Another So-Called-Mother

Stephanie Rochester from Colorado, has been found not guilty by reason of insanity. According to a psychiatrist that testified for over an hour, Stephanie saw her son as "alien, toxic, contaminated being."
Supposedly Stephanie believed that her son was showing signs of autism. Her son, was only 6 months old at the time of his murder.

The psychiatrist also told the judge that Stephanie suffered from major depression with psychotic symptoms. Stephanie told police she attempted to suffocate her son with a plastic bag before she put blankets over his head the night before he died.



She claimed; like many parents before her; that she wanted to kill herself. She put a little different twist to it, by claiming she didn't want to burden her husband with having to care for a baby with autism. This woman worked at a children's hospital as a counselor and had worked with children with autism. She says that having an autistic child would emotionally and financially “ruin” her life.

The prosecutor didn't feel that he could prove that she was sane at the time of the murder and therefore he didn't contest her sanity. Instead of the jury trial we are most familiar with, she was to have it in front of the judge only.

Information from The Huffington Post and The Daily Camera.

My problem with this case is the fact that the prosecutor decided not to proceed with a jury trial without even being able to have their own expert evaluate Stephanie. Why was that request denied by the judge anyway? This case sounds like so many others like it. There was something "wrong" with her child in her eyes, so she killed the poor little angel. Not anywhere in the news stories regarding this case have I seen one time where she Stephanie had the child evaluated and diagnosed as being autistic. Even if the child had been diagnosed with autism, that DOES NOT give her the right to take his life away from him.

I do not believe that she was insane at the time of his murder. She knew damn good and well that it is unacceptable to murder anyone. She put the plastic bag over his head, saw that he was still breathing, so she covered his face with blankets. The next morning, meaning she went to bed after covering this baby's face,  when his father found him unresponsive the parents took him to the hospital.

This "mother" and I use that term very loosely, knew she was killing her son. She knew it was not right to murder her son. She knew there would be consequences. She knew how to get out of trouble. These "mothers" are the worst of the worst of a human. They are the ones that were given a chance to raise and watch grow, a wonderful little piece of heaven; a child.

Some will say that she had to have been insane to kill her son then, right? NO. She knew it was wrong, she knew and was sane enough to pull the wool over the prosecutors eyes. She knew enough to get the judge to buy her insanity defense. She is no more insane than the pope. She is sick yes, but sick doesn't equal insane. It takes a sick, uncaring, deplorable person to murder a child. It does NOT however take a person that is insane.

I would like to see the insanity defense done away with altogether. Charles Manson was NOT insane when he was convicted in the Tate/ La Bianca murders. Sure he is one sick puppy, that doesn't make him insane. Anyone can act insane to get what they want. All it takes is knowing how to work the system. These "parents" that kill their children know how to do just that.

It is disgusting that our judicial system still let's these murderer's walk free. Stephanie may not be walking away just yet. She may very well be going into a mental hospital until which time she is no longer a threat to herself or others. That however doesn't take much convincing of the doctors.

On average the life expectancy in Colorado for a male is 80.3 years of age according to NACO. Call it 80 years, Stephanie's son was 6 MONTHS old at the time she murdered him. I would say she owes the state of Colorado 79.6 years at the minimum in prison. If you murder your child, at the very least your punishment should be day for day. If the average life expectancy for your child could have been 90 and you killed your child at the age of 10, guess what you owe 80 years.

Personally I would rather see a parent that killed their child, put to death. You have no regard for your child's life, I have no regard for yours.