Debra Lynn Gindorf: Quinn Commutes Sentence Of Postpartum Woman Who Killed Kids

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has commuted the sentence of a woman experts believe was suffering from a postpartum psychosis when she killed her two young children more than two decades ago.

Quinn on Friday commuted Debra Lynn Gindorf's life sentence to 48 years. That likely means she's eligible for immediate release on parole because she's served 24 years and can qualify for day-for-day good-conduct time, her lawyer said.

Gindorf, 45, of Zion was found guilty but mentally ill in the 1985 slayings of her children, 23-month-old Christina and 3-month-old Jason.

Experts conceded she was a depressed and battered wife but couldn't agree what was wrong with her. She and her supporters now believe she had postpartum depression when she attempted to kill herself, then decided to kill her children as well.

Kathleen Hamill of the state appellate defender's office, who has represented Gindorf since 1986, believes Quinn found the postpartum arguments in her petition for clemency moving.

The action sets no legal precedent but advances recognition of a disorder the psychiatric world has taken seriously just in recent decades.

"It sends a message to the criminal justice system that these sorts of cases should be examined carefully," Hamill said.

Quinn, however, was silent. Spokesman Bob Reed said the "action speaks for itself." Asked to explain what prompted Quinn's decision, Reed said, "No further comment."

Gindorf's was one of 18 clemency petitions Quinn granted Friday, and the only sentence commutation. They follow closely on 11 Quinn approved earlier this month after a pledge to eliminate a backlog of 2,500 petitions that had built up under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Gindorf reported depression after the birth of her first child, but she assumed it was because she was abused. She and her husband divorced after she became pregnant with Jason, and after his birth, she started hearing voices and had crying spells.

Only 20 at the time, she tried to kill herself on March 29, 1985, and decided to take her children with her.

"She saw death as a mode of transportation to heaven. They would all be together in heaven," Hamill said. "In a weird, warped way, this was something she thought she was doing for her children."

She swallowed lethal doses of alcohol and sleeping pills but worried about her children when they woke up crying. So she spiked formula and juice with crushed sleeping pills and got into bed with her children.

She awoke the next day to find them dead, tried to kill herself again, and finally turned herself in.

Gindorf had won support for clemency from Ronald Baron, the psychiatrist who testified for the state at her trial, and the Lake County State's Attorney's office, which prosecuted her.

Comments

[DrJulienArbor]

08:02 AM on 05/03/2009

This is a gut wrenching story and illustrates just how desperate and hopeless a person can get when support and services are not available to fill in the gaps when someone doesn't have friends or family that they can count on. Battered women are often isolated... making reliance on a social network less likely. It also demonstrates that expecting religious institutions to pick up the slack is NOT the answer... and in this case only fed the problem. Chicago is REALLY failing women and children, and needs a complete overhaul of the women's shelter system as well as further training of law enforcement regarding taking the battery of women much more seriously. It's also tragic that it's easier for women to get counseling than it is to get transportation to a shelter... IF they can find one! Counseling does NOTHING if a woman and her children aren't living in an environment that is SAFE!

It would also be interesting to know more about her injuries as a result of the abuse. Based on her pictures... it may have played a greater roll than was suspected. There is also FAR more going on with postpartum depression than a "mental illness". If treating this as a psychiatric disorder was the answer there also wouldn't be cases such as this Melanie Stokes...

http://www.melaniesbattle.org/story.html

[barackobama4prez]

10:11 PM on 05/01/2009

WOW