Woman who killed newborn makes unusual clemency request

By MEGAN SPICER, From The Connecticut Law Tribune

Panna Krom was only 16 when she got pregnant. Fearing her strict immigrant parents would disown her if they found out, she hid her pregnancy from them. Her boyfriend turned his back on her, and she felt alone: a child forced to face a very adult situation.

Krom is no longer a child. She’s served nine years in prison for drowning her baby shortly after birth. And now the former Danbury resident, a model inmate who has earned several semesters of college credit, is seeking clemency that would cut short her 18-year prison sentence.

She is represented by a defense lawyer who has come armed with statistics showing shorter prison sentences in many similar cases and research from national experts that young women who kill their newborns, an act known as neonaticide, are at little risk to commit new crimes.

Still, Danbury attorney Vicki Hutchinson knows this is a long shot. Connecticut rarely grants clemency. She said she’s hoping that in a state where the governor keeps talking about offering second chances to young people who have made bad decisions, the state parole board will see fit to give one to Krom.

“She’s accepted responsibility for what she did,” Hutchinson said. “She didn’t make the state go through a trial. She didn’t put her family through that. She didn’t put the baby’s father through any of that. She accepted responsibility, which usually bodes well for an individual.”

But the Danbury state’s attorney, Stephen Sedensky III, is publicly opposing the clemency effort. He told the Law Tribune there has been too much attention focused on Krom’s achievements and not enough on the suffering of her baby. “The facts in the case are pretty horrendous,” he said.

Angel’s Birth

Krom is a first-generation American, born after her parents fled a war-torn Cambodia. Growing up, she sought to balance the strict, old-world expectations of her Buddhist parents with the more lenient ways of modern life. When she got pregnant, her boyfriend, a high school athlete, wanted her to get an abortion, but she would not consider it because of her faith. Danbury High School staff members were aware that she was pregnant, but none told her about the Safe Haven Law, which would have allowed her to legally and anonymously relinquish her parental rights if she gave up the child to the state within 30 days of it being born.

In late December 2006, the high school senior gave birth to her daughter, who she later named Angel, in the bathroom of her parents’ apartment.

A panicky Krom drowned the newborn in the toilet, put the body in a bag and hid it in her bedroom closet. She later went to Danbury Hospital, whose staff members called police, who eventually went to the Krom home. The teen told them she had flushed “a mass” down the toilet, according to court records.

Police snaked the toilet and the building’s sewer systems and found nothing. Days later, Krom’s mother found Angel’s body in her closet. A criminal investigation was opened. Krom was initially charged with murder, but that was later reduced to first-degree manslaughter as part of a plea agreement.

In November 2008, Krom was formally sentenced to 18 years in prison with no chance of parole and was transported to the York Correctional Institute in Niantic. At the time, Danbury Superior Court Judge Frank Iannotti told Krom that he foresaw no reason why she should serve less time. He noted that it was one year for every year Krom would have been legally responsible for her daughter.

“I am going to do everything I can to start and finish my collegiate education, attend just about every program and group therapy session that I can,” Krom told the court at her sentencing. “I will devote my life to making better choices and lending a helping hand to the youth of America today.”

She seems to have kept her promise. She had received her high school diploma, completed six semesters at Wesleyan University through its Center for Prison Education, completed more than 20 other prison programs, has a clean disciplinary record and has shared her story with those who spread the word about the Safe Haven law.

These details all come from Krom’s petition for clemency, which Hutchinson filed on Feb. 29 with the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Hutchinson’s argument is direct: Krom has turned her life around. And her original sentence was far too harsh.

“The sentence imposed in Panna Krom’s case is [by] 12 times the longest other sentence imposed for similarly situated teenage girls” in Connecticut, Hutchinson wrote. She blamed the severity on the “different personalities and different priorities” of the different state’s attorneys across Connecticut. “The Danbury State’s Attorney took a particularly hard line in this case,” Hutchinson said.

‘Isolation and Desperation’

Neonaticide is defined as killing an infant within its first 24 hours of life. There are only six known cases involving Connecticut teenagers in modern times, with the first being in 1976. That woman was never charged with a crime. Three of the women who were prosecuted were charged with second-degree manslaughter. One woman never went to prison; another went for seven months. The third was sentenced to 10 years, suspended after 18 months.

“The sentence imposed in this case is so unique and excessive in comparison to similarly situated individuals that it is freakish and wanton,” Hutchinson wrote in her clemency petition.

Hutchinson has rounded up the support of a dozen people who support a sentence reduction. In their letters to the parole board, law professors, government officials and nonprofit leaders all speak of Krom’s achievements while in prison and what she is capable of achieving once released.

One of the experts addressed the length of Krom’s sentence. Michelle Oberman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, has written two books and several articles about neonaticide and infanticide. From 1988 to 2001, those convicted of neonaticide nationwide received average prison sentences of three-and-a-half years, Oberman wrote. Many received no jail time.

She further explained why there is a “reluctance” for the courts to impose lengthy and harsh sentences.

“The death of a newborn child seems to cry out for a harsh response,” Oberman wrote. “Yet, throughout history, those called upon to judge these cases find that they are different from ordinary cases of manslaughter. These girls and young women who commit this crime do so out of confusion, isolation and desperation. They should be punished for their terrible mistakes, but that punishment should be tempered by our recognition that they are fully amenable to rehabilitation.”

State prosecutors see it differently. At Krom’s sentencing hearing, an assistant state’s attorney said the 18-year sentence would “make clear not only to the defendant mother, but also to society, that this mother’s actions are not acceptable and are subject to a significant sentence,” according to court transcripts. Krom’s trial attorney, Jennifer Tunnard, did indicate that at some future date she might seek to alter Krom’s sentence.

But Sedensky said if Krom thought the plea deal was unfair, she should not have agreed to it. “Basically, she’s looking to say, ‘Well, I don’t like that plea agreement and I want another bite at the apple,'” Sedensky said.

He said Krom’s supporters focus on her rehabilitation and potential. “They don’t talk about what she actually did in terms of drowning the child in the toilet,” Sedensky said. “She intended to kill the child and she killed the child. It’s all about Panna, it’s never about the child and the suffering of the victim she drowned.”

Safe Haven Awareness

The Board of Pardons and Parole will have the ultimate say on the matter. But it’s not even certain board members will agree to hold a hearing on the case. Approved clemency applications are few and far between. According to the parole board, only two clemency applications were granted out of 187 applications submitted from 2007 to 2014.

Still, Hutchinson has been working on Krom’s application for two years, much of that time spent gathering appropriate documents and seeking letters of recommendation. There have also been two psychiatric evaluations done during that time. Hutchinson said both conclude that Krom is not a danger to society.

The defense attorney sees a larger benefit of filing Krom’s clemency petition: raising awareness for the Safe Haven law. In 15 years, only 27 babies have been left at Connecticut hospitals under the law. But three of those instances came this year. And the state has designated April 4 as Safe Haven Day. Pamela Sawyer, a recently retired state representative who chaired the legislature’s Safe Havens Working Group, said Krom’s story has been told often by those speaking to young girls about the law.

“It is too late for Panna to undo her mistake of eight years ago; it is not too late for the state to recognize the potential she has to help save lives by advocating for the important Safe Havens law [which] she did not know about when she was pregnant,” Sawyer wrote in her letter backing Krom’s clemency petition.

As for Krom, her contribution to the clemency effort is a handwritten letter to the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

“Now I’ve been in prison for my whole adult life,” Krom wrote. “I’ve done everything I can in prison to become a better person and to make sure I never harm anyone again. … There is nothing more I can do behind these prison walls to rehabilitate myself. But I can help people on the outside and also continue to make myself a better person.”

Originally appeared in print as Prosecutor Cites Baby’s Suffering, Opposes Clemency

IMAGE: Vicki Hutchinson

 For more on this story go to: http://www.ctlawtribune.com/id=1202752582819/Conn-Woman-Who-Killed-Newborn-Involved-in-Unusual-Clemency-Case#ixzz43XyXQRAL