Jessica Clyburn Took The Plunge
February 21, 2009 by Jaded
…from 5 stories up.
Jessica Marie Clyburn (MyspaceMySpace
)
Rock Hill, SC–Jessica Clyburn, 22, has some issues. In August of 2008, Jessica took a flying leap from five stories up. She landed on a canopy, a canvas awning, four stories down. At the time, Jessica was 8-months pregnant. She survived the suicide attempt…the baby didn’t. Jessica jumped out of the window because she feared her live-in boyfriend, the baby’s father, was going to leave her.
Yes, Jessica has some issues. She is bi-polar and suffers from epilepsy. She seems almost desperate to find true love. I looked at her Myspace and my first thought was ‘attention whore.’ There is no shortage of pictures of Jessica and she even graces us with her ass, which bears a scar from her suicide attempt. But, is she a murderer?
Six months after Jessica’s leap, she is being charged with homicide by child abuse. It took six months to charge her because police were waiting on forensics evidence…the forensics report confirmed the baby died in the fall. Jessica is being held without bond at Moss Justice Center in York.
The S.C. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that a fetus able to survive outside the womb is considered a person under child-abuse and neglect laws. That threshold is generally around 25 weeks. KnowingKnowing reviews that, tell me, do you feel she is deserving of the charge? Or should charges be dropped?
Canopy in question…
Thanks for the story UnamusedCat.
7:22 am on February 21st, 2009
Unlike so many of the other maniacs on these pages I would say her suicide attempt was earnest (no shallow cuts or pathetic advil ODs for this one) and while we would all have loved for her to hold on until the baby was safely out, it would be a bit difficult for her to take it out and leave it on the window ledge before she jumped.
Are they saying she did something to her baby in addition to jumping? ‘Cause if they did not, I honestly don’t think it is fair to prosecute…..
8:52 am on February 21st, 2009
And yet you can call Children’s Services countless times in an attempt to save a kid, and they sit on their thumbs and refuse to do anything.
Shoot the girl up with Depo Provera and hope for the best.
9:52 am on February 21st, 2009
Well suicide is all about waiting on the convenience of others, no? Clearly she’s required to keep herself alive and well in order to be a host for her fetus for the greater benefit of South Carolina. I expect homicide prosecutions for women whose fetuses die as a result of poorly controlled diabetes, receiving chemotherapy, contracting listeria when they knew better than to eat off that deli platter, placental abruption after a fall doing something they shouldn’t have tried doing, maternal smoking, or bad dental hygiene. Don’t forget the manslaughter charges when her fetus dies in a car accident of her own driver error, or a fall related placental abruption while doing something not clearly risky.
You know, able to survive outside the womb doesn’t mean it IS outside the womb. Imagine the uproar if women intervened to evict them early. And if the fetus dies as a result of the early eviction, I suppose that would merit charges as well. So, what, from halfway through pregnancy on, the fetus owns *you*?
10:13 am on February 21st, 2009
***Standing and applauding***
10:16 am on February 21st, 2009
I don’t know if she’s a murderer or not, but she definetly has mental health issues and needs serious pschotherapy. I don’t feel sorry for her. If the baby had lived I would hope it would have been taken away. This girl is NOT ready to be a mother.
10:47 am on February 21st, 2009
Thanks Castille.
10:51 am on February 21st, 2009
Damn, wasn’t there a picture that she had that didn’t have that ugly tongue out? *shudder*
She deserves the charges and more.
10:59 am on February 21st, 2009
I respectfully disagree.
As far as we know from the story as posted, she was trying to kill herself, not the child. If she is desperate enough to jump from the fifth floor, I do not know how they expect her to consider the child she happened to be carrying.
Tragic? Yes. Crime? No.
