Fri Nov 19, 2021 – 1:36 pm EST
NAPIER, New Zealand (LifeSiteNews) — A New Zealand woman who pleaded guilty to murdering her disabled daughter by strangulation has received a mitigated sentence after the judge deemed the murder a “mercy killing.”
Cherylene Lawrence, a 49-year-old woman from Napier, New Zealand, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on November 5 at Napier High Court after she pleaded guilty in September to the murder of her terminally ill adult daughter, Chevana Fox.
Fox had been diagnosed with Huntington’s disease when she was just 16 years old, an incurable and neurodegenerative condition which affects the nerve cells, causing a loss of mobility, impaired cognitive function, and mood swings. Those in the late stages of Huntington’s require full-time care.
According to a Stuff report from September, Fox used a wheelchair, could neither read nor write, and struggled to contain her temper, lashing out at her mother and professional carers, and crying often.
Although Fox was helpless and Lawrence admitted to killing her daughter “on purpose,” High Court Judge Cheryl Gwyn said that exceptional circumstances convinced her that Lawrence did not merit the full punishment prescribed for
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