An eight-month pregnant woman won’t be released from prison on the grounds that her unborn child was innocent, after a Florida court deemed her argument “illogical” and merely an attempt to use pregnancy as a leverage to avoid lawful detainment.
The mother, 24-year-old Natalia Harrell, was about six weeks pregnant when she was arrested last July for allegedly murdering another woman in Miami. Harrell has since been held in jail as she awaits trial.
Harrell pleaded not guilty, arguing that she acted in self-defense. She also filed a petition—known as habeas corpus—on behalf of her baby, asking the the court to order her “unborn child’s release from custody,” which in practices would mean releasing the mother from jail for the remainder of her pregnancy….