SURVENT

A little while back I wrote a post about a woman who killed her baby by accidental suffocation when she passed out on the child due to being drunk. This story about a Corona, California woman ranks right up there on the ignorance scale.

A judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of a woman accused of killing her baby by nursing with methamphetamine-contaminated breast milk, a district attorney's spokeswoman said.

The jury deadlocked 6-6 in the case against the baby's mother, Amy Leanne Prien, said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Riverside County district attorney's office.

A woman on meth that was breastfeeding her child and the child died - I would think it would be an easy case of negligent manslaughter. Oh, there was a legal technicallity involved......

Prien said she woke up and found her son dead on January 19, 2002. Prosecutors argued that Prien, who had smoked meth for several years, had breast-fed the child after smoking even though she knew it could damage him.

Blood tests after her arrest showed the methamphetamine level in her blood within a potentially lethal range.

Her attorney, Joe Reichmann, however, argued that the charges were based on "make believe science" because authorities never tested her breast milk.

Someone should have tested her breastmilk when she was arrested. This is poor work on behalf of the arresting officers. Now, this woman will most likely be released from jail and go on to smoke more meth and kill another child. And given our sue-happy society and money-happy lawyers, Amy Leanne Prien will probably sue the system for keeping her detained for 3 years as she will not be found guilty. The sad part is that she will probably win.

According to the article:

The district attorney's office has until July 11 to decide whether to try the case again.

I doubt that they will based on this ruling overturn. Here's to hoping for justice to prevail somehow.......