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Friday, November 21, 2014
Two Stories of Desperate Mothers
Two Stories of Desperate Mothers
By Leslie Watkins, Intern
The Cochran Firm
A mother
will do what is best to protect her child, but when that decision results in
death, the law will adjudicate the liable party. Gigi Jordan, a millionaire
medical entrepreneur with an autistic eight-year-old son, Jude Mirra, received
a conviction of manslaughter for his death.
Jordan had
faced the possibility of life in prison but received a lesser charge of
manslaughter allowing a term between 5 and 25 years. Her defense team was able
to prove Jordan’s circumstances for killing her son as being under the
influence of extreme emotional disturbance.
Circumstances
surrounding the killing of Mirra replayed repeatedly as the defense and prosecution
teams presented the facts to the jury. The defense claimed Jordan was a
desperate mother who believed she was protecting her son from two ex-husbands.
One ex-husband affiliated with a mob threatened to kill her. The other
ex-husband, a yoga instructor, sexually abused her son. The ex-husbands received
no charges nor alleged the claims to be true, despite Jordan reporting the
abuse to her therapist and local authorities.
Initially,
as laid out by the defense, Jordan checked into a hotel on the day of her son’s
death using only cash without a reservation. She used a syringe to force
painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs mixed with vodka and orange juice down her
son’s throat and then made a failed attempt to end her own life by overdosing
on the pills.
Jurors
found the evidence presented during trial convincing, as Jordan killed her son
under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance rather than with intent to
kill, resulting in the murder of her own son. Jordan’s defense team is looking
to file a motion for a retrial.
Another
mother living in Oregon with an autistic 6-year-old son also received charges
of manslaughter in addition to murder for killing her son. Jillian McCabe took
her son, London, for a walk and threw him off the bridge into Yaquina Bay,
shortly after calling 911 to report her actions.
McCabe’s
family said she was under extreme emotional stress after becoming the main
family caregiver after the loss of her father, the recent decline in her
husband’s health, and the uphill battle of caring for her autistic son. She had
attempted suicide several times and told the psychiatrist she was hearing
voices again. After London’s diagnosis of severe autism, McCabe created a blog
sharing London’s life, often expressing her frustrations because London was different
but thanking generous strangers who helped the family financially.
At the
time of their son’s killing, each mother seemed convinced that it was the morally
right thing to do. From very different social and economic backgrounds, both women
suffered from extreme emotional distress and had exhibited suicidal behaviors. It
was not enough that both troubled women sought psychiatric help. The fates of
the boys’ lives were in their mothers’ hand, and both lives sadly ended in
tragedy.
Even though
in the mind of each mother, desperate circumstances justified ending their
son’s lives, these deaths are still criminal. The state of a mother’s despair
does not provide a means by law to justify killing a child, even one afflicted
with a disability, a disorder, a disease, or a syndrome.
posted by The Cochran Firm at 10:23 AM
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