I reported a bit ago about the case of Francis Inglis, the mother, who while out on bail for trying to kill her seriously disabled son Tom, went to his hospital room and murdered him. In the UK, as here, such cases often generate “mercy” from the courts. But I predicted she would do do time in this case—primarily because doctors said the young man was improving. I was right. From the story:
A mother who gave her brain-damaged son a lethal heroin injection to end his “living hell” was told today she must serve at least nine years in jail. Frances Inglis, 57, was given a life sentence for killing 22-year-old son Tom after he suffered severe head injuries when he fell out of a moving ambulance. She gave a tearful and emotionally-charged account to jurors of how she had “no choice” and had done it “with love” to end his suffering. But a judge instructed them to put emotion aside and told them no one had the “unfettered right” to take the law into their own hands.
This is a proper instruction and a just result in a tragic case. Alas, I believe if he had been deemed “incurable,” we might have seen a far different approach by both prosecutor and court.
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