Capital Murder Case Tests Law
The capital murder case of an Angelina County man charged with helping his girlfriend in an at-home abortion may be among the first to test a state law written to protect unborn babies. Gerardo Flores, 19, faces two counts of capital murder and two counts of felony murder in the deaths of his two unborn sons. Police say Flores and his 16-year-old girlfriend conspired on May 6 to cause their twins' deaths. After first accusing Flores of beating up his girlfriend and causing the babies' deaths, police now say he allegedly stepped on her stomach with the mother's consent. Killing a child in its mother's womb is a capital crime in Texas and across the nation. But that’s only if the death fits the crime, according to new federal and state laws. As with federal law, Texas law exempts mothers and doctors. State law also protects against legal drug dispensing or administration that might result in an unborn child's death. If a mother intentionally kills her unborn child, she is safe from prosecution.
Defense attorney Ryan Deaton is representing Flores in his capital murder trial. In a motion Deaton filed in the case, he argues singling out his client for prosecution while excusing the mother violates Constitutional equal protection rights. Flores' girlfriend allegedly admitted to hitting herself several times during her pregnancy to try to lose the babies, Deaton said. An autopsy report stated the babies were dead 24 hours before they were born, Deaton said, proving there was no way to determine exactly how they died, or who killed them. Deaton said the law was "hypocritical" to prosecute women for harming their unborn children, but not for killing them.
Posted by Editor at October 11, 2004 08:52 PM