11:38 am on February 21st, 2009
I agree, her suicide attempt seems genuine to me. I understand that when your young and in love, that person’s opinion of you menas the world; the thought of that person leaving you is heartbreaking. BUT I also agree with darich…the girl is NOT ready to be a mother. It requires sacrifice of some of the things you love. I’m on a mobile site called MobaMingle and a young woman who wound up pregnant was asking for advice because the bf was pressuring her to get an abortion. I told her that it was her choice, but that I would personally choose the life of my baby over the opinion of an asswipe. Sure enough, I recently got an e-mail from her stating that she had left her bf and chose to keep the baby. She’s now heading back home to her parents and is hoping for a new life with her son/daughter. I khnow that had to be a difficult dicision on her part(she was 19 and she says she really loved him) but she made the right decision even though it hurt her emotionally. Jessica obviously had some mental issues and really did want to die. However, until people start realising that a life that is incapable of taking care of itself is WAY more important then some douche that treats her/the child(whether born or not) like a piece of shit that deer that got ran over pooped out, then these girls need to be sterilised. Just my rambling opinion.
11:52 am on February 21st, 2009
She was the reason her baby died so she should be held accountable. If she hadn’t been so selfish the baby would not be dead.
If she would have been attacked and the child died and she lived they would prosecute the person who attacked her, so what is the difference?
11:54 am on February 21st, 2009
Basically,
I think she’s a desperate nut job.
Desperate to obtain and keep a man which is why she “caters” to them if you read her “about me” section(this really annoyed me and made me want to smack the shit out of her for having so little self esteem).
I do not think she had the mental capacity to think for a second about the poor child inside of her.
But that’s the key word here”inside” she did not pick up a new born baby and jump with said baby.
This was not a direct attack on the baby, she did not impale her stomach with a screwdriver..she jumped five stories.
She happened to be pregnant when she jumped.
She didn’t intentionally slash her wrists”across the street” instead of “down the road”
She didn’t do any of the typical, cheesy attention getting suicide stunts
She really wanted to die.It takes balls to jump 5 stories and the STRONG DESIRE TO DIE.
That tells me she is not all there and needs help.
On the other hand
had she not jumped, the baby would have been born healthy ,alive and could have been adopted out.
I am torn..and I am pro-choice!
On a side note:
I do think she would have been a shitty mom and was clearly not ready for children.
I wouldn’t give this girl a fucking goldfish to care for.
12:08 pm on February 21st, 2009
100% Agree. Killing yourself is selfish. Killing yourself and your unborn child is murder. More than likely her choice to attempt suicide was also borne out of revenge. No doubt she wanted to take his baby away from him for leaving her.
Frankly, I’m rather surprised at the majority opinion here. It’s illegal to commit or to help someone else commit suicide. It’s illegal to abort your fetus at 8 months. It’s illegal to intentionally kill someone elses fetus at 8 months. It’s illegal to accidentally kill someone else’s or your own fetus through negligence. I don’t understand how she could NOT be charged with a crime.
Worse than that she shows absolutely no remorse. Her arse pic on myspace says, “i fell 4 stories aug 17 got out the hospital sept 11 thas what i got out of it”…Ooops, forgot to mention the dead baby it also gave ‘ya!
1:14 pm on February 21st, 2009
obviously you’ve never struggled with or known someone struggling with depression. sure, it’s selfish to commit suicide, but sometimes the emotional pain is so great that you can’t see any other way out. unless they can show that this girl was trying only to kill her baby, and not herself as well, i don’t think she needs criminal charges. hopefully she’s getting the psychiatric help she needs.
1:15 pm on February 21st, 2009
oh, and bravo castille!!!
3:39 pm on February 21st, 2009
The difference is, it’s someone else, not her. In states that aren’t South Carolina, there is generally a bit that explicitly removes the mother from consideration under the laws about fetal harm. The difference is recognizing and respecting the theft or loss of a wanted fetus *additionally* to the harm done to the mother. When we prosecute mothers for murder based on collateral damage done to their fetuses, we’re valuing the fetus well and above her.
She isn’t charged with attempted suicide, she’s charged with homicide. Women aren’t prosecuted for late term abortions, Dr.s are. And the big deal with this is in most places you are not prosecuted for homicide if your fetus dies. Some of us think that when a baby is not yet born, it shouldn’t be treated by the law as a seperate, independent person, but rather an extension of the woman carrying it.
3:49 pm on February 21st, 2009
isnt suicide illegal??? I’m just curious so i think she should get charged with that at least…in her myspace pics after she woke up she didnt seem very heart broken she was right back to taking trashy myspace photos! she wanted poor me attention! she hit one of those canvas things I seriously believe she knew she would make it and even if she didnt ,That was a life inside her that was living and breathing and could of had a life! yes I know it is debatable at what kind of life but it was still a life! look at the 11 year old boy who is getting charged with 2 counts of murder, one for the women and one for her unborn child that was 8 months along! Why carry a child that long then decide they dont deserve the chance to live??? I seriously dont get it! I know this is an everlasting debate and know no one is ever going to agree.She obviously needs help and maybe she can get it in prison! oh and one more thing ok so I know one of the arguments is it’s her body she can kill the baby if she wants to!!! But what about the person who carry’s a baby to 8 months it can live outside the womb and the father wants it would you want her charged then?
11:47 pm on February 21st, 2009
I would say the charges are a little extreme.The baby did die because she tried to commit suicide, but as the person said before, as far as we know she wasn’t trying to kill the baby. What happens when down the road she grows up and decides to have kids, with this on her record would CPS automatically take the kid away from her?
11:57 pm on February 21st, 2009
she should be charged. i do not personally know her but it seems to me like she jumped out the window and acted out in revenge against the live in boyfriend. i find it incredibly selfish of her to try to kill herself AND her unborn child. the baby was not just her creation alone. the baby had a FATHER who helped make her as well. jessica didnt just kill her absolute OWN child. she killed a baby someone else helped make.
she has alot more pictures on this myspace of hers, including a picture of her deceased daughter here: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=217141537
unless jessica can prove she was depressed or had mental problems she should be charged. come on now, she’s actually bragging about “falling off” 4 stories on her myspace on one of her picture captions.
“me after i fell 4 stories aug 17 i was out sept 11 {yea ima G}”
12:01 am on February 22nd, 2009
Wow, I’ve been lurking for awhile, but I had to log in to applaud you for that insight, Castille.
and that gem as well.
12:08 am on February 22nd, 2009
k after seeing her myspace, i’m a little irratated. she doesn’t seem too upset about her baby dieing, and to go so far as to post a picture of her dead child is completely crazy. glad to see she still thinks her tits look good after her fall though. i’m still not sure if she should be charged with murder, but she definitely needs to get charged with something.
12:11 am on February 22nd, 2009
Wow! This is going to be a hot topic, this girl needs help. In MY opinion, I do not believe that she should be prosecuted.
*I have not seen the myspace*
P.S. suicide is not against the law, if you are successful, you are dead….
12:12 am on February 22nd, 2009
Yea, that myspace is a bit creepy to say the least. She obviously needs mental help more than criminal prosecution, in my opinion.
The dead baby photo is confusing that and her bragging about her fall makes me agree with the classification of “attention whore”.
12:57 am on February 22nd, 2009
I think she’s an attention whore as well, but there may be underlying reasons for it. She is obviously mentally ill and needs help. I’m somewhat torn between whether she should be thrown in jail or just put in a mental health facility. I think the latter would do her more good than just rotting away in a jail cell. She doesn’t seem to feel remorse for her actions, or rather for her child dying and that urks the hell out of me and makes me think she does deserve the charges being brought against her. Oh hell…. I just don’t know.
The reason a fetus of that age is considered “by the law as a seperate, independent person” is because of the Scott and Lacy Peterson story, if I remember correctly. The law was changed so that he could be prosecuted for killing his unborn child as well as his wife. In my opinion for that reason alone, I’m all for that particular law. I may not agree with how and when it’s enforced, other than for POS like Peterson, but it’s a catch 22 law. You have the upside and the downside to it and you have to deal with that in order to prosecute the fuckwads who kill women that are preggers.
1:05 am on February 22nd, 2009
i forgot to add that i dont beleive that she should be charged with homicide by child abuse and that the charge should be involuntary manslaughter because of her mens reas (state of mind) which i beleive is malice aforethought.
( malice aforethought may involve an unintentional killing, but with a willful disregard for life. )
i dont think homicide by child abuse is a relevent charge against jessica because she didnt cause any harm to her child that we know of before she stupidly jumped off the building.
we all agree the girl needs to see a counselor, psychologist or something! she sounds like the type of girl who needs a man to validate her self worth. whats scary is that shes using myspace as a dating website which is obvious when she states all the things she does to “cater to her man”.
1:13 am on February 22nd, 2009
i agree with booboo that going to an institution would probably do her alot better than sitting in jail. HOWEVER, i personally would like to see her sit in jail for at least a month because she does not seem remorseful for what she did at all.
1:36 am on February 22nd, 2009
She needs a serious ass-kickin’ and a lifetime supply of Depo.
1:43 am on February 22nd, 2009
I’m a little confused. Is the photo that says “look my baby mary jane” a photo of her fetus or a marijuana plant? Sorry, I can’t enlarge the picture but it looks like something inside of a bowl?
To answer the original question, I do not think that she should be prosecuted for murder in the death of her unborn fetus/baby. But I think it would do her a world of good to have to do “time” at a suicide hotline. And also an unwed mothers facility. This girl is disturbed, judging by her myspace and needs intervention or else……………we’ll be reading more about her later.
1:50 am on February 22nd, 2009
That would be marijuana.
4:49 am on February 22nd, 2009
In a jail cell for a month..
shouldn’t be charged at all…
I am amazed at some of these comments. She was 8 months pregnant. With a human being (in case that needs to be pointed out).
What she did was kill another person. How this is not a ‘no brainer’ is beyond me.
Had the child been born premature and then killed, no one would have an issue with going after her.
Instead, since the baby was less than a few weeks from his/her arrival into the world, it’s fine?
color me stunned
6:53 am on February 22nd, 2009
Total strawman. No one said it was “fine” or anything of the sort. The issue is whether or not she should be charged with murder. I guess it’s too much trouble to actually respond to Castille’s points about the broader implications of prosecuting mothers for the deaths of their own fetuses.
6:57 am on February 22nd, 2009
The awning was cement with a canvas wraparound. Jessica dislocated her elbow trying to stop the fall. She landed on her feet and shattered her hips, pelvis, and lost her uterus. She was in ICU struggling for her life for the next week with 2 major surgeries. She could not make it to the funeral because she had just had another surgery to piece her together.
7:03 am on February 22nd, 2009
I guess it’s too much trouble to actually respond to Castille’s points about the broader implications of prosecuting mothers for the deaths of their own fetuses.
And I guess I didn’t make my point as much as I should have.
8 months pregnant implies that she not only knew but was planning on giving birth to this child, yes?
8 months is nothing like 8 weeks. It’s a child we are discussing here.
7:09 am on February 22nd, 2009
..and if you are looking for a lucid response to Castille’s post about mothers and their unborn children, I didn’t read a single example of an idiot tossing herself out of a window.
If I missed that, all apologies.
8:01 am on February 22nd, 2009
Huh? This just flat-out doesn’t make any sense in the context of this particular conversation, which is based on whether or not she should be charged with murder. Murder implies intent and we don’t have enough info to make a judgement on that right now.
Not only are you coming off as pretty damn sanctimonious, you insult everyone’s intelligence, as if we need you to school us on good moral judgement because we dare discuss whether or not what this woman did qualifies as actual murder under the law.
8:04 am on February 22nd, 2009
Total speculation on your part. This goes beyond the facts of the case right into you making big, crucial assumptions about her state of mind during her pregnancy.
8:30 am on February 22nd, 2009
Gee Veronica, I’m really not sure how many other ways I can say that I think she murdered her child.
You really need to relearn internet bullying, by the way. It doesn’t suit you.
10:28 am on February 22nd, 2009
10:38 am on February 22nd, 2009
I am undecided on that question. There is so many other factors involved,BiPolar,epilepsy. She certainly was not thinking about anyone else when she did this and certainly not that baby. now,her Myspace? blek. her above pic,blek.
11:17 am on February 22nd, 2009
That’s good news, anyway. That child does not need to be in charge of any helpless babies.
12:47 pm on February 22nd, 2009
Actually, this law existed in many states for a decade or more before the Peterson case; also, had the law been passed in California after Laci Peterson’s death, Scott Peterson could not have been prosecuted under this law.
One can only be charged with crimes that were defined by existing laws at the time of one’s offense, and not with any subsequent laws that may be enacted afterwords.
Similarly, one can only receive penalties for a criminal conviction that existed at the time of the offense, for instance: If one murdered someone 20 years ago in a state that did not have capital punishment at the time of the murder, and is just now being brought to prosecution for that murder, then it is not possible to apply the death penalty to the case’s prosecution, even if the state now has the death penalty available, because this punishment did not exist at the time the murder actually occurred.
Personally speaking, I must refer again to Castille’s comments, “You know, able to survive outside the womb doesn’t mean it IS outside the womb. “.
IMO, considering an unborn fetus in the same fashion as a baby that has already been born it the equivalent of counting one’s chickens before they hatch.
Any number of things could go wrong before the fetus is actually born, and therefore I feel that this law is often used over zealously; this case is a prime example of such over use and extreme application of said law, IMO.
1:51 pm on February 22nd, 2009
Everytime I think of this case I change my mind!!! I am pro-life. And as much as this doesnt make sense, I just don’t know that she should be prosecuted! She was not in her right mind. After reading her myspace I know she’s goofy as hell though. The funny thing is that every post I read has great points and makes me think differently…. Back to the original question, should be prosecuted? I dont know !!!!!
2:19 pm on February 22nd, 2009
This hits rather close. An ex-colleague of mine recently lost a baby during birth. It got strangled in the umbilical cord. I guess it is just one of those things. So tragic, especially since I know she and her husband would make great parents, – hopefully they will have the chance again.
I would like to state for the record that I do not think Jessica Clyburn sounds like she would have made a good mother. From what I have seen of her MySpace in the forums she was and is an attention-whore and a selfish, immature individual; but we don’t usually prosecute people for that.
The reason people who kill a mother and her unborn child are prosecuted for two murders is that they were already committing a crime (killing the mother) and whatever else follows from that (the death of the child) would be laid at their door as well. Committing suicide may be a sin according most religions and in the context Ms Clyburn attempted it I guess we can all agree it was horrendously selfish. (She wanted her man to feel guilty for making her do it.) In many cases we even take those who attempt it and do not succeed and incarcerate them; but we do not do this because suicide is a crime, only to protect them (and their surroundings) from themselves. So there is no crime, – what should we do with the (un-fit) mother who loses her child during commission of no crime?
And to mjmsepm who said the baby was living and breathing….. I agree that it was a living being; but it was not breathing. Not yet. And now it never will.
3:06 pm on February 22nd, 2009
Just calling it as I see it…she deserves not only to be charged with murder she deserves to be prosecuted as well.
The one light of this whole thing is that her uterus was destroyed.
3:21 pm on February 22nd, 2009
agree!!
3:41 pm on February 22nd, 2009
So what happens to mothers who make poor decisions during their pregnancy, say doing drugs or any other number of things. Say a woman is drinking or whatever and her babies ends up dying and through an autopsy they conclude that the baby died from the woman’s actions. Does the woman get charged with homicide by child abuse?
5:58 pm on February 22nd, 2009
ooops
6:01 pm on February 22nd, 2009
After looking at her myspace page I was thinking of just a plain ole’ WHORE
7:00 pm on February 22nd, 2009
Why not value the baby above her? The baby didn’t ask to be concieved by her and she was 8 months pregnant, one month left and that baby would have been in the world.
She jumped knowing that her baby would die. If she truly wanted to die she would have stuck a gun under her chin.
I think the stupid whore should get many years in jail and have a felony on her record for the rest of her life.
11:01 pm on February 22nd, 2009
Damn it, Lavonna – You read my mind.
12:32 am on February 23rd, 2009
Where do they get to decide that though? Just because the baby CAN live… doesn’t mean it’s going to, there’s all sorts of things that can happen that women have no control over, like as it’s been said, dying during birth. Just because one baby can live doesn’t mean another will.
I really don’t think murder is quite the right charge here. She’s clearly more than a bit unhinged and selfish… So in going with that, she probably didn’t even think about the baby, only herself and the bf. From the info we have here, murder just doesn’t seem to fit. Manslaughter, that’s a bit more like it. She DID kill the baby, but it wasn’t with the intent to kill it, just herself, like a selfish bitch. Definitely lock her away, get her some serious help and put her on something.
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