Posted on 02/16/2005 12:59:45 PM PST by mhking
I'm set to go on Bill O'Reilly's talkfest tonight on Fox News Channel.
Tonight's subject has to do with a local Atlanta case where a mother killed her own five-week old baby by shaking her to death in December of 1998.
34 year-old Carissa Ashe pleaded guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter last week in Fulton County Superior Court, bringing to an end her murder trial.
Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes sentenced Ashe to five years probation and to have a sterilization procedure performed in order to prevent her from having any more children. Ashe has had two more children since the death of her baby daughter Destiny Ashe in 1998.
The premature infant had been hospitalized for weeks and was killed two days after going home to her mother. Ashe told police the child simply stopped breathing.Local media reports that there are multiple fathers of the seven children, but conflicting reports as to how many. There is no indication that the father is present in the home with Ashe currently.Ashe, who has no prior criminal history or complaints of abuse, could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison on pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter defined as a killing committed with a sudden, violent irresistible passion after the assailant has been provoked.
Instead, Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes ordered Ashe to serve five years on probation and to have the tubal ligation within three months. If she doesn't comply, prosecutors can try her on the initial murder charge.
The judge questioned Ashe to make sure she was voluntarily agreeing to the procedure.
"It was her choice to go forward," said Jan Hankins, director of the Fulton County conflict defender's office, which represented the mother.
Two of Ashe's children are living with her mother, while four are in state custody, Howard said. Her oldest child ran away from home, he said.
I'm set to be on around the bottom of the hour (Fox News Channel - 8P ET/5P PT), in what the producer describes as the longest segment of the program.
O'Reilly tapes during the 6P hour, so I ought to be back home in time to watch and live-blog it here.
Good luck, show no mercy
Good luck!
What an issue. The courts can't sentence people to death but they can sterilize women?? I'm getting more old-fashioned by the minute.
Knock 'im dead! ;)
I don't think this ruling is right. She should go to jail, not be sterilized.
After all, do they sterilize men who kill their own children instead of jail time?
Thanks for the heads-up, and cool that you get to watch your own performance. Does O'Reilly put antagonists on together? I hope not.
I disagree -- this case shows the complete incompetence of Fulton Co. DA Paul Howard's office. They've screwed up high profile cases from the Ray Lewis case in 2000 on down the line.
This story got more press outside of Atlanta, here is was just accepted as par for the course of incompetence in Fulton County. Mind you, this idiot was just reelected -- though he ran unopposed.
Double-barrelled Mega-PING! to both lists! If you want on, FReepmail me!
Just Damn ;-)
When a woman has already lost custody of multiple children to "state custody" and other involuntary arrangements, we should be asking why anyone feels it necessary to wait until she kills one to give her a choice between permanent lock-up and permanent sterilization.
I'd settle for BOTH.
Knock em dead.
If they'd put her in prison where she belongs or given her a ride on ol sparky she wouldn't have to be sterilized.
Instead she'll get her tubes tied and probably have custody of the other children back soon as though nothing happened.
It is no longer just acceptable to kill unborn children, the newlyborn are fairgame too.
She deserves a tubal ligation between her shoulders and her head. I would be satisfied with that justice.
I ain't much of an O'Reilly fan, but I am a mhking fan so I'll try and check it out...MUD
I agree, both sounds right.
How many kids has she had (5 or 7?). She can't mother and she IS a killer.
That's what i was thinking.
What has been the reaction, in Atlanta, to the prosecutor's handling of this case?
I think it may be racially motivated. Maybe not. Who knows?
I'll be watching since I'm usually one of O'Reilly's "folks"
Thanks for the heads-up, and cool that you get to watch your own performance. Does O'Reilly put antagonists on together? I hope not.
Bump. Go get'm.
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