Rampant Abuse and Murders of Children

[Jezreel]

Although she is being charged with child endangerment, I don't think this is so cut and dry. There are so many arguments with both pros and cons on co-sleeping. I know a lot of people who do it as some state it can help prevent SIDS.

A mother is facing up to 20 years in jail after her newborn baby died while sleeping in her bed -- the second time she has lost a child in a nearly identical way.
Vanessa Clark was found guilty of child endangerment after prosecutors said she should have learned from her first son's death.
In July 2010 her two month old son Tristan was found dead after sleeping in his parents bed.

Clark, 33, believed her son had died from SIDS, the so called sudden infant death syndrome or cot death.
But she was charged with his death after it was discovered her first son Christian had died in near identical circumstances a year previously.

Clark had said the one month's old death was due to SIDS while sleeping in the same bed as her and husband Mark Clark.
A court in Angelina County, Texas, was told after the death of her first son Clark was warned about the dangers of co-sleeping.
Infants can be suffocated by their parents or by pillows or the folds in bedding.

Prosecutor Dale Summa told the jury Clark, who had posed smiling and happy in a bizarre police mugshot, should have been alert to the dangers.
Summa said the Clarks deliberately placed their son Tristam in danger by taking him into their bed.
She said they had been warned by Child Protection Service workers about the dangers following the death of their first child at her home in Lufkin, Texas.
Summa said by ignoring the advice of officials they had reached the legal threshold of child endangerment in Texas law.
'It may not be illegal to sleep with your child, but it is illegal to put your child in imminent danger,' said Summa.

Summa said the 2009 death of Clarks' son, Christian, was a key fact in determining the recklessness of Clark in relation to Tristan's death in 2010.
Defence lawyer John Reeves has insisted Tristan died from SIDS.
He argued that it wasn't illegal for babies to sleep in their parents bed but the jury found Clark guilty of child endangerment.
'Every ounce of her went into preserving life,' said Reeves.
Clark trembled and wept as the jury delivered the verdict at the Angelina County Courthouse in Texas Wednesday.
She will be sentenced within the next six weeks.
As many as 7,000 babies a year die from SIDS in the US – the biggest single killer of newborns.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...g-bed.html

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