Woman Drowns Her 3 Children In Lake - Gets 10 Year Sentence

[matcom]

<snip>

CLINTON, Ill. - A woman convicted of letting her three young children drown in a car that sank in a lake was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.

Amanda Hamm, 30, was convicted in December in the deaths of Christopher Hamm, 6, Austin Brown, 3, and Kyleigh Hamm, 1, who were trapped in the car in Clinton Lake in 2003. She was cleared of first-degree murder charges that would have sent her to prison for life.

Prosecutors allege Hamm and then-boyfriend Maurice LaGrone Jr. planned the deaths because the children were in the way of their relationship. Hamm and LaGrone, who was convicted of first-degree murder, have maintained the car accidentally rolled into the water as LaGrone tried to back up from a boat ramp.

Hamm had faced a sentence ranging from probation to 20 years.

Before her sentencing, Hamm tearfully asked the judge for mercy, saying that she never wanted to cause her children any harm and regrets forming a relationship with LaGrone.

Hamm told the judge that she loved her children and regrets forming a relationship with LaGrone. She also said she was looking to the future, noting that outlook seemed selfish because her children have none.

"I cannot change what has occurred but I can, and will, try to live my life in a way which will be pleasing to them ... ," Hamm said.

Prosecutor Ed Parkinson, who had sought a 20-year prison sentence, said he was disappointed because justice wasn't done for the children.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_us/lake_drownings;_ylt=AmVsajdGm9PtgaWETfxU4xDMWM0F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

[lizziegrace]

1. So that's what a child's life is worth these days?

3.33 years each.

Unbelievable.

[SoCalDem]

2. Sheesh.. too bad she can't room with Susan Smith..

It sad to see a woamn who chooses the "boyfriend" over the kids, and sees them as an impediment:(

[Darth_Kitten]

3. You don't want kids, use birth control, lady......

Gee whiz......she's just sorry now that she got caught. What a crumb. :(

[Left Is Write]

6. And Diane Downs.

[somewhere_out_there]

8. It makes me so sick to hear of a woman who would choose any

guy over her beautiful children!!! What is wrong with women today?? I've yet to meet the man who is worth any child!!}(

[TOhioLiberal]

4. Christ on a pogo stick!

...If the children were that much of a burden, put them up for adoption, or something! Christ this pisses me off! x(

[everythingsxen]

5. Inquisitor Xen has reviewed the courts finding...

and has overruled.

Instead of 10 years she is sentenced to 10,000 years in prison. Since she drowned her children, drowning will be her punishment. Every day, at a random time, she will be water-boarded and made to feel the effects of drowning.

While in most cases I might let her slide with a simple sentence of life in prison, it is the utter callousness of this case that forces me to take extreme retributive measures. If she had been suffering from anxiety or even if she was some Christian nutjob who thought she was saving her kids, I could see a more merciful sentance... but to murder her children just to make her new relationship go smoother? That is horrible. I would have more pity for a drug addict who sold her children for drugs.

[LisaL]

7. Well, if she said god or devil told her to do it-she likely would have

not spend any time in prison at all.
:eyes: