Subhechcha Ganguly 
A Florida prisoner who is pregnant and charged with murder wants to be released on the basis that her unborn child is being “kept unjustly” and is innocent.On February 16, according to the Miami Herald, attorney William M. Norris submitted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Natalia Harrell’s “unborn child” in Florida’s third district court of appeal. Harrell, 24, has been detained without bond since July, when she was accused of fatally shooting another woman and charged with second-degree murder. She was six weeks pregnant at the time and claims that the jail employees put the foetus in risk by denying her necessary prenatal care and putting her in dangerous positions in the inmate transport vehicle. She is currently eight months pregnant.
The petition claims that despite being imprisoned in “deplorable conditions,” the foetus “has not committed any crime” and will likely be born “on the concrete floor of the prison cell” if no relief is provided. It also claims that Harrell has not received proper prenatal nutrition or medical attention from the jail, that she hasn’t seen an obstetrician-gynecologist since October, and that she was once left in a transport van for an extended period of time with interior temperatures that exceeded 100F (37C).
