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"As appalling as it sounds, in Ohio a mistake is not a crime"

By Brian Tannebaum

This is what I heard this morning from a reporter on the Today show regarding an Ohio mother who left her 2 year old child in the car for 8 hours, and found her dead at the end of the day.The mother went to buy doughnuts and thought she had dropped her daughter off. She went to her job as an assistant principal, and came out to her car at the end of the day to find her child dead in 150 degree heat inside her car.So I hear this, and get a deep pain in my stomach. I have 2 young children. I can't imagine. How dreadful. This mom, who has a reputation of being a good person, left her kid in the car and now she's dead.In Ohio, a prosecution for this only occurs if there is "recklessness," not just "negligence." So as the reporter said, "In Ohio, a mistake is not a crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by Criminal Defense on September 06, 2007 (boomark / email).