# Forgetting Is Not Murder > A Florida nanny forgot a sleeping baby in her car, and the State called it murder until an appeals court said no. Georgia charges grieving parents the same way. One Lawrenceville mother sat in jail for six weeks after losing her son. Forgetting is a tragedy, not a murder. **Published**: 2026-10-07 **Source**: https://gps.press/forgetting-is-not-murder/ **Author**: Justice Reed --- At 8:17 on a July morning in 2023, a nanny in Macclenny, Florida texted the daughter of her closest friend. "Just left. Shocker," the message read. The two of them used it as a running joke about a parent who was forever late. The child in her care that day was the granddaughter of that same friend. Ten months old. To a jury, the nanny later said she had loved the girl as if she were her own. [Jewell v. State, Florida First District Court of Appeal, No. 1D2024-3279, September 30, 2026](https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/first-district-court-of-appeal/2026/1d2024-3279.html) The baby was asleep in her car seat. The nanny went inside with her phone, a cup and a snack. Three other children were in the house. She didn't come back out to the car. A little after one o'clock the mother came for her daughter. The nanny ran out to the car. The baby was in her seat, still buckled. Five hours in the heat. She was dead. A witness told the court what happened next. The nanny was crying and throwing up. She kept saying she forgot. She kept asking how she could have been so stupid. At seventeen she went to work as a nanny, and she stayed one. Rhonda Jewell is a mother of three. The State of Florida charged her with murder. [Jewell opening brief, MacArthur Justice Center](https://www.macarthurjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jewell_Opening-Brief.pdf) ## A Mother in Lawrenceville Two months before a Florida court ruled on that case, the same thing happened in Georgia. On July 29, 2026, a 29-year-old mother drove to her job at a hospital in Lawrenceville. Her lawyer later said she had been up at night with a teething baby. Two other children were in her care. Her shifts ran 12 hours. That morning the plan was daycare for her one-year-old son. She drove to work instead. The baby, her lawyer said, had fallen asleep in the back seat. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 12, 2026, Attorney says mother in Lawrenceville hot car death made good faith mistake](https://www.ajc.com/news/2026/08/attorney-says-mother-in-lawrenceville-hot-car-death-made-good-faith-mistake/) He was in the car about nine hours. A police captain told reporters she "forgot to make that second trip." When police told her her son was dead, the captain said, she "was devastated." Georgia charged her with murder. On a Wednesday she lost her son. That Friday, at a hearing, the court denied her bond. She stayed in jail about six weeks, out once, to grieve her son before the funeral. In September a judge set bond at $5,000, with house arrest and an ankle monitor. Prosecutors had argued she should stay locked up. They said she might run. They said she could be a danger to her children. They said she was keeping police from interviewing her four-year-old. [Atlanta News First, September 9, 2026, Gwinnett County mother accused in hot car death granted $5K bond](https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/09/09/mother-accused-hot-car-death-due-court-bond-hearing/) Her lawyer saw it another way. "This is a case that calls for support, not detention," she said. Once the judge set bond, the lawyer said the time had come to get the mother back "to the community that loves her and supports her, so that she can really process what's happened." [Atlanta News First, September 9, 2026, Gwinnett County mother accused in hot car death granted $5K bond](https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/09/09/mother-accused-hot-car-death-due-court-bond-hearing/) ## How a Loving Parent Forgets At Rhonda Jewell's appeal, Florida's lawyers made a simple argument. How could anyone forget a beloved child? Scientists have studied that question. David Diamond, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida, studies memory. He says the brain runs a habit system on autopilot, the one that gets us to work without thinking about each turn. When that system takes over, it can push aside the memory of a sleeping child in the back seat. [University of South Florida, March 5, 2019, Why the human brain allows loving caretakers to leave a child to die in a hot car](https://www.usf.edu/news/2019/why-human-brain-allows-loving-caretakers-leave-child-die-hot-car.aspx) "The most common response is that only bad or negligent parents forget kids in cars," Diamond told Consumer Reports. "It's a matter of circumstances. It can happen to everyone." [Consumer Reports via CP24, July 19, 2025, Anyone could forget a kid in a hot car, research shows](https://www.cp24.com/news/world/2025/07/19/anyone-could-forget-a-kid-in-a-hot-car-research-shows) He puts it next to the headlights. The same memory systems fail in both cases, he says. What's changed is the car, which now turns its own headlights off. [University of South Florida, March 5, 2019, Why the human brain allows loving caretakers to leave a child to die in a hot car](https://www.usf.edu/news/2019/why-human-brain-allows-loving-caretakers-leave-child-die-hot-car.aspx) In more than half of the hot car deaths from 1990 to 2024, the child was left by someone who did not know the child was there. That's the figure Kids and Car Safety, a national safety group, gave the Florida court. [Jewell v. State, Florida First District Court of Appeal, No. 1D2024-3279, September 30, 2026](https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/first-district-court-of-appeal/2026/1d2024-3279.html) ## What the Florida Court Saw In 2024 a jury acquitted Rhonda Jewell of manslaughter. On the charge of leaving a child unattended, the judge declined to instruct the jury that the State had to prove she knew the baby was there. The jury convicted her on that count. It convicted her of felony murder as well, a charge the State built on top of it. At sentencing the judge said Jewell "has certainly shown remorse" and that there was "no doubt she's a good person." Seventy-eight letters had been written on her behalf. He gave her seventeen years. He said "no amount of remorse" or "good deeds" could "bring that child back." [Jewell opening brief, MacArthur Justice Center, quoting the sentencing transcript](https://www.macarthurjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jewell_Opening-Brief.pdf) On September 30, 2026, a Florida appeals court threw out the murder conviction and ordered a new trial on the lesser charge. That is where the opinion opens. > This is the most tragic of cases. A beloved child has died, her family is left with an immeasurable loss, and it was Rhonda Jewell's fault. But it was an accident. The State never had to prove she meant to commit the crime, the court said, and a murder conviction can't rest on that. It also wrote: "There are no winners here; moral outrage is not assuaged." [Jewell v. State, Florida First District Court of Appeal, No. 1D2024-3279, September 30, 2026](https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/first-district-court-of-appeal/2026/1d2024-3279.html) ## What Georgia Does Georgia didn't need a court to decide the question. It wrote the answer into law in 2014. That year, the legislature created murder in the second degree. The crime covers a child's death caused by criminal negligence, and it carries ten to thirty years in prison. [O.C.G.A. § 16-5-1, Murder; malice murder; felony murder; murder in the second degree](https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-16/chapter-5/article-1/section-16-5-1/) Before that statute, prosecutors could charge these parents with felony murder, which carries a life sentence. The head of Georgia's prosecutors' council told the Newnan Times-Herald they still can. [Newnan Times-Herald, December 15, 2018, Second-degree murder law created to address child deaths](https://www.times-herald.com/news/local/second-degree-murder-law-created-to-address-child-deaths/article_bf3f36de-85a8-5b02-8827-9753669a7cd2.html) Either charge is murder. In Georgia, bond on a murder charge is set by a superior court judge and no one else. [O.C.G.A. § 17-6-1, When offenses bailable](https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-17/chapter-6/article-1/section-17-6-1/) The parent charged waits in jail until that judge hears the request. Two earlier Georgia cases ended the same way: a guilty plea, then prison. A mother in Camden County pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after her seven-month-old son died in a hot car outside a Kingsland motel. A judge sentenced her in 2019 to twenty years. [News4Jax, February 7, 2019, Georgia mother sentenced to 20 years in son's hot car death](https://news4jax.com/news/2019/02/07/georgia-mother-sentenced-to-20-years-in-sons-hot-car-death) A mother in Newton County pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and to lying to police after her thirteen-month-old daughter died in a hot car in 2023. A judge sentenced her in 2025 to serve twenty years. [Atlanta News First, October 17, 2025, Mother sentenced to prison after 13-month-old daughter dies in