I’m with Judge Dempsy on this one. Evil. Shockingly evil.
An American woman has been convicted (and now sentenced to death) for the muder of her autistic son, Mason. WHNT news in Alabama carried the story, Judge Sentences Christie Scott to Death For Son’s Murder, on their website.
Here are some quotes:
In July, a jury found Scott guilty of three counts of capital murder for setting a fire in her home that killed her six-year-old son, Mason.
and,
During the trial, the state presented evidence that Mason, who was autistic, had a total of $175,000 worth of life insurance when he died. Christie Scott took out a $100,000 policy the day before her son died. Someone had also removed expensive jewelry and pictures from the home. Investigators also found an undamaged smoke detector in the ashes. It was believed to have been taken down before the fire.
And, this one just makes my eyes cross. Literally.
“To me, the fact that she chose that manner of death for a child that was scared of fire puts her in a category that not only is possible for death, it definitely deserves the death penalty,” says Rushing.
Left Brain Right Brain 
I cannot agree with the death penalty, but this is pushing the boundaries for me. This is sickening, and sad, and just totally horrific. I hope that all the autism advocacy groups speak out against this case.
More information from an older story
http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-christie-scott-murder-trial-log,0,547733.story
First–there is an issue with missing evidence. The defense argued that the fire was caused by an electrical problem in the room and two of the outlets are missing.
One teacher spoke on the mother’s behalf:
Here are how they get three counts of Capital murder:
More quotes:
I couldn’t find any information in the stories to support the “she didn’t want him” comment.
The life insurance policies didn’t indicate a “mental disorder”. The explanation for that gives some insight into young Mason:
He was alive when the fire struck:
Horrible! I can’t even think of how bad that is!
This is a really stupid question, but why would anybody take out a life insurance policy on a child? On a wage earner, sure. That’s what the policies are for – to protect a family against income loss. But a child??? How could the insurance company go along with something like that?
There is no rational reason to have a life insurance policy on a 6 year old child. Was there a life insurance policy on the 4 year old?
Dealdalus2u, Anemone
I could think of a life insurance policy that might cover funeral costs. But $175,000 seems like a lot. The $100,000 policy was added the afternoon before the fire.
I’m not usually “for” the death penalty either, but this case is SO disgusting, on SO many levels, it just boggles the mind. I recall a story from a couple of years ago, where a mama cat went back into a burning home repeatedly to save her kittens. She was severely singed, her ears burned, etc., but she saved all her kittens. But then, SHE didn’t have several insurance policies on them! This one deserves the max, if they have the electric chair in Alabama.
Well contrary to many here, I think the death penalty was wrong. In general, the eye for an eye justice doesn’t fly with me.
In this case, the mother needed help not death. I don’t know any mother who would in their right mind do such an atrocious act (it horrible I admit). She wasn’t doing well obviously. Instead of killing her baby, she must been helped. This doesn’t make a case to help autism.
Appalling case, but disagree with the death penalty on principle.
No the execution method in Alabama is lethal injection which can be just as bad according to research done. And while it’s “nice” to see that all things are equal in Alabama with regard to the penalties meted out to those who murder disabled people, the death penalty is just a form of state sanctioned revenge which isn’t justice. Instead of having poison pumped through her body this person should be being put in a supermax or sent to prison in the Arctic Circle or even Guantanamo now that its being closed for “terrorists”.
I am against capital punishment, even if this is stomach turning. The poor child.
The death penalty is no penalty to the wrong doer.
Shockingly evil, yes, but should not be used to justify more killing. Capital punishment is state sanctioned murder.
Sometimes parents take out whole life insurance policies that are combination savings account and life insurance, but the timing is very suspicious here and the amount seems excessive.
Autismnostrum,
that idea struck me last night after I put the computer away–life insurance as a savings plan.
It used to be more common. As to the amount, if the mother was trying to set up something as a college fund or for a down payment on a house when the kid grows up, it might make sense. Or, it could be a way to save money for a special needs trust.
Unless she was insuring the other child (which is unknown to me), the two answers I can come up with are (a) special needs trust and (b) planning to kill her child.
In the two articles there is no evidence as to the cause of the fire except that no accelerant was used. The facts indicate that the fire started in Mason’s room, he had 90% carboxyhemoglobin in his blood that is easily fatal, but requires a long time for the CO to build up to that level. By the time the fire had spread outside his room, he was most likely already dead.
The only mention of jewelry is that it was missing after the fire. Was it removed before the fire, or stolen before or after the fire?
If she did set the fire and then waited until it was spreading as she stated, then she could easily have been killed by it too if she had been affected by the CO.
If the insurance policy was offered for free by the father’s work, that might explain it.
I am not convinced by the evidence presented in the articles that she actually did it.
You can insure anything you want, and life insurance isn’t just there to cover costs. After all, how can any amount of money equal the value of the person insured? Ultimately, life insurance is a bit like betting that something horrible will happen. If it doesn’t, you pay a premium. If it does, the insurance company pays out a sum of money (to you or another party), based on the terms stipulated in the policy.
Obviously, this does create a motive for murder. Many insurers put extra scrutiny on life insurance claims made immediately after the policy is written, and will refuse to pay if it looks like the beneficiary had something to do with the person’s death. Many also decline to pay in the event of suicide. Another red flag is if the beneficiary was not related to the victim. There are also laws (not sure if they’re state or federal) which forbid taking out a policy on someone without their knowledge, though with obvious exceptions for children and those ruled mentally incompetent. Such laws are not uniformly enforced, though, and you do hear nastiness from time to time like unethical employers taking out life insurance policies on their employees and then eliminating safety rules on the job in the hopes of striking it rich.
I keep getting junk mail from Gerber, trying to sell me life insurance for my two children. It started before they were even born, and was sold with the idea that I could insure them from birth if I wanted to. So you can definitely insure children, and for large enough amounts that it could make a person consider horrible things.
Ugh. I can’t really fathom this. But I am sure the curbies are gonna spin this into something like the child was making his mother suffering and the momther made a “mistake” …
I recoil with disgust thinking about the crime, but agree with many others here that the perpetrator/mother needs or needed treatment or support before it came down to murder.
I have a $50,000 life insurance policy on my one year old. It has an accidental death rider on it, so if his death is accidental, that amount will double. It is $20 per month and will be the same the rest of his life. It will gain a little bit of cash value, but I made it that high so IF he has some kind of medical problem in the future that prevents him from getting affordable life insurance, he’ll have that policy and it will never go up. But that said, if something happened to him now, as a baby, and I got $100,000…I wouldn’t be able to take it. I would have to donate it or something…the thought of making that much money off my baby’s death makes me sick to my stomach.