Is being a bad mother a crime?

High_Gravity

Belligerent Drunk
Nov 19, 2010
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Richmond VA
The Criminalization of Bad Mothers

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On a rainy day just after Thanksgiving, Amanda Kimbrough played with her 2-year-old daughter in her raw-wood-paneled living room, petting her terriers and half-watching TV. Kimbrough, who is 32, lives a few miles outside Russellville, a town of fewer than 10,000 in rural northwestern Alabama, near the border of Franklin and Colbert Counties. Textiles were the economic engine of the area until the 1990s, when the industry went into decline and mills shut down. Now one of the region’s leading employers is Pilgrim’s, a chicken supplier. The median household income is $31,213, and more than a third of children live below the poverty line.

As family members came in and out of the room and one daytime show slid into another — “The People’s Court,” “Intervention,” “Jerry Springer,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” — Kimbrough talked about her arrest following the death of her third child, Timmy Jr. Born premature at 25 weeks on April 29, 2008, Timmy Jr. weighed 2 pounds 1 ounce, and lived only 19 minutes. When Kimbrough tested positive for methamphetamine, her two daughters were swiftly removed from her custody, and for 90 days, she was allowed only supervised visits. Social services mandated parenting classes and drug treatment.

That would have been a typical response in most places, but Alabama is different. Six months after Timmy Jr.’s death, the district attorney in Colbert County charged Kimbrough with chemical endangerment of a child, a Class A felony (because the infant died) that carries a mandatory sentence of 10 years to life. She turned herself in, and bail was set at $250,000. At the trial, the state completed its case in two days. On the advice of her lawyer, Kimbrough then pleaded guilty and received the minimum sentence of 10 years.

According to Kyle Brown, the chief assistant district attorney in the case, Kimbrough might have received far more time if a jury had found her guilty. “She caused the death of another person,” Angela Hulsey, an assistant district attorney on the case, said, “a person that will never have the chance to go to school, go to the prom, get married, have children of their own. You’re dealing with the most innocent of victims.”

When I met Kimbrough last fall, she was free on an appeal bond. (Her plea bargain allows her lawyers to appeal her conviction on constitutional grounds without contesting the specifics of her case.) Kimbrough said she never had a big problem with meth, but admitted that she started using the drug in her mid-20s, after her first marriage collapsed. When she was pregnant with Timmy Jr., she did meth only once, she told me.

“One time,” she said. “I don’t even know why I done it. I guess the Devil knocked on my shoulder that day.” Otherwise, Kimbrough insisted, she abstained from drugs during her pregnancy, even refusing painkillers for an infected tooth for fear they would hurt the baby. Timmy Jr.’s birth had many potentially complicating factors, including prematurity and a prolapsed cord. Kimbrough says she was eager to have the child — she had always wanted a boy. She and her husband, Timmy Sr., were told at an early-April prenatal visit that Timmy Jr. would likely have Down syndrome, and while abortion was an option, the Kimbroughs, who oppose abortion on moral grounds, did not consider it. “We didn’t care if he was special needs,” Timmy Sr. said. “We would have loved him.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/magazine/the-criminalization-of-bad-mothers.html?_r=1&hp#
 
You kill your child through your addiction, I have no issue with that being a crime.

I agree with you, however ALOT of people are against this, I am on the third page of the article and alot of people and organizations want this woman set loose, saying its not her fault.:confused:
 
You kill your child through your addiction, I have no issue with that being a crime.

I agree with you, however ALOT of people are against this, I am on the third page of the article and alot of people and organizations want this woman set loose, saying its not her fault.:confused:

Quite simple. Was she responsible for her child's death? Yes - she admitted that. So she's guilty.

On a personal level, I have a major issue with women who do drugs and have children. The damage that those women do to an innocent child seriously pisses me off.
 
One of my sister's two daughters just had her second baby. They live in Meth Mountain, Alabama. My niece and the baby daddy have been in and out of jail, the kids have been taken away and given back, and they are on some kind of public assistance. Of course they spend the government handouts quickly and then steal and beg to get through the month. If it were not for my sister, the kids would probably be taken by the state due to negligence or incarceration. I don't have a lot of sympathy for anyone who chooses not to first, provide for their children, and second, keep their shit together enough so that number one can be accomplished.
 
911 recordings from the mother of 2-month-old Aiden McGrew, who was mauled, dismembered and killed by a dog in his home, give new details about the tragic death.

It was around 11:00 Friday morning when Chantel McGrew called 911 after finding her 2-month-old son. She went on to tearfully describe the graphic scene to the operator.

"He's still breathing, but I need an emergency... I need EMS here quickly to the hospital as soon as possible please... I don't want him to die," she told the operator.

When the operator asked McGrew if she knew what happened, she explained, "No Ma'am, I was at the doctor with my daughter."

According to Dorchester County Sheriff LC Knight, Chantel McGrew took her 7-year-old daughter to a doctor that morning, leaving 2-month-old Aiden and another 2 and 1/2 year-old child with her husband 28-year-old Quintin McGrew.

"My husband was sleeping, because when I walked in the door... He hasn't been feeling good. He was awake when I left, but I guess he dosed off after I left," McGrew said.

Aiden was left in a baby swing at the home.

"I believe my 2 and 1/2 year old got the baby out of the swing," McGrew told the operator.

"I believe the dog went after my son, because the dog has blood all over him," she added.

The call also gives more insight into the temperament of the dog that attacked and his history with the family.

"I have a dog of my own that is very good with him, but I was dog-sitting another dog for a friend of mine. I believe that dog got a hold of my son, because that dog has blood all over him," McGrew said.

Apparently the dog was still making advances at the young child after McGrew returned home.

"He's put in the bedroom away from the baby because he tried to go after the baby again when I got home," she told the operator.

The McGrew family dog, Lucky, and the dog thought to have attacked the baby were both held in the custody of the Dorchester County Sheriff's Department for several days. Tuesday morning, the dog that attacked the baby, was taken from the Sheriff's facility. No word yet on where that dog was taken.

Chris Nisbet, the Dorchester County Coroner, listed Aiden McGrew's manner of death as homicide. Nisbet released the two-month-old's autopsy results Monday afternoon stating McGrew died from "exsanguination, due to transection of blood vessels, due to animal eating, due to parental neglect."

911 call about baby mauled by dog offers new insight into case | WCBD-TV 2
 
Feeding your child meth through the umbilical cord is no different than feeding your child meth with a spoon. Lock her up. Neuter her, too!
 
You kill your child through your addiction, I have no issue with that being a crime.

I agree with you, however ALOT of people are against this, I am on the third page of the article and alot of people and organizations want this woman set loose, saying its not her fault.:confused:

Well of course it's not her fault! It SOCIETY's fault. Bullshit. I am part of this society and I didn't give her drugs or make her use drugs. She bent her own elbow to do that. And she fed it to her child. She's a murderer.
 
But if she paid a doctor to kill her kid it would be called an abortion and be perfectly legal.
 
You kill your child through your addiction, I have no issue with that being a crime.

I agree with you, however ALOT of people are against this, I am on the third page of the article and alot of people and organizations want this woman set loose, saying its not her fault.:confused:

Quite simple. Was she responsible for her child's death? Yes - she admitted that. So she's guilty.

On a personal level, I have a major issue with women who do drugs and have children. The damage that those women do to an innocent child seriously pisses me off.

I agree it seems pretty simple to me, she did drugs and knew she was putting the childs life at risk, thats pretty much murder imo.
 

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