Circuit Judge Fred Stine sentenced Charles Luke, 30 years old, to 17 years in prison after Luke pled guilty under Kentucky's Fetal Homicide law following a wreck in 2009 which resulted in the death of an unborn child. Luke spent four years in jail before the final sentence was announced.
Kentucky is one of at least 38 states that have fetal homicide laws, according to a story by Jim Hannah with the Kentucky Enquirer. Now consider this.
Kentucky has four specific statutes that provide punishment for "fetal homicide" which apply to any baby, from "conception onward, without regard to age, health, or condition of dependency." KRS 507A.010
If the killing was intentional, it is a capital offense (death or life without parole). If it was intentional but while acting under "extreme emotional disturbance" it is a Class B felony (10-20 years in prison).
If killing an unborn child was done "wantonly" including by way of a motor vehicle, it is a Class C felony (5-10 years in prison).
If in killing an unborn child the actor was "reckless" it is a Class D felony (1-5 years in prison).
Now here's the real kicker. No matter how it occurs, if the mother of a child kills her unborn baby, it is not a crime.
If she stabs it, drives drunk and kills it, takes heroin and kills it, jumps out of window and kills it, nothing she does to kill her baby is a crime under the same chapter of the law that applied to Mr. Luke.
And here's the worst part, killing a baby during an abortion or any other "medical procedure" is never a crime, unless by malpractice.
In otherwords we are still so barbaric in this nation as to give the mother of a child the unfettered, unilateral right, to kill the baby without penalty.
May God forgives us.
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