This was always my nightmare as a parent: that I would let go of my child's hand for a moment, and they'd run in front of a car, or I'd go into a store and realize that I had left them in the car in the sun. It is the worst nightmare, losing your child, knowing he died in pain and alone, and then being made into a villain by a society trying to pass judgment and find someone to blame. I get that, too, as awful as it is. Wanting someone to pay for the pain of that child who was locked in the car. Our system of justice does not have the wisdom to handle a dilemma like this wisely and fairly. Let alone humanely.
My oldest child was just born when I read Gene’s Pulitzer Prize winning story. My husband and I immediately and for every day until our kids were out of car seats called whichever one of us dropped the kid, eventually kids, off at daycare, and asked, Did you forget the kid? Every day. Almost every parent has forgotten or at least “misplaced” a kid at least once, fortunately mostly without tragedy. I was lucky enough to raise kids with a partner and without the added stress of a high-needs child.
I have forgotten my child in the backseat. I didn't normally bring Bridget to daycare; her dad did. I dropped the boys off at school and drove to work planning how to meet my deadline for the day. When I arrived and gathered my things, Bridget said "What about me?" It is only through the grace of God and sheer dumb luck that my baby was old enough to talk.
Does anyone have statistics on the type of vehicle in these cases? They say “hot car” but the size of a minivan or SUV could be a factor. When exiting a smaller vehicle, the driver usually gets at least a left side peripheral view of the backseat.
There may be some minor relationship btween the physical structure of the vehicle (e.g. cabin volume, color interior, glass area) and how long a child is in it before being discovered, but a quick check shows no national statistics on which vehicle types are most often involved in child hot car deaths, and no evidence of any correlation with vehicle ownership. The only link would not be a causal one and probably have to do with the normal distribution of vehicle types on the road. When it comes to vehicle structure and allowing for heating differential, sadly, a child’s vulnerability pretty much overwhelms any difference. We're talking about a matter of minutes, with "slowest" still meaning lethal within 30-45 minutes, according to studies. Hot car deaths overwhelmingly arise from memory failure, not vehicle design.
Thank you for fighting the good fight! If she were in Alabama where I am licensed to practice law, I would file an amicus on her behalf. Alabama's prisons and sometimes our Courts are horror shows, but they do not hold a candle, evidently, to Georgia's. Years ago, I was in Court a few days prior to Christmas, waiting my turn before one of my favorite judges, Judge Key, for the civil matter I was handling while Judge Key called his criminal docket. A very pregnant woman charged with her third set of forged checks had no defense and was surely going to spend many years in prison bc Alabama has the three strikes rule. her case was called up and the Judge looked at the DA and told him that if he "had a lick of sense" he would not disagree with what Judge Key had decided to do with the present charges. He told them all that he had decided to find her not guilty without even seeing the first piece of evidence. He said it had nothing to do with Christmas--he had decided that the unborn child had done nothing wrong and would not have to go through his/her life with the place of birth listed on the birth certificate as "Julia Tutwiler Women's Prison" as the place of birth. No one dared the say a single word against the ruling, she went free, and I guess now you have an idea of why Judge Key was one of my favorite judges--he had a compassionate heart!! He was not a pushover, by any means, but he knew what was important. That baby was important, but no more important than Deja's other two children. We need more Judge Keys.
I never forgot a child in the store, or anywhere. But I lost one for an agonizing 10 minutes or so when my seven year old daughter found an old-fashioned standup video game in a back hallway of a supermarket. I had lost sight of her, panicked, ran through the entire store looking up and down all the aisles. Not finding her I ran out and cased the parking lot (luckily it was relatively small) finding nothing, I came back into the store, spoke to store employees, and she was soon found, happily miming gameplay of the machine. She had no money, and she was pushing the buttons on the side as she had seen others do. It was the scariest part of my 3 child parenting life - those feelings have subsided, but will never leave me.
Gwinnett County - 47% white, 30% black. Largest city Sugar Hill 16K residents, 21 other small towns, no major centers. All colleges in the county rated on Yelp at only 1 to 2 stars - hotbed of the "poorly educated". Thus, a county with the 4 R's majority - rural, repressive, racist, republican. They don't object to a syphilitic fascist lawbreaking president starving and killing them. But this lady was a convenient target for the local prosecutor, who prayed his cruel decision would be the one that would FINALLY convince his wife to accede to his perverted sexual demands.
Gwinnett County is not rural and not Republican. Peachtree Corners is the largest city with 42K residents. Lawrenceville has 32K residents. Yeah, it's not a major academic destination, but it's in the Atlanta metro area with Emory and Georgia Tech. You can define it as racist and repressive if you want, but clearly you don't know anything about it. I'm as appalled as everyone else about the treatment of this young woman, but trashing Gwinnett County doesn't really solve anything.
That's right, it was just a loose framework to illustrate by working downward to the mentality of the cretin who would prosecute this woman because of her color, all ordered and approved by the corrupt convicted felon president. But thanks for your detailed perfect retort.
Does anyone know the definition in Georgia of Second Degree Murder. My understanding is that “murder” requires “malice afore thought.” While “manslaughter “ is killing without intention. But each state has differing definitions of degree.
In most states, second-degree murder means a killing with malice but without premeditation. Georgia’s definition of second-degree murder is not a general homicide category like other states use. It is a child-specific, negligence-based homicide, and it activates only when a child dies as a result of "second-degree cruelty to children." The sadly ironic part of this is that Georgia added second-degree murder to fix the problem of felony murder being too harsh for accidental child death, but as we see with Deja Coleman, the fix created a new pathway for murder charges in accidental cases. It applies to accidental child deaths in ways other states reject. Other states use negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter or child endangerment. Georgia uses murder.
Seems to me that this column illuminates two separate but related issues. The first is the apparent excessiveness of the charge. But even if prosecutors can cite reasonable justifications for a charge of deliberate murder, there's the issue of gratuitous cruelty in not allowing this grieving mother to attend the funeral for her child. And gratuitous cruelty has become typical of how incarcerated people are treated in this country. The worse the treatment, the more Americans seem to applaud, since they think of criminals as animals and no longer as human beings.
Your description of ‘a bloodless local justice system ‘sends chills through my bones. I was there and talked to those who knew her and worked with her. Your writing as usual encapsulates how our ‘civilized’ society has failed Deja Coleman
It’s all so skewed and shameful. 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 more help please for those in need. Let’s keep people struggling buoyed…not the flipping millionaires and billionaires… step up trillionaire Elon Musk!
In that case, given similar circumstances, yes. However, if that's what you were asking, I think the survey question itself was not worded clearly. I see that i am not the only person who took it to mean what I took it to mean.
The question was "Do you think this could happen to you?" I understood it probably like Luther, i.e. could you leave a child in the car and would you receive this harsh treatment from the authorities if the child died. I too answered maybe because I am white.
The law assumes people make choices. Real life shows people make mistakes. And here in the tragic case of Deja Coleman we have a classic disconnect between the law and real life: where the criminal‑legal system’s design collides with how human beings actually behave. Criminal law is built on intent --- but memory failure has no intent. The law has no category for "catastrophic forgetting" but Georgia tries to force it into "cruel or excessive conduct," which is a terrible overreach. So, why with all the neuroscience and other evidence does this kind of imbalance or miscarriage still exist in Georgia? Top prosecutors who call the shots are elected. Outrage is politically dangerous. So they reach for the harshest charge available --- even when the underlying behavior is not criminal and Georgia’s statutes give them unusually broad tools to do this. Changing a criminal statute --- especially one involving child deaths --- would require legislators to take a position that can be framed as "soft on crime." In Georgia, that's politically dangerous.
This was always my nightmare as a parent: that I would let go of my child's hand for a moment, and they'd run in front of a car, or I'd go into a store and realize that I had left them in the car in the sun. It is the worst nightmare, losing your child, knowing he died in pain and alone, and then being made into a villain by a society trying to pass judgment and find someone to blame. I get that, too, as awful as it is. Wanting someone to pay for the pain of that child who was locked in the car. Our system of justice does not have the wisdom to handle a dilemma like this wisely and fairly. Let alone humanely.
Yes absolutely: you don't have to be a parent, you don't have to kill your child, you could be Jesus Christ. They will crucify you all the same.
My oldest child was just born when I read Gene’s Pulitzer Prize winning story. My husband and I immediately and for every day until our kids were out of car seats called whichever one of us dropped the kid, eventually kids, off at daycare, and asked, Did you forget the kid? Every day. Almost every parent has forgotten or at least “misplaced” a kid at least once, fortunately mostly without tragedy. I was lucky enough to raise kids with a partner and without the added stress of a high-needs child.
I have forgotten my child in the backseat. I didn't normally bring Bridget to daycare; her dad did. I dropped the boys off at school and drove to work planning how to meet my deadline for the day. When I arrived and gathered my things, Bridget said "What about me?" It is only through the grace of God and sheer dumb luck that my baby was old enough to talk.
Does anyone have statistics on the type of vehicle in these cases? They say “hot car” but the size of a minivan or SUV could be a factor. When exiting a smaller vehicle, the driver usually gets at least a left side peripheral view of the backseat.
There may be some minor relationship btween the physical structure of the vehicle (e.g. cabin volume, color interior, glass area) and how long a child is in it before being discovered, but a quick check shows no national statistics on which vehicle types are most often involved in child hot car deaths, and no evidence of any correlation with vehicle ownership. The only link would not be a causal one and probably have to do with the normal distribution of vehicle types on the road. When it comes to vehicle structure and allowing for heating differential, sadly, a child’s vulnerability pretty much overwhelms any difference. We're talking about a matter of minutes, with "slowest" still meaning lethal within 30-45 minutes, according to studies. Hot car deaths overwhelmingly arise from memory failure, not vehicle design.
Thank you for fighting the good fight! If she were in Alabama where I am licensed to practice law, I would file an amicus on her behalf. Alabama's prisons and sometimes our Courts are horror shows, but they do not hold a candle, evidently, to Georgia's. Years ago, I was in Court a few days prior to Christmas, waiting my turn before one of my favorite judges, Judge Key, for the civil matter I was handling while Judge Key called his criminal docket. A very pregnant woman charged with her third set of forged checks had no defense and was surely going to spend many years in prison bc Alabama has the three strikes rule. her case was called up and the Judge looked at the DA and told him that if he "had a lick of sense" he would not disagree with what Judge Key had decided to do with the present charges. He told them all that he had decided to find her not guilty without even seeing the first piece of evidence. He said it had nothing to do with Christmas--he had decided that the unborn child had done nothing wrong and would not have to go through his/her life with the place of birth listed on the birth certificate as "Julia Tutwiler Women's Prison" as the place of birth. No one dared the say a single word against the ruling, she went free, and I guess now you have an idea of why Judge Key was one of my favorite judges--he had a compassionate heart!! He was not a pushover, by any means, but he knew what was important. That baby was important, but no more important than Deja's other two children. We need more Judge Keys.
I never forgot a child in the store, or anywhere. But I lost one for an agonizing 10 minutes or so when my seven year old daughter found an old-fashioned standup video game in a back hallway of a supermarket. I had lost sight of her, panicked, ran through the entire store looking up and down all the aisles. Not finding her I ran out and cased the parking lot (luckily it was relatively small) finding nothing, I came back into the store, spoke to store employees, and she was soon found, happily miming gameplay of the machine. She had no money, and she was pushing the buttons on the side as she had seen others do. It was the scariest part of my 3 child parenting life - those feelings have subsided, but will never leave me.
My 10 minutes was in a Sears 45+ years ago. I think she was in the middle of a clothes rack. I just remember the relief.
Gwinnett County - 47% white, 30% black. Largest city Sugar Hill 16K residents, 21 other small towns, no major centers. All colleges in the county rated on Yelp at only 1 to 2 stars - hotbed of the "poorly educated". Thus, a county with the 4 R's majority - rural, repressive, racist, republican. They don't object to a syphilitic fascist lawbreaking president starving and killing them. But this lady was a convenient target for the local prosecutor, who prayed his cruel decision would be the one that would FINALLY convince his wife to accede to his perverted sexual demands.
