In Depth Look: Filicide is Different - 4
Other mothers murder their children because the children are not wanted or are resented. One such mother, Susan Smith, strapped her two small boys, a fourteen month old and a three year old, into the backseat of her car, rolled up the windows, and pushed the car into a lake.
She first claimed her two sons were taken in a car jacking by an unidentified black man. Smith concocted elaborate lies in the national media, pleading for the safe return of her two children. Later, Smith told police she intended to kill herself, but changed her mind at the last minute and jumped from the car.
In fact, her father had committed suicide, and Susan had attempted suicide at least once in her life. Her stepfather sexually abused her, with whom she continued to have a sexual relationship once she was an adult. Smith also had an affair with her boss and craved a relationship with him. When he ended the affair because he did not want the complication of children in his life, she became desperate to rid herself of her children.
Susan Smith was convicted of two counts of murder. However, on July 28, 1995, a South Carolina jury rejected the idea of sentencing a young mother to death for drowning her two sons. She was sentenced to life imprisonment instead.
As these widely publicized maternal filicide cases illustrate (see earlier Filicide is Different posts), juries show mercy by avoiding the death penalty where a manslaughter charge is not available.[24] Even though this country does not officially recognize that filicide is significantly different from other homicides, one U.S. study of filicide found that local district attorneys prosecuted only 64% of 171 cases over a 30-year period. [25] Of those cases that are prosecuted, juries as well as prosecutors are aware of the mental and emotional mitigating factors that make the death penalty disproportionate and inappropriate in cases of filicide and infanticide.
Even the vast majority of homicidal child abusers are convicted of manslaughter rather than of murder. [26] Perhaps because women kill their children in "gentler" ways than men, such as drowning or suffocation, often sedating the children first, [27] fathers are more likely than mothers to be charged with murder than manslaughter.[28] Similarly, more fathers than mothers convicted of manslaughter are imprisoned; convicted mothers are more likely than fathers to be hospitalized or treated rather than imprisoned. [29]
[24] Janet Ford, Note, Susan Smith and Other Homicidal Mothers - In Search of the Punishment That Fits the Crime, 3 Cardozo Women's L.J. 521, 530 (1996).
[25] McKee, Why Mothers Kill, supra, at 12.
[26] Ford, supra, at 525.
[27] Linda Cylc, Classifications and Descriptions of Parents Who Commit Filicide, at 7 http://www.publications.villanova.edu/Concept/2005/Filicide.pdf.
[28] Yarwood, supra, at 1.
[29] Yarwood, supra, at 1.
The sad part about this is that is true. I have to say, I have gone back and forth, on my opinion of the death penalty, for a long time. When I was a young person just out of high school and then in my first year of college, I had been a supporter of the death penalty. However, I live in Illinois and saw the deep seeded corruption. So, when they placed the moratorium on the death penalty, I began looking closer. The stories of innocent people who'd been put to death, made me see, our system is a system run by humans, humans who at times, make mistakes. If only ONE innocent person is put to death, it is too many. I, also began feeling for the families of the condemned and realized, my gosh, they are someones son, someones daughter, a member of someone's family. I, of course, do feel extreme compassion for the victim's family. I know they must have justice and punishment for their family member. However, I thought, it was not right for man to be taking anyone's life. Only GOD should do that. I found out something interesting recently. On the death certificate of a person who has been executed, the manner of death, is always listed as "HOMICIDE". I thought that is very interesting. So, we are committing homicide legally, to punish him/her for "homicide" I'm not sure, I see the rationality in that.
However, interestingly, I must say, in the case of Casey Anthony, I am back to feeling the death penalty should be sought. I am absolutely in favor of the death penalty for her. I am on regular basis asking myself, why in this case? Why for her, do I feel so strongly that a death sentence is appropriate? I wonder is it, because I also blame her family for Caylee's death? Is it because they are so absolutely horrible people, in my opinion? I know I believe this entire family has been responsible for Caylee's death. I am outraged and disgusted how they have lied to law enforcement and made excuses for their monster of a daughter and their poor parenting. So, I don't care they will lose their daughter. I feel she deserves to die for what she has done to sweet Caylee. I could go on and on but I won't. I'm sure you get the idea.
So, as this case progresses and others come in it's wake, how will I feel the next time, about the death penalty? How will I feel if it were my family member? What if God forbid, even worse, it were my family member and he/she was innocent? I do not know how I will feel about the death penalty as months and years pass. I just know, I am only human, and humans do make mistakes. Why is it I can not and will not ever feel that Casey Anthony deserves nothing less than the death penalty?
So, yes, Mr Lenamon, filicide is different. It is much, much worse.