<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/opinion/cevallos-hot-car-felony-murder/index.html?hpt=hp_t3”>http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/opinion/cevallos-hot-car-felony-murder/index.html?hpt=hp_t3</a></p>
<p>Another good article about the charges </p>
<p>Thanks for the link @sax that article made things more clear.</p>
<p>GUILTY. Life.</p>
<p>“I am an attorney and am well aware that everyone is entitled to a defense under the law, but I could never, ever defend these sorts of people.”</p>
<p>And that’s perfectly reasonable. Lawyers are right to refuse to represent a client if the lawyer can’t fulfill the duty of zealous advocacy for whatever reason. Not every doctor, lawyer, accountant, or engineer is a match for every project. I think most public defenders have clients they have a tough time with. Some are easier to advocate for than others.</p>
<p>@DocT Regarding the Connecticut death. This is my town. The parents are my customers. We know them. We know the kids. I know the parking lot in question – less than 1/2 mile from where I am sitting right now. I could walk there. No question in my mind that it was just a horrible horrible accident. The parents will never be the same. </p>
<p>I may be in the minority here but I can understand how it happens that someone leaves their child in the car. I can see myself doing it. That doesn’t mean that I don’t love my child or that I am self involved. It means that I can see myself getting distracted or having a break in my routine that could cause me to forget. I wouldn’t judge a person who truly forgets. There but for the grace of God and all. Leaving a child deliberately, whether to run an errand or to do injury to the child…well, that’s a different matter.</p>
<p>^^^Totally agree.</p>
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<p>I can sort of imagine leaving the child, but 10 minutes later I’d think about him and then I’d remember.</p>
<p>Although I did once forget and left our golden retriever in the car for several hours, but it wasn’t particularly hot.</p>
<p>I have left a cup of coffee on the roof. I might have walked the groceries into the door and then come back for my kid. I can guarantee that no amount of drugs would have made my face the impassive one of that father if I had, intentionally or not, killed my baby in that horrific way.</p>
<p>^^^A friend of mine was transporting a puppy from her college town to Dallas many years ago. It was a five hour drive, and she had the pup in a little bed in the back of her car. When she got to Dallas, she discovered to her horror that the puppy had died of heat stroke because the sun had come through the back window in force. She had her AC on, but the puppy died nevertheless. She was so devastated.</p>
<p>
Children have died in as little as 15 minutes. If you believe that it couldn’t happen to YOU, would you try to implement some measure in order to prevent it from happening? such as putting your shoes or purse with the child, having second parent text reminders, etc.? </p>
<p>On the average 44 kids are killed annually left in a hot car.</p>
<p>I fully sympathize with the truly accidental situation. Although it is inconceivable to many of us, I am willing to accept that a parent could be so distracted or otherwise impaired that they could possibly leave a child in a car. But I will bet my life that the Cooper Harris case does not fall into the accidental category.</p>
<p>Some of you might find this article interesting. It examines exactly how possible it is to simply forget your child in a car–apparently much easier than you’d think-- and profiles several parents who have done it. It won a Pulitzer.</p>
<p><a href=“The Pulitzer Prizes”>The Pulitzer Prizes;
<p>I wont disagree that some people are liable to forget.
But I guarantee that they are already aware of how forgetful they are, in which case I think it would be negligence not to accommodate for the short term memory failures.</p>
<p>^So would you be willing to bet the life of your kid that you can’t have a “short term memory failure”?</p>
<p>“Witnesses claim he ‘acted oddly’ and said Cooper was choking when he stopped his car”</p>
<p>Why would he first tell witnesses that his child had been choking instead of that he let him in the car all day unless he was trying to cover his tracks?</p>
<p>
But the fact that it wasn’t hot doesn’t mean anything. If it had been hot you most likely would still have forgotten. Unless you are thinking that the heat would have been a reminder in an of itself. Not impossible I guess.
People who are forgetful (and I guess I am one of them) do develop reminder devices to get through the day but most child car deaths are the result of a broken or unusual morning routine. And it happens to people who would not describe themselves as forgetful. It might not be something that one would think to come up with a system for because it is an unusual for that parent to have the child in the car anyway. I’m sure that those that have suffered this tragedy never could have imagined forgetting their child in the car! Just like most of the posters here. I guess I have always been a never say never type of person.</p>
<p>I do have short term memory problems & I accommodate for that.
If I was responsible for the life of someone else, I would expect to be held responsible if something happened to them.
If I wasn’t willing to be responsible for my children, I wouldn’t have had them.</p>
<p>Unfortunately there are all too many people who have kids but are not able to be responsible parents.</p>