Gwinnett County is not rural and not Republican. Peachtree Corners is the largest city with 42K residents. Lawrenceville has 32K residents. Yeah, it's not a major academic destination, but it's in the Atlanta metro area with Emory and Georgia Tech. You can define it as racist and repressive if you want, but clearly you don't know anything about it. I'm as appalled as everyone else about the treatment of this young woman, but trashing Gwinnett County doesn't really solve anything.
That's right, it was just a loose framework to illustrate by working downward to the mentality of the cretin who would prosecute this woman because of her color, all ordered and approved by the corrupt convicted felon president. But thanks for your detailed perfect retort.
Does anyone know the definition in Georgia of Second Degree Murder. My understanding is that “murder” requires “malice afore thought.” While “manslaughter “ is killing without intention. But each state has differing definitions of degree.
In most states, second-degree murder means a killing with malice but without premeditation. Georgia’s definition of second-degree murder is not a general homicide category like other states use. It is a child-specific, negligence-based homicide, and it activates only when a child dies as a result of "second-degree cruelty to children." The sadly ironic part of this is that Georgia added second-degree murder to fix the problem of felony murder being too harsh for accidental child death, but as we see with Deja Coleman, the fix created a new pathway for murder charges in accidental cases. It applies to accidental child deaths in ways other states reject. Other states use negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter or child endangerment. Georgia uses murder.
Thanks for the clarification!
My spouse’s car (Subaru), when you turn off the ignition, posts on the info screen: “Check in back seat.”
Seems to me that this column illuminates two separate but related issues. The first is the apparent excessiveness of the charge. But even if prosecutors can cite reasonable justifications for a charge of deliberate murder, there's the issue of gratuitous cruelty in not allowing this grieving mother to attend the funeral for her child. And gratuitous cruelty has become typical of how incarcerated people are treated in this country. The worse the treatment, the more Americans seem to applaud, since they think of criminals as animals and no longer as human beings.
Your description of ‘a bloodless local justice system ‘sends chills through my bones. I was there and talked to those who knew her and worked with her. Your writing as usual encapsulates how our ‘civilized’ society has failed Deja Coleman
It’s all so skewed and shameful. 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 more help please for those in need. Let’s keep people struggling buoyed…not the flipping millionaires and billionaires… step up trillionaire Elon Musk!
I said maybe because I am white. As others point out, that alone means I would be treated differently.
Luther Jett
Well, Luther. This wasn't asking if you'd be treated the same. It was asking if you could have done this by mistake.
In that case, given similar circumstances, yes. However, if that's what you were asking, I think the survey question itself was not worded clearly. I see that i am not the only person who took it to mean what I took it to mean.
The question was "Do you think this could happen to you?" I understood it probably like Luther, i.e. could you leave a child in the car and would you receive this harsh treatment from the authorities if the child died. I too answered maybe because I am white.
Correction, I replied "probably not."
The law assumes people make choices. Real life shows people make mistakes. And here in the tragic case of Deja Coleman we have a classic disconnect between the law and real life: where the criminal‑legal system’s design collides with how human beings actually behave. Criminal law is built on intent --- but memory failure has no intent. The law has no category for "catastrophic forgetting" but Georgia tries to force it into "cruel or excessive conduct," which is a terrible overreach. So, why with all the neuroscience and other evidence does this kind of imbalance or miscarriage still exist in Georgia? Top prosecutors who call the shots are elected. Outrage is politically dangerous. So they reach for the harshest charge available --- even when the underlying behavior is not criminal and Georgia’s statutes give them unusually broad tools to do this. Changing a criminal statute --- especially one involving child deaths --- would require legislators to take a position that can be framed as "soft on crime." In Georgia, that's politically dangerous.
Not only in Georgia, Dale. It's a stink that pervades the entire justice system.
Thank you, Gene for keeping us updated on this tragic situation. Absolutely heartbreaking.