hot car](https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/10/17/mother-sentenced-prison-after-13-month-old-daughter-dies-hot-car/) Georgia cannot say how many people it holds for deaths they never meant to cause. The monthly prison report puts every murder conviction on one line. [GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile, All Active Inmates, produced 01-OCT-26](https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/monthly-statistical-reports/profileallinmates202609/download) The Sentencing Project, a national research group, says laws like these "impose sentences associated with murder on people who neither intended to kill nor anticipated a death." Most other countries have dropped them, it notes, but 48 states still use them. It also explains why so many people plead guilty: "Because fighting a felony murder charge at trial can seem impossible, people are incentivized to accept plea deals." [The Sentencing Project, Felony Murder: An On-Ramp for Extreme Sentencing, July 2026](https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2026/07/Felony-Murder-An-On-Ramp-for-Extreme-Sentencing.pdf) ## Opinion: Grief Is Not a Crime *What follows is the writer's opinion. Everything above it is the record.* No one wants a child to die. Not the police. Not the prosecutor. Not the parent most of all. Think about that parent. They have just lost a child, maybe the person they loved most on earth. They will carry the guilt for the rest of their lives. No prison sentence could ever punish them more than they will punish themselves. Then the State makes the arrest. It takes the parent out of the reach of the people who would hold them, and puts them in a cell while the family plans a funeral. In Georgia, a murder charge leaves one person able to send them home: a superior court judge. So they wait. The state Constitution says, "Excessive bail shall not be required." [Constitution of the State of Georgia, art. I, sec. I, para. XVII, Georgia Secretary of State](https://sos.ga.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/Georgia%20Constitution%20-%20Electronic%20Version%20-%20January%2C%202023.pdf) For a mother who forgot her baby, any time in a cell is excessive. And then the State asks them to plead guilty to murder for an accident. Many do. Fighting the charge means risking thirty years, or life. This doesn't bring a child back. It doesn't make another parent more careful, because no parent plans to forget. It adds a second tragedy to the first. Georgia can do better. Prosecutors can choose not to charge a parent whose only crime was forgetting. Judges can let a grieving parent go home at the first hearing. And the legislature can stop calling an accident murder. The Florida court said it plainly. It was her fault. But it was an accident. Georgia's law should be able to tell the difference. --- ## Call to Action: What You Can Do Awareness without action changes nothing. Here's how you can help push for accountability and real reform: **Join the GPS Advocacy Network**: Sign up at [https://gps.press/become-an-advocate/](https://gps.press/become-an-advocate/) and we'll advocate on your behalf every week. GPS identifies your state legislators, crafts personalized letters on the most pressing prison issues, and sends them directly to the representatives who represent you. You receive a copy of every letter. It takes two minutes to sign up, and we handle the rest. **Send a 60-Second Message**: Pick an issue, get a ready-to-edit message with the verified facts already in it, and email your state House representative and senator directly from your own inbox at [https://gps.press/send-a-message/.](https://gps.press/send-a-message/.) No signup, nothing stored. It takes about a minute. **Tell My Story**: Are you or a loved one affected by Georgia's prison system? GPS publishes first-person accounts from incarcerated people and their families. Submit your story at [https://gps.press/tellmystory](https://gps.press/tellmystory) and help the world understand what's really happening behind the walls. **Contact Your Representatives**: Your state legislators wrote O.C.G.A. § 16-5-1 and can rewrite it. Find your Georgia legislators at [https://gps.press/find-your-legislator/](https://gps.press/find-your-legislator/) or call Governor Kemp at (404) 656-1776 or the GDC Commissioner at (478) 992-5246. **Demand Media Coverage**: Contact newsrooms at the AJC, local TV stations, and national criminal justice outlets. More coverage means more pressure. **Amplify on Social Media**: Share this article and tag @GovKemp, @GDC_Georgia, and your local representatives. Use #GAPrisons, #PrisonReform, #GeorgiaPrisonerSpeