Woman Who Strangled, Dumped Baby After Birth Avoids Prison Sentence
A Canadian judge's decision to let a woman go free after she admitted to killing her newborn baby has shocked the public, especially with the judge citing the country's lack of an abortion law as evidence that members of the public "generally understand, accept and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers."
Explaining her decision on Sept. 9, Justice Joanne Veit of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench said, "While many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancy, they generally understand, accept and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support."
Veit added, "Naturally, Canadians are grieved by an infant’s death, especially at the hands of the infant’s mother, but Canadians also grieve for the mother."
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The mother in question is Katrina Effert, a resident of Alberta who gave birth secretly in the basement of her parent's home in 2005, when she was 19. Afraid her parents would hear the infant crying, Effert strangled the newborn with her underwear and threw the lifeless body over a neighbor's fence.
Effert was convicted of second-degree murder twice, but the convictions were overturned in appeals court.
In May, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned her 2009 murder conviction and replaced it with the lesser charge of infanticide. The maximum sentence for infanticide in Alberta is five years.
Veit gave Effert a three-year suspended sentence, which means the 25-year-old woman will not have to go to prison and be submitted to certain probationary restrictions.
Effert was previously sentenced to 30 days in prison for indignity to a human body, or improper disposal a body, and has about 16 days remaining on that term. Effert's lawyers reportedly plan to argue against their client fulfilling the rest of the term on a future court date.
In court last Friday, Veit described Effert's case as "a classic infanticide case - the killing of a newborn after a hidden pregnancy by a mother who was alone and unsupported."
The judge insisted that the evidence presented in Effert's trial showed that the woman killed the baby while her mind was disturbed, findings shared by medical experts who testified in the case.
In arriving at her decision, Veit took into consideration the fact that Effert had served a total of nearly eight months in prison and in a psychiatric hospital after her convictions.
Effert's pre-existing probationary terms require her to have constant parental supervision, except for when the woman goes to work or choir practice.
Veit also suggested that Effert be required to tell a probation officer if she became pregnant as part of the terms of her suspended sentence.
The State was seeking to appeal Veit's decision in Supreme Court. State officials had previously suggested that Effert serve four years in prison for killing her baby.
Effert apologized for her actions Friday and accepted responsibility for her actions.
"I wish I could take it all back, but I can't," Effert said in court.
Effert works in her mother's hair salon and is supported by her family's church in the central Alberta community, reports CTV Media.
Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, said according to LifeSiteNews, "We live in a country where there is no protection for children in the womb right up until birth and now this judge has extended the protection for the perpetrator rather than the victim, even though the child is born and as such should be protected by the court."
