INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Miami, United States 鈥斅燗 Florida court has denied the petition of a pregnant murder suspect who sought release from prison on the grounds her unborn child was innocent of the charges and therefore being held unlawfully.
In a ruling obtained by AFP on Tuesday, Florida鈥檚 Third District Court of Appeal dismissed without prejudice the petition filed on behalf of Natalia Harrell鈥檚 fetus, saying there were still questions that needed to be addressed in a lower court but issuing no ruling on whether the case had legal merit.
The court said in its decision Friday it was impossible to 鈥減roperly resolve whether the unborn child has the standing to file the petition before us given the inadequate record in this matter.鈥�
Harrell, 24, has been in jail for some seven months and faces a murder charge after fatally shooting another woman while they were taking an Uber in Miami last July.
Harrell was about six weeks pregnant at the time of her arrest.
She pleaded not guilty, arguing she acted in self-defense.
The fetus 鈥渉as not committed any crime鈥� yet remains incarcerated in 鈥渄eplorable conditions鈥� and unless granted relief will be 鈥渓ikely brought into this world on the concrete floor of the prison cell,鈥� Harrell鈥檚 petition says.
Judge Monica Gordo agreed with the court鈥檚 decision to dismiss the petition, but argued in a dissenting opinion that the case itself had no legal basis.
鈥淭he argument is nothing more than an attempt for the mother to leverage her unborn child as a basis to be released from lawful detention,鈥� Gordo wrote.
鈥淣o more could the government be accused of unlawfully detaining the unborn child in this case than could the mother be guilty of kidnapping over interstate lines if she chose to visit her grandmother in Georgia while eight months pregnant,鈥� the judge added.
Last June, a pregnant woman in Texas who was ticketed for driving in a high-occupancy carpool lane argued that her unborn child should be counted as a second passenger. Her ticket was dismissed.
That case made international news because it came just five days after the US Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion enshrined in Roe v Wade, leaving the decision up to each state to regulate.