Mother murdered children never considered hate crimes

By Jan Ireland

Yet another mother is on trial for killing her children. Again in Texas a woman who gave birth to and nurtured her children for a time has become their killer.

Again we hear the protestations of wonderful mother, devoted wife, and no mother in her right mind could do such a thing. People call for helping the "victim" mother. Such calls are simply giving the killer an out.

Attention should be on the real victims, the children, who have been the focus of hate.

Hate crime designation is suggested for skin color, homosexuality, or other "approved" attributes, but never similarly for these littlest victims.

Murder is murder. "Special" reasons are an attempt at victim status, to filch money or force society to accept an agenda. But surely if there were "hate" crimes, the murdering of innocent children by the mother who bore them would qualify. Society's worth is reflected in how it treats its tiniest members.

Deanna Laney called police a little after midnight on Mother's Day weekend last year. In a calm, flat and markedly cooperative voice she told police that she had just killed her three children.

The 911 tape is eerie in its details. Perhaps the youngest wasn't quite dead, she said, and perhaps maybe she wasn't actually supposed to kill him. When asked who told her to do it, she responded "God" did.

And that is where she seals her fate.

She began with 14 month old Aaron, the baby. Parents are always attuned to a baby's cry, and babies always cry if something disturbs them in the night. Aaron had to be first to keep her husband from waking up. Perhaps he was practice also, before she attacked his older and stronger brothers.

In fact Aaron did wail as she beat his head with a heavy stone. What baby wouldn't? But though it woke her husband, Dee persuaded him nothing was amiss. He returned unknowing to sleep.

She returned to attempting to end their youngest child's life.

Chronologically, she next woke Luke and led him outside, then asked him to put his head (reminiscent of Abraham sacrificing Isaac perhaps) on a large stone. Eight year old Joshua struggled after the first blow, and she had to use her body to pin him down, in a repeat scene a few minutes later.

We've seen these circumstances before.

Family very religious; living rurally; mother at home with and schooling children every day; regular church attendance. The perfect family. This never expected.

Several psychiatrists — for the defense, for the prosecution, for the judge — have all concluded that Deanna Laney is mentally ill. But Texas law demands more.

Though her plea to capital murder charges is not guilty by reason of insanity, the prosecutor plans to show that she knew right from wrong as she committed the crimes, despite any mental illness.

And he has a strong case. You can see it in the hate.

Dee says God told her to do it. So in a deeply religious family, why hide that? God's will is followed in deeply religious families. If Dee felt she was doing what God wanted her to do, there should have been joy.

She committed the acts furtively because Dee knew that she was not obeying God. She was acting out of deep narcissistic anger at being trapped.

Though it is quite likely that Dee felt love for her children, she felt much more love for herself. She likely was ill equipped to spend her days alone, isolated, with three boys to care for and school.

No doubt Dee was influenced by a culture that does not value children.

After all, we abort about a million a year. We allow a woman to prosecute a man for hitting her stomach during pregnancy, but that same woman can kill that same baby the next week if she gets tired of it.

We celebrate Laci and Conner's law to officially treat a fetus as a human, but say that another fetus can be plucked out when the woman fears a birth moment hangnail.

If all these things can be done to babies in America, but are not acceptable in a very religious wife and mother's world, imagine the anger a "religious" woman can build up toward children she does not really want.

And that is the gist of Dee's hate for her children. That they were there.

Parenting takes away a measure of freedom. Parents at some point have to put either their own or their children's needs first. Nature's way is that parents choose the welfare of the children. They give up their own youth, to move toward their own death. It is part of the maturation process of humans, and nature's way of marching humans through the years. Dee didn't like her fate, so she killed her children to get out of it.

Dee is reportedly on super suicide watch. She cries wrenchingly as the details of her actions are reported in court. Just as Andrea Yates did, a hauntingly similar case. But as time wore on in court, Andrea Yates began to look lighter and younger and happier. As no doubt Dee will.

Since sanity is tried in the courts and not in the counseling room, someone may finally speak for the dead children. They are the real victims. Dee has already gotten what she wanted. The children who were the focus of hate are gone.

© Jan Ireland