|
Superior Court Judge Violated Pregnant Women's Rights by Sentencing Her to Prison To Protect Fetus, N.J. Appeals Court Rules
(Kaisernetwork www.kaisernetwork.org) A New Jersey appeals court on Monday ruled that Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Phillip Paley may have violated a pregnant woman's constitutional rights by sentencing her to a prison term solely to protect the health of her fetus, the Central New Jersey Home News Tribune reports (Sahn, Central New Jersey Home News Tribune, 6/15).
Paley in February 2003 sentenced Simmone Ikerd to prison for violating her probation in a welfare fraud case. The county prosecutor's office said that the prison would offer medical treatment for Ikerd and her fetus, and Paley said that the drug withdrawal symptoms Ikerd would experience would jeopardize the pregnancy. "You know, put her in jail. Not because I want to punish her, but because we want to save the baby," Paley said when sentencing Ikerd. "I don't want her using drugs. The only way I can do it is by putting her in jail," Paley added (AP/PhillyBurbs.com, 6/15).
Ikerd served nine months in prison and was released on parole after giving birth to a healthy infant, according to the state Department of Corrections (Central New Jersey Home News Tribune, 6/15).
The three-judge appeals court panel ruled that Paley sentenced Ikerd to prison "because she was pregnant and addicted and for no other reason," adding that "[j]udges who take it upon themselves to solve problems of drug-exposed infants, however sympathetic their actions may be, are acting like legislators and are making medical decisions that they are usually ill-equipped to make." Although Ikerd already had been released from prison by the time the court heard her appeal, the court issued a ruling because the issue may "come up again," according to the AP/PhillyBurbs.com (AP/PhillyBurbs.com, 6/15).
Source: Kaisernetwork
Publish Date: June 16, 2004
Online at: http://ifrl.org/IFRLDailyNews/040616/4
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_repro.cfm#24224
|
|
