ALBANY, N.Y. – New York's highest court is weighing whether to overturn the manslaughter conviction of a woman who was pregnant when she crashed her car and whose baby was delivered by emergency surgery but died days later.
Jennifer Jorgensen, of Long Island, was acquitted of manslaughter for the couple killed in the 2008 head-on crash but found guilty of recklessly causing her daughter's death.
Her attorney argues that the child was not a person within the meaning of the penal law when the accident happened.
Suffolk County prosecutors say the law doesn't specifically exempt mothers from liability for recklessly causing the death of a baby from injuries sustained while in the womb.
Jorgensen has been sentenced to three to nine years in prison, which was stayed pending her appeal.
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