"Mother guilty in death of autistic son" New York Times November 06, 2014
NEW YORK — A woman who said she poisoned her disabled son to prevent him from being sexually abused was found guilty of manslaughter Wednesday after a two-month trial, as jurors decided against a murder conviction.
On its fifth day of deliberations, a jury of seven men and five women accepted the claims of the woman, Gigi Jordan, that she had acted in the throes of an “extreme emotional disturbance.”
Jordan, 53, sighed deeply but then showed little other emotion as the verdict was read.
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Jordan intends to appeal the verdict, her lawyers said. She contends Justice Charles H. Solomon made several rulings that prevented her from presenting all the evidence supporting her contention that she killed her 8-year-old son, Jude Mirra, to prevent him from suffering sexual abuse. That evidence includes a rambling suicide note she wrote as her son lay dying, and testimony from an expert witness that her son’s symptoms of autism might have been caused by sex abuse.
I thought I had heard them all to absolve and exonerate the vaccines, but that's a new one.
On appeal, Jordan also plans to challenge Solomon’s ruling that she could not argue that she acted in self-defense or under duress, which are permissible defenses under state law.
During four days of emotional testimony, Jordan, a wealthy medical entrepreneur, admitted she gave her son a fatal dose of drugs at the Peninsula Hotel in February 2010. She said she asked him to wash the pills down with juice.
The killing, she said, was an act of mercy toward her son, who was autistic and did not speak. She testified that one former husband had threatened to kill her, and another ex-husband — whom she suspected of sadistically abusing the boy — would then gain custody.
“I didn’t see any way out of this situation,” she testified. “I made a decision that I was going to end my life and Jude’s.”
Neither of her former spouses testified , but both have denied the allegations.
To prove Jordan acted during an extreme emotional disturbance, defense lawyers had to show not only that her state of mind was violently disturbed, but also that her emotions were reasonable and based on objective evidence. The classic law-school example is a man who grabs a gun and kills his wife immediately after finding her in bed with a friend.
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Related: Gigi Jordan Murder Will Make You Gag
Also see: Michigan Mother Murdered Child With Autism
Must be something going around.
