Controversial Use of Fetal Murder Law in Michigan
In Michigan, prosecutors are pursuing what is bound to be an extremely controversial application of the state’s fetal murder law in the wake of a tragic automobile accident.
The facts are this: On Jan. 3, 2001 Kara Hanford was 9 months pregnant and traveling in a vehicle driven by the father, Marty French. Hanford was not wearing a seat belt and French’s license was listed as being suspended (although Hanford maintains he had a valid driver’s license).
According to witnesses, as French approached a train crossing, he tried to stop but hit a patch of ice and slammed into a train. Hanford was thrown out of the car and into a nearby pond. She was taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital where an emergency Caesarean section was performed. The infant survived only four days.
This week French was formally charged with driving with a suspended license causing death and negligent homicide. French could spend up to 15 years in jail if convicted on the charges.
French is being charged under Michigan’s Prenatal Protection Act which was enacted after a highly publicized case in Michigan where drunk driver caused a car accident which killed a nearly full-term fetus. The idea was that there should be some sort of penalty for third parties causing the death of a fetus through their own negligence and/or willfully malicious actions.
But prosecutors in this case are reaching beyond all bounds if they think people who supported this law believed it would be used in this sort of case. This was a tragedy that both Hanford and French clearly have not yet recovered from. As Hanford nicely summarized French’s impending prosecution,
I lost a big part of me, and now they’re going to take the rest of me. Now one year later, they want to take away the only thing I have left. Like his son dying wasn’t enough.
Moreover, these sorts of prosecutions will only create a backlash that will undermine a law that could do some good if sensibly applied.
Source:
Prison threat adds to parents’ loss. John Agar, Kalamazoo Gazette, April 16, 2002.
The Controversial Use of Fetal Murder Law in Michigan by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
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