Legal Rights of the Unborn

It’s just sad it took the death of these two innocent children to potentally bring about legislation which increases the penalties for their murders.

The man who shot a pregnant teller during a bank robbery last week could face as little as two years in prison for killing her unborn twins.

But a penalty stretching several decades to 100 years would apply for the robbery and the attempted murder of the mother — an absurd gap, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. Today, he is expected to announce a proposal that would expand Indiana’s fetal homicide laws to include any unborn child.

The change would remove a condition that the fetus be viable, or have the ability to live outside the mother’s womb.

“I don’t see why we should be talking about viability,” Brizzi said Tuesday. “If somebody takes the life of an unborn child, they should be charged with murder, period.”

(Read more after leap)

Katherin Shuffield, 30, was five months pregnant. That is about two months shy of the point Brizzi said Indiana courts would consider the babies’ deaths eligible for a murder charge with a penalty of 45 to 65 years in prison.

Instead, the strongest charge available would be feticide, a Class C felony on the books for decades that carries two to eight years in prison. Both murder and feticide require proof the crime was committed knowingly.

Police still are searching for the gunman who robbed the Huntington Bank branch April 22 on Indianapolis’ Far Eastside. He shot Shuffield in the abdomen; she is hospitalized, but her twins died more than two days later.

Brizzi said state Sen. James W. Merritt Jr. and Rep. Mike Murphy, both R-Indianapolis, agreed to sponsor his proposal during the 2009 legislative session.

Indiana is among 35 states with fetal homicide laws, but not among at least 18 that allow strong penalties for killing an unborn child at any stage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Source: IndyStar