The ninth-grader is now being held at the county juvenile detention facility and ultimately could be sentenced to life in prison. A teenage girl hides her pregnancy, gives birth in secret, and puts the infant in a trash bag or dumpster. The baby is discovered — sometimes alive, but more often than not, dead. The public responds with anger and disgust. The girl reports paralyzing fear and intense shame — for having sex, getting pregnant, not knowing what to do, and abandoning or smothering her own baby.
The criminal justice system steps in, extracts a conviction, and imposes punishment — typically including a prison sentence. Although family members suspected she might be pregnant, she produced home pregnancy tests that were negative.
We are left with two central questions: how do we prevent these situations, and once they occur, how do we deal with them? The answer on the front end seems easy, but in reality it is not. Although teen pregnancy has been on a long-term decline in the United States since the late s, the teen birth rate remains one of the highest among industrialized countries.
In , more than , American teenagers bore children, with the highest rates for African-Americans and Latinas. As for what happens after a mother has committed infanticide the killing of a child under a year old or neonaticide the killing of a newborn , the legal history is revealing. In 17th century England, single women found to have concealed the death of their infants were criminally prosecuted for murder and punished by death.
By the late 18 th century, acquittals for these crimes increased, and by the late 19 th century, prosecutions decreased. A police interrogation video shows a high school freshman calmly demonstrating how she strangled her newborn son to death in September, WFTS reported.
Cassidy Goodson, 14, is charged with first-degree murder as an adult for allegedly killing the baby moments after she secretly gave birth in her parents' bathroom. Florida prosecutors released a batch of evidence on Thursday, including the footage of Goodson using a Santa Claus doll to show how she squeezed the life out of her son before hiding him in a shoebox, ABC News reported. It took about one minute for her child's breath to cease, Goodson said.
In addition to the premeditated murder charge, the Polk County Sheriff's office lists one count of aggravated child abuse. If convicted, Goodson could spend life in prison. Her public defender declined to comment about the evidence to the Ledger. In the video recorded in her mobile home in Bartow, Goodson explained that she feared disappointing her parents, so she concealed her pregnancy by wearing baggy clothing. She also showed her mother fake pregnancy tests with negative results to fool her.
Police said Goodson used scissors during labor to pry out the baby. Three days after Goodson gave birth, her mother called police to report that she'd found a dead newborn in a shoebox in her daughter's bedroom. A strange odor led her mother to investigate. Detectives questioned Teresa Goodson about how she didn't know her daughter was expecting a child. Upon questioning from detectives, Teresa Goodson said she thought her daughter was "just getting fat and gaining weight,"according to the Ledger.
Fourteen-year-old Cassidy Goodson, who authorities say secretly gave birth to a son and then strangled the newborn, will be prosecuted as an adult. A grand jury indicted the Lakeland girl on Thursday on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
Goodson was arrested last week after deputies say she gave birth on Sept. The indictment does not identify the baby by any name but simply uses the words "Baby Goodson" to describe him. If Cassidy Goodson had remained charged in the juvenile system, the maximum length of supervision she could be monitored would be until her 22nd birthday. In Florida's adult criminal justice system, the maximum penalty for first-degree murder is usually a mandatory life sentence or the death penalty.
Goodson's young age prevents her from facing the death penalty. In addition, the U. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that it was unconstitutional for juveniles convicted of murder to receive mandatory life imprisonment without parole.
The decision specifically addressed "mandatory" life sentences for juveniles but doesn't appear to rule out such punishment on a case-by-case basis. In an interview, State Attorney Jerry Hill said he didn't know what an appropriate sentence should be in the case. Hill said the decision to charge the girl as an adult wasn't taken lightly.
When asked if prosecuting the girl as an adult was harsh or heavy-handed, Hill said the case hasn't been resolved yet, and it's too early to know how it will end. We will have a great deal of latitude as we move forward and more facts come to light. Goodson's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Howardene Garrett, did not want to comment for this article.
News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism. Special Projects Highline. HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Across the board this event is tragic. Everyone has their opinion on this case on all levels and to that they are certainly entitled. Cassidy Goodson has a real opportunity to recover from this, assuming she behaves in the detention center.
If not, she could face the full 15 years in prison.
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