Altruistic Filicide? Boy’s Drugging Death Was a Mercy Killing, Dershowitz and Kuby Assert
Lawyers defending a millionaire mom accused in the drugging death of her 8-year-old son claim the alleged crime was a justified mercy killing.
The defendant, Gigi Jordan, is represented by Ron Kuby and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. They are not using an insanity defense, despite the convoluted claims of their client, accused of killing her son at New York’s Peninsula Hotel in February 2010.
The newspaper outlines the argument: Jordan thought she was going to be murdered because of her financial and business relationships with her ex-husband. After her death, her son would be left with his biological dad (who is not the fear-engendering ex-husband), who would sexually abuse the boy.
The lawyers say the mercy killing concept has helped support insanity claims by mothers, but has not been used as a stand-alone defense. They have asked the presiding judge to allow their “altruistic filicide” defense.
The ex-husband has denied any plot to harm Jordan, and the biological dad has denied any abuse. A Manhattan judge is expected to rule today on Jordan’s request to be released from jail and held on house arrest, the Associated Press reports.
Prior coverage:
New York Times: “Evidence Lost in Murder Case”
