Fetal Homicide Bill: Opportunity Foregone

Jameson Taylor's N&O piece is poignant: the N.C. General Assembly has missed a serious opportunity on the question of fetal homicide -- proving just how out of touch the Democrat leadership is with the citizens of North Carolina, not to mention other southeastern states:

If convicted of first-degree murder Laurean will either be sentenced to death or imprisoned for life without parole. Under North Carolina's "injury to a pregnant woman" law, the death of Lauterbach's unborn child is essentially treated as an aggravating factor that would make Laurean guilty of a "felony one class higher than the felony committed."

Because no crime is more serious than the Class A felony of murder, it doesn't seem to matter whether Laurean is charged with a double homicide. At least that's what state Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, says. Convicted murderers are "going to go away forever or die, and adding another charge to it is not going to make them die twice or spend two lives in prison."

But by that logic, anyone charged with first-degree murder should not be charged with any other crime. Think of the time and expense to be saved if we dispensed with multiple convictions. Take, for example, Gary Hilton. Hilton is accused of murdering a hiker in the north Georgia mountains. He is also a suspect in the murder of two hikers killed near Asheville. But why bother? Hilton has already been charged with one murder. What good will it do to charge him with two more -- not to mention another murder in Florida?

Perverse logic. Taylor goes on to explain why justice for all victims is the duty of our institutions. No matter where you stand on the question of abortion, ending the life of a fetus is certainly not a choice a murderous non-mother has a right to. This is one failure the G.A. leadership deserves to get bludgeoned with, politically.
-Max Borders