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.
The unborn child, according to Harrell’s petition, remains “unlawfully and illegally incarcerated on no criminal charges.” It also described the prison as an “inherently dangerous environment” for the child, whose safety is allegedly threatened by “violent criminal offenders.”
If the baby is not released from jail, the petition claimed, he or she “will be likely brought into this world on the concrete floor of the prison cell, without the aid of qualified medical physicians and paramedics, and in the presence of violent criminals.”
Reyes, the director of the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department, disputes those allegations, telling the court that Harrell has been provided with adequate medical care and has even turned down an out-of-jail check-up arranged for her.
“Petitioner has been taken to at least four obstetrician appointments outside of the jail and, notably, refused to attend a fifth,” he wrote. “Despite her refusal, Petitioner is currently scheduled for yet another outside obstetrician appointment in the near future.”
“Despite claims to the contrary in the petition, she has been receiving and/or has been offered additional nutrition on a daily basis since her August 2022 positive pregnancy test. Petitioner has been offered prenatal vitamins on a daily basis for months,” Reyes stated, adding that the unborn child, under the care and monitor of nurses and medical providers, has shown “good fetal movement” with a healthy heart rate. He also affirmed that the mother will be transported to an actual hospital to give birth.
In a separate opinion, Judge Monica Gordo wrote that she agrees with the move to dismiss the petition, but disagrees with the idea that the petition might have any legal merit at all.
“The writ of habeas corpus is meant to prevent the unlawful detainment of persons due to government action,” the judge wrote. “No more could the government be accused of unlawfully detaining the unborn child in this case than could the mother be guilty of kidnapping over interstate lines if she chose to visit her grandmother in Georgia while eight months pregnant.”
“The argument is illogical. The mother comes to us as a badly disguised Trojan Horse,” she continued. “In fact, the argument is nothing more than an attempt for the mother to leverage her unborn child as a basis to be released from lawful detention.”
William Norris, an attorney representing Harrell’s baby, can’t be immediately reached for comments. He previously argued that his client is a person whose rights are guaranteed by both Florida and the U.S. Constitution.
“What is the most important is the fact that the unborn child is there, is a person involved in the equation,” he said in an interview with ABC News. “We’re simply asking that the rights of the unborn child be considered and addressed.”
