Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Bulletin: Purvi Patel: Indiana stands by its conviction of Purvi Patel for feticide and child neglect: The state's response to Purvi Patel's appeal of her conviction for feticide and child neglect. "In its brief, Indiana Attorney General’s office argues both of Patel's convictions are based on sufficient evidence. “The state was not required to prove that an attempt to obtain medical care would have saved the baby’s life, only that Defendant placed her baby in appreciable danger by not obtaining medical care for him,” the response states." KOSU;

"Thirty-five-year-old Purvi Patel, the daughter of Indian immigrants, has now served eight months of a 46-year sentence at the Indiana Women’s Prison. In October, Patel lodged an appeal of that conviction with the state’s Court of Appeals, and now Indiana’s attorney general has responded. It's not clear when the appeals court will issue a ruling on her appeal. Patel’s case has gotten international attention as well as support from reproductive rights groups who worry her conviction of feticide sets a precedent that enables more convictions of women for outcomes of their own pregnancies..........In January 2014, a South Bend jury watched a video of that hospital-bed interrogation and heard controversial forensic evidence that the premature fetus had been born alive.  Patel is represented pro-bono by Stanford Law professor Lawrence Marshall and Indiana University law professor Joel Schumm, who argue there was little Patel could have done under the circumstances to save an extremely premature infant. As for the feticide charge, their appeal argues that it was improperly applied to cover abortion, and that the conviction also violates Patel's constitutional rights.
In its brief, Indiana Attorney General’s office argues both of Patel's convictions are based on sufficient evidence. “The state was not required to prove that an attempt to obtain medical care would have saved the baby’s life, only that Defendant placed her baby in appreciable danger by not obtaining medical care for him,” the response states. “The jury reasonably inferred that Defendant was subjectively aware that her baby was born alive...The baby was born at 8:11pm on July 13, one of the longest days of the year, meaning that there was still plentiful light present at that time.”
The state argues Patel likely knew she was further along than 10-12 weeks and should have anticipated a live birth for several reasons, citing Patel’s phone texts to a friend as well as her “disengaged and unemotional attitude at the hospital.”.........Under her conviction, Patel must serve a minimum of 20 years in prison."
http://kosu.org/post/indiana-stands-its-conviction-purvi-patel-feticide-and-child-neglect#stream/0

See Wikipedia account:  "Purvi Patel (born c. 1982) is an Indian American sentenced to 20 years in prison in Indiana for feticide and child neglect after her pregnancy ended and the baby/fetus was found in a dumpster.[1] Her case has caused international controversy about the prosecution of pregnant women accused of intentionally or recklessly causing miscarriages or stillbirth.[2][3] She is the first woman in the United States to be charged, convicted, and sentenced on a feticide charge.[4] Jessica Valenti, writing for The Guardian, has described this case as persecution by "draconian laws and arrest policies that target pregnant women".[2] This has also been compared to the prosecution of Bei Bei Shuai under similar circumstances.[4]Illegal Abortion: In 2013, Patel underwent hospital treatment after claiming to have had a miscarriage.[2] She had become pregnant after an affair with a co-worker, and she feared revealing her pre-marital pregnancy to her conservative Hindu family.[5] Patel claimed that after the miscarriage she placed the stillborn fetus into the garbage and checked herself into a hospital in South Bend, Indiana seeking medical attention for heavy bleeding.[1] Dr. Kelly McGuire said he rushed to meet the police at the dumpsters near the Target in Mishawaka, the place where he said Purvi Patel had told doctors she left the infant. The doctor believed there was a chance the baby was alive. He testified the umbilical cord protruding from the mother looked healthy. The doctor testified on Tuesday about the night he examined the body of the infant in the Target parking lot after police found the infant in a plastic bag in a dumpster behind Moe's Southwest Grill, which her family owned, and where Patel worked. [6] Criminal proceedings: The prosecution alleged that the miscarriage had been caused by an abortifacient per her documented text messages exchanged with her friend, even though doctors found no trace of the drugs in her body.[2] Prosecutors charged Patel with feticide for allegedly inducing an abortion, as the pills in question had been purchased online overseas, which is illegal in the United States and majority of other developed countries.[1] Indiana's law allows for women to be convicted of attempting to end a pregnancy.[1] They also charged her with child neglect after claiming that the fetus had been born alive but was then left to die.[1] Lung float test: The prosecutors in Patel's case used a widely discredited lung float test to determine whether the fetus took a breath after birth.[7] The procedure tests the buoyancy of the lungs in the belief that lungs that float suggests that the fetus took a breath, and the lungs in this case did float.[7] Forensic experts discredit the use of such a test in criminal proceedings because of the number of false positives on record.[8] The jury in Patel's case determined the fetus had been alive and found Patel guilty of child neglect.[7] Appeal: On April 22, 2015, Patel filed an appeal to the ruling. Her lawyers, headed by Lawrence C. Marshall, who is working pro bono, will be challenging the feticide charge and the lung float test evidence.[9]"
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purvi_Patel

See Cosmopolitan story:

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a50831/the-coat-hanger-abortion-is-back-and-this-time-women-can-be-jailed-for-it/