By Dave Andrusko

Let me begin by acknowledging that I am not an attorney. And that in my lifetime I have been advised more than once by people who are attorneys that there will be cases which, on the surface, will make no sense to me. Okay, here's one.

Last week an appeals court in Florida decided to give a new trial to a woman who's served two of the 25 years she'd been sentenced to for letting her baby starve to death. Why? Because of a "fundamental error," which was "probably unnecessary given the quantity of incriminating evidence in the record,'' according to an opinion written by the Third District Court of Appeal.

That "error," which was not objected to at the time of the trial by the defense nor emphasized by prosecutor Catherine Vogel, of the Monroe County State Attorney's Office, was to briefly ask Amy Stephenson if she had contemplated an abortion of Jasmine Marie Thomas.

According to the Herald, "During the seven-day trial, the issue was brought up once during Vogel's cross-examination of Stephenson and briefly in her closing argument." The newspaper then included the Q&A.

''''Q: You had thought about terminating your pregnancy; is that correct?''
''''A: When I first learned I was pregnant.''
''''Q: And that's part of the reason you had late prenatal care; isn't that correct?
''''A: No.''

In her closing, Vogel said: "Then, of course, the defendant testified. She admitted at first she was ambivalent about whether or not she wanted this baby at all."

The Herald reported that it had taken the jury just 90 minutes to come back with a guilty verdict for the first-degree felony. Jasmine was born premature in 2005. After six months in the hospital, the baby, 1 pound 3 ounces at birth, weighed a little over eight pounds "looking like a newborn with chubby cheeks," the Herald reported. "Seven months later, Jasmine was dead from malnutrition. She was 13 months old. She weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces."

According to the Herald, "The jury in Key West gasped in horror when they saw autopsy photos that showed bones protruding from her wrinkled skin and fatless body."

But although there "sufficient evidence to support the guilty verdict for aggravated manslaughter of a child," the Third District Court concluded that "Stevenson did not get a fair trial," according to the newspaper. In the opinion Senior Judge Alan R. Schwartz wrote "that abortion is one of the most inflammatory issues of our time, 'and, more important, that one who takes or even approves of this course is very adversely regarded by many in our society.'''

The Florida Attorney General's Office is expected to quickly file a motion for rehearing. "If the appellate court denies the rehearing or affirms the decision, the case will come back to Monroe County for retrial, said Donald Barrett, chief assistant attorney for Monroe County," the Herald reported.

Linda Laura is Stephenson's mother. She "exclaimed 'Oh, my God!' and began crying Wednesday afternoon when she learned of the court's ruling," the Herald reported.

"Amy has been a real trouper and said she was not giving up because she did not deserve to be where she's at,'' Laura said. ``She's hanging in there for her other three children who are still alive.''

Please send your thoughts on all or all parts to daveandrusko@gmail.com.  If you'd like, follow me on http://twitter.com/daveha.

Part Three
Part One