Ex-Muskingum University student gets life without parole for killing newborn

[rug]

CHRIS CROOK | ZANESVILLE TIMES RECORDER
Emile Weaver listens as the verdict in her trial is read in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court in Zanesville, Ohio.

By Jennifer Smola
The Columbus Dispatch • Monday June 27, 2016 2:20 PM

ZANESVILLE — It wasn’t until her baby’s funeral that Emile Weaver came to fully comprehend her actions, staring at newborn Addison’s lifeless little body in a tiny casket.

But it was a funeral that Weaver herself had caused, a jury decided last month, and one that will send her to prison for the rest of her life.

Weaver wrote of her baby’s funeral in a letter to Muskingum County Common Pleas Judge Mark Fleegle before her sentencing, and apologized for her actions in court on Monday.

“I ask God for forgiveness, and today, all I can do is ask for all of yours,” she said.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/06/27/Ex-Muskingum-University-student-murder-sentence.html

[WillowTree]

1. She suffocated an innocent, helpless infant in a plastic bag. Life without parole.......Good.

[Logical]

5. You of course are wrong. But I think you realize that. nt

[WillowTree]

8. Your opinion. Mine is different.

[marybourg]

2. Terrible crime,

but excessive sentence.

[smirkymonkey]

3. I agree with you.

Far worse crimes have been committed with lesser sentences.

[LisaL]

6. Would you consider sentence excessive if she did it to somebody else's child, instead of her own?

[marybourg]

13. Depends.

Modern sentencing theory is supposed to take into account "exacerbating" and "mitigating" factors.

An unattended pregnancy, shock, pain, and other conditions surrounding her OWN childbirth could be mitigating factors. Purposely stalking a pregnant woman (as has happened in a few cases) in order to prematurely deliver and steal her newborn could be exacerbating factors.

So - different cases; maybe different outcomes.

[handmade34]

4. very disconcerting

the sentence is excessive and will not help her or society

[Nevernose]

7. This wasn't post partum depression or other illness

She'd been planning on bringing it to term, giving birth, killing the baby, and then cover it up.

Life without parole does seem excessive (as it does to me in almost all cases), but what should the punishment be?

[Logical]

9. 15 years, people change as they mature. Nt

[handmade34]

10. punishment doesn't seem to be the answer

nothing I read seemed to prove pre-meditated murder (although the prosecutors implied it)... seems like a troubled, mentally unstable young woman to me, but not a serious threat to her peers or society in general; with some attention and health care

Ohio has strict abortion laws, so many factors come into play in a case like this... jail does very little for society (except to temper our irrational need to punish others) and most often very little for the person jailed...

Prison should be restricted to hold only those proven to be a danger to society and... abortion should be easily obtained and... mental health care should be accessible to all

[phylny]

11. I'm as pro-choice as you can be,

but if this woman had the option of aborting and didn't, she could have easily given this baby up for adoption.

The daughter and son-in-law of one of our dearest friends have suffered through infertility for years and became parents this week as they traveled from Pennsylvania to Virginia to adopt a newborn baby. This option was open to this woman, but she chose instead to kill her baby.

The sentence seems very harsh, I agree, but I don't know all the evidence presented. It does seem (by reading the article) that she was blase about the whole thing.

[struggle4progress]

12. sad story all the way round