Today, a grand jury in Philadelphia indicted nine people in the death of Danieal Kelly, a 14 year old disabled child. Among the nine was her mother, charged with murder. The AP relates a bit about how Danieal died:
For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room — made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave — the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.
Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds.
Forgive me for the reaction, but as I was reading the story I couldn't help but imagine how those who think the death penalty is unconstitutional would argue that sentencing Daniel Kelly's mother to death (assuming a murder conviction) would be a "grossly disproportionate" punishment.
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