United States v. Smith

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Smith, pretending to be pregnant, took her half-sister’s newborn son from his bassinette during the night and started to drive from Beloit, Wisconsin, to her home in Colorado. In Iowa, she learned that Wisconsin police wanted to interview her. She spoke by phone with a Beloit police officer who told her to pull over so that local law enforcement could speak with her. Before dawn, Smith pulled off the interstate, wrapped the baby in blankets, placed him in a plastic container, and put the container behind a gas station, in subzero mid-winter temperatures. She drove to another gas station, called the Beloit officer back, and was eventually arrested on an unrelated Texas warrant. When officers questioned her, she denied any knowledge of the child’s whereabouts until after he was found alive the next day. A jury convicted her of kidnapping. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting Smith’s claims that her statements to officers were the product of coercion; that statements the district court suppressed based on a Miranda violation were improperly admitted for impeachment; that no rational jury could conclude that she lacked parental permission to take the child or that she attained a benefit from the kidnapping; and challenging the government’s inquiry into the conduct underlying the Texas warrant. View "United States v. Smith" on Justia Law