Man Charged With Murder Of Foetus

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32099, 22 September 1969, Page 15

Man Charged With Murder Of Foetus

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) j SACRAMENTO (California), September 21. A State Appeals Court has ruled that a California man must stand trial for murder after the death of a 27-week-old foetus carried by his enstranged wife. - “We are satisfied that a foetus which has reached the stage of viability is a human being for the purpose of California’s homicide statutes,” the three-judge appeals panel said.

It upheld a lower court ruling in rejecting the argument of lawyers for Mr Robert Keeler, who said he could not, be tried for murder because! the baby had not been born. | The State has charged that; Keeler chased a car driven by his estranged wife, Theresa,'

and forced her off a narrow mountain road after hearing that she was pregnant.

According to her testimony, Keeler looked at her and said: “You sure are. I'm going to stomp it out of you.” The prosecution said he then beat and kicked her. Although she hurried to a hospital in Stockton, central California, and received a caesarian section, the foetus was dead. The Appeals Court said it felt there was “reasonable medical certainty” that the child could have lived if it had been separated from* the mother undamaged

The ruling, the panel noted, I did not conflict with Califori nia’s therapeutic abortion law ; because it does not sanction termination of pregnancy 'after the twentieth week.