Father may face death penalty for abusing handicapped newborn to death

Infant abuse

Adding on to the list of heinous acts of child abuse cases this year, a 23-year-old father is accused of torturing his six-week-old infant girl to death and could face the death penalty after this week's trial. And as if it is not difficult enough to change the notion of female infanticide in third world countries, acts like these are still happening in the most developed and advanced nations too.

For parents who express selfless devotion, who would give their lives to their children without hesitation, would never be able to stomach horrors like these. It seems, such is reality, more abominable than nightmares on elm street.

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The death of six-week-old Peyton Rowe

Daily Mail reported that Baby Peyton was only six weeks old when she was pronounced dead Kaweah Delta Medical Center, located in Visalia, California. Born with a genetic disease called Turner syndrome known to cause deformities, the tortured handicapped baby girl was reported to have stopped breathing on the night of November 2012.

An autopsy was performed on the tortured handicapped baby girl two days later, which showed the cause of death to be blunt force trauma (non-penetrating trauma), and that she had suffered old injuries that were consistent with prolonged abuse.

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Peyton’s parents, Aaron and Courtney Rowe were arrested immediately the following day. Doctors reported five separate bruises on the newborn’s arms, legs and face, and CT scans also revealed 15 fractured ribs and several other old and new fractures to her bones.

The father’s crimes

23-year-old Aaron Rowe was accused of having murdered and tortured handicapped six-week-old special needs baby girl since her birth. He has been charged with a single-count of murder with a special circumstance of torture, which is punishable by the death penalty or a life sentence without parole.

Mr. Rowe was reported to have been partying the night before baby Peyton’s death. According to the persecution, he had tortured handicapped and helpless baby daughter for about two weeks by shaking and beating her. He was also an allegedly violent man, who had been sentenced to 90 days in jail for domestic violence previously.

In his defense

Mr. Rowe’s attorney Andy Rubinger denied that his client had been abusive towards his baby daughter. On one occasion, Mr. Rowe had supposedly fallen by accident while holding Peyton. Mr. Rowe also protested, saying that he loves his wife and daughter very much and can do no harm to them.

Courtney Rowe

The 22-year-old mother was also arrested for being unable to protect her child from abuse and was allegedly accused of willingly harming the child as well. According to news reports, she was seen weeping in court and prosecutors argue that she would have known of the abuse but had done nothing to stop it.

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However, her attorney Sarah Bratsch insisted that she loved her daughter very much and took her for her routine check-ups every week.

Bratsch says, “There is absolutely no evidence that the prosecution has shown that she’d failed to protect that baby.”

While her husband faces the possibilities of a death penalty and is being held without bail, her bail was reduced to USD250,000 to USD100,000.

The death of this tortured handicapped child is one of the many child abuse cases this year. How do you think we can bring a change? We'd love to hear your opinion. Watch this video on female infanticides in China: