![]() ![]() The law was passed about two decades ago with the goal of preventing child abuse, as lawmakers around the country enacted tough-on-crime bills that fueled mass incarceration. How is that possible? Hogue was convicted under Oklahoma’s “failure to protect” law, which requires parents to shield their kid from physical harm if they’re aware, or should have been aware, that another adult is abusing the child. At a sentencing hearing on Friday, a judge will decide whether to send her to prison for life, as the jury recommended. But in the ultimate act of victim-blaming against a grieving mother, the state of Oklahoma decided to punish her for her son’s death: In November, Hogue was convicted of first-degree murder, even though she never laid a hand on the boy. She hadn’t even been home at the time of the violence. At the scene of his suicide, they found the words “Rebecca is Innocent” carved into a tree.Įveryone who investigated the case agreed that Hogue did not kill her son or participate in the abuse. ![]() Law enforcement believed he’d beaten the boy while Hogue was away at work that night. Days later, they found him hanging from a tree in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, where he’d killed himself. The police began searching for Trent, whom they suspected of murder. And her toddler, still in the crib, was no longer breathing. Hogue turned in for the night.īut when she woke up again a few hours later, Trent was gone. During work, she’d left Ryder with her boyfriend, Christopher Trent, who had put him to bed in his crib, where he appeared to be sleeping. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Īfter working a long New Year’s Eve shift at the end of 2019, Rebecca Hogue, then a 28-year-old cocktail waitress, arrived home in Norman, Oklahoma, around 4 a.m. ![]()
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