South Carolina Criminal Attorney Blog

Have you ever heard of a crime called, "Feticide?" Fortunately you do not hear it often. Police say Jessica Bruce led police on a high speed chase and ended when she crashed her car, totally the vehicle. The police spokes person said its very likely that she will be charged with Feticide, which is stems from he fetus dying as a result of her being a drunk driver at the time of the accident. The decision as to whether they will charge her rests with the results of the results of the toxicology tests and the autopsy.
The maximum penalty for Feticide in Georgia is 15 years in jail.

There are 24 states now that recognize a fetus as being a person. Under Georgia law, the age of the fetus has no bearing on the crime. The only requirement is that the fetus was alive just before the accident.

There are 24 states that give the fetus the status of a victim in laws that were specially written for cases in which a fetus dies as a result of a drunk driver. When prosecuting these cases, they still have to prove all of the elements of a normal DUI case. The evidence as it pertains to the fetus dying would be in addition to the standard Driving Under the Influence evidence. Georgia is the only state that has a law called, "Feticide by Vehicle."

In a few of the 24 states that recognize the status of a fetus as that of a person, the laws consider the age of the fetus at the time of the death. The difference in age affects the potential sentence. There are also seven states that have laws that can punish a person found responsible of a fetus dying all the way back to the time of conception. The other states require that the fetus be anywhere between 7 or 12 weeks.

There are five states that have laws whereby a person can be charged with murder from the death of a fetus while in what is called the, "quickening state," which is at 16-18 weeks. And, there is another three states where a person can be charged with murder when, and only when, the fetus is deemed viable. Those three states also require the fetus to be at least 28 weeks old, and capable of surviving outside the womb.

A man who was convicted of killing two people in 1983 in a double murder trial walked out of prison last week for good. The federal appeals court that reviewed the case gave the prosecutors in Ocean County 90 days to retry him or let him go free.

Marlene Lynch Ford said today that pursuing a new trial will not happen.

The convicted killer, who's name is Anthony Alongi, who is now 80 years old, is the second defendant that has received relief by the courts. The first one, Paul Kamienski, who spent 20 years in prison, got out of prison last year. The appeals court in case stated that there was not sufficient evidence for him to have been convicted.

Mr. Alongi, who walked out of the prison facility last week, was granted the appeals court order after the court found that he should have been allowed to represent himself, and wasn't.

So go figure that one out? A man who committed a double murder is set free because he got better representation that he wanted?

I suppose the shear nature of a criminal law blog would have to from time to time report on things that were of the greatest degree of tragic and unthinkable. This article is no exception. As hard as it is to read, its reality and since there is obviously something wrong with our society that desperately needs fixing, I'm inclined to write about it, despite how hard it is.

In Missouri this week, a teenage girl, the ripe young age of 15, quietly sat by as her attorney informed the court of her not-guilty plea. A not-guilty plea to the charge of First Degree Murder. The murder charge stems from allegedly killing another child, a nine year old child. The prosecutors on case stated that her motive was merely that she had a desire to know what it felt like to kill someone.

The investigators stated that there were a couple holes dug prior to the killing. The holes were dug in the woods and they said it was to hide her body after the killing. The point of this information was to show the premeditation. They then said that the victim was strangled, her throat was cut and she was stabbed.

About a month ago, the court decided that she would be tried as an adult.

Personally, I can't think of anything I've seen or heard in life that baffles me more than things like this. I'm 54 and so I was well past my childhood when the Columbine massacre took place. Historically speaking, I'm not positive, but it seems that was the harbinger of these sort of things. Kids killing kids. Since then each occurrence is just as much of a mystery as the one before. When I was a kid, I can honestly say that not only did you never hear of such a thing, I do not think these sort of things were even thought of, let alone done. What on earth has happened to our society? The thing that makes this so, so horrific is that it is no longer is unbelievable. We now just read about it and although we are so hurt and pained by its occurrence, we do no longer find it hard to believe.

The prosecutors handing the 13-count murder charges against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, announced this week they will seek the death penalty against him.

With this being in the news today, I thought I'd explain when the law allows the prosecutors to seek the death penalty and when it does

Here in South Carolina, there are 12 different circumstances in which the prosecution can seek the death penalty. If one of these 12 situations does not exist, then the prosecution has no legal grounds for the death penalty and the worse the defendant can be sentenced to is life in prison.

In order for one of the 12 situations to apply, the murder must have happened in relation something else. For example, if the defendant committed murder while in the act of kidnaping, criminal sexual conduct (rape) or robbery with a deadly weapon, the death penalty would apply. These are specific crimes and there are several more that applies. It also depends on who the victim was. They can seek the death penalty if the victim was a law enforcement officer, a judicial officer such as a solicitor, judge, lawyer, or other officer of the court, who was killed in connection to performing their official duties, and this includes their family members. There are several more instances of who the person was that would give rise to this.

The media almost never explains any of this. They report on the crime and they state when someone will be seeking the death penalty, but they never seem to elaborate on why one person is facing it and not another.