Sunday, September 11, 2011

Justice for Michelle Le

I'm sure most people have heard by now the story of Michelle Le. She was a nursing student who disappeared from a parking garage at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Hayward. Well, now they have officially charged Giselle Esteban, Le's former classmate at Mount Carmel High in San Diego, of killing her in the parking garage.
On Friday, September 9, Esteban appeared in court and did not enter a plea. Her main reason for being there was "to confirm the details of her legal representation". Esteban has said that she disliked Le because she supposedly ruined the relationship she had with her former boyfriend and father of her 5-year-old, Scott Marasigan.
It is an interesting situation with Esteban because she is pregnant while on trial. Former Santa Clara County prosecutor Steve Clark says that housing a pregnant defendant can be a "logistical nightmare" and that "being in custody on a murder charge isn't exactly well-baby care". Although pregnancy on trial is uncommon, it has been seen before. Tiffany Lopez is being held in Santa Rita Jain in Dublin for suffocating her 2-year-old daughter out of frustration that the girl would not stop crying. At the time of her conviction, she was three months pregnant.
I do hope that they find justice for Michelle Le, and as her cousin Krystine Dinh said, "Our focus is still bringing Michelle home. This whole entire thing has been incredibly difficult".

4 comments:

PatrickG said...

At the risk of sounding hard, I will say that it doesn't matter that she is pregnant, she should be held accountable for what she did and put on trial. If she needs to be put in custody, I don't see why they couldn't make arrangements to put here somewhere conducive for the baby (the baby didn't do anything so why punish the innocent party?). If the baby is born during the trial, send the baby to a relative to be taken care of in the meantime. Like I said before, Esteban should be held accountable for killing Michelle Le. Murder is murder and should be dealt with as fast as possible (while ensuring the baby's health of course).

Crystal Cheung said...

I agree with Patrick above. In my opinion, this whole situation seems rather ridiculous. Esteban going after Michelle Le for something that seems rather petty. I can see the repercussions of Esteban being pregnant while on trial but it can't be helped. Esteban needs to be held accountable.

Jacob Friedman said...

What is justice if we punish an unborn human being for the sins of his mother? "The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine
on it, the more it will contract." That was said by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He was a Supreme Court Justice. Let the baby live.

Billy Seeburger said...

I agree with Jacob in how Esteban needs to be punished and the baby, a third party, needs to be considered a third party. Also how the conception of the baby should occur as it would have had there not been a trial. However, one could say that the baby is hers and that under California law which makes it legal to have an abortion if the mother decides with consent of the parents in this case. So I could see how she could still argue that it is her choice to have said abortion, however there should be some law/ process on how that decision occurs and whether or not that decision is tainted by the trial. (what would've happened if there was no trial, have the baby or not, provide evidence to show etc)