Stepmom sentenced in disabled girl's murder

[bluediamond]

A woman was sentenced to up to 18 years after pleading guilty Thursday to murdering her disabled 10-year-old stepdaughter, nearly a year after freckle-faced Zahra Baker's disappearance and death shocked communities here and in her native Australia.
Elisa Baker, 43, entered the courtroom wearing a pink jail jumpsuit and handcuffs. She sat between two defense attorneys and teared up before pleading guilty to second-degree murder, with aggravating factors that included desecrating the body of Zahra Baker, who wore a prosthetic leg and hearing aids after a struggle with bone cancer.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44534...tepmom-gets-years-disabled-girls-murder/#.Tn/View attachment 4575

 

[rosebud]

These poor children who die by the hands of their parents or step parents. If you don't want the responsibility of being a parent then either walk away or give the child up for adoption but to kill your child because they are handicap is horrible. Instead of her getting 18 years behind bars, she should of suffered the same as her stepdaughter...and die.

 

[Monster]

Well, we don't know about the chain of events that caused the murder, for example if the child provoked her mother to kill her. But some mothers indeed think their children are their personal property because they've born them ("it's a fruit of my body so it's mine!"). And some parents apparently find joy in manipulating their children ("look, a person who believes everything that I say!"). Parents do not always love their children. And children do not always love their parents.

The featured article mentions that the mother is a very troubled person, a criminal, and that the family constantly moved to keep child support services out of their reach (they were being investigated for child abuse). This could have been avoided had the authorities stepped in earlier (or if they had collaborated across states).

p.s.: I think children should be informed about their rights in every school at least, and that they do not have to stay with abusive parents.