply stopped breathing.
Ashe, who has no prior criminal history or complaints of abuse, could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison on pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter — defined as a killing committed with a sudden, violent irresistible passion after the assailant has been provoked.
Instead, Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes ordered Ashe to serve five years on probation and to have the tubal ligation within three months. If she doesn't comply, prosecutors can try her on the initial murder charge.
The judge questioned Ashe to make sure she was voluntarily agreeing to the procedure.
"It was her choice to go forward," said Jan Hankins, director of the Fulton County conflict defender's office, which represented the mother.
Two of Ashe's children are living with her mother, while four are in state custody, Howard said. Her oldest child ran away from home, he said.
Jack Martin, legislative committee chairman of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said agreeing to tubal ligation is a creative way to avoid jail time. But, he said, "it should be rare and cautiously done."
"We're always concerned when an unusual condition is the price to stay out of jail because of the fear it isn't truly voluntary," Martin said.
Prosecutor Ash Joshi said asking Ashe to have her tubes tied was similar to allowing child molesters to choose chemical castration. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld such punishment as constitutional, as long as the defendants consented.
Prosecutors say this is the first criminal case in Georgia that they know of in which a woman has agreed to undergo sterilization to avoid prison.
"If it's happened before, I've never heard of it," said David Fowler, deputy director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.
"As long as she did this with her eyes wide open, I see nothing wrong with it legally," he added.
Three months ago, a Louisiana woman charged with murdering her newborn child agreed to a reduced plea that involved tubal ligation.
The prosecutor in that case, District Attorney Walter May, said he agreed to the plea because of conflicting medical testimony on whether the child was stillborn or murdered. The 33-year-old mother had three other children and told her attorney she didn't plan on having more, May said.
"Given similar facts, I would consider doing it again," the Louisiana district attorney said. "I can have some confidence this particular defendant will not have the ability to commit this particular crime again."
Kids will generally do that after you SHAKE THEM TO DEATH.
2. Not to ask a non-PC question, but ... where is/are the fathers?
No, she'll just shake some other woman's infant to death instead.
I doubt it. She was suffering from postpartum depression, which is a very real and serious illness. It can be treated, but the person generally needs help in identifying it and in getting that treatment.
Having suffered from it with both of my children, I can categorically state that it never crossed my mind to kill my babies.
That is so . . . judgmental!
The dreaded Post Partum depression. No excuse for murder.
Maybe Robert Blake should just have his trigger finger cut off. It would save a very costly trial. The crime is about the same, the punishment should be also.
I always thought the parenting skit where the momma says "I brung you into this world and I can take you out of it" was a joke.........................
My wife suffered from it as well. And the only person she would have even considered killing would have been someone who would have sought to harm our kid. And had she met someone who tried to harm the kid she wouldn't have thought twice about doing it.
Something is really wrong with this plea deal.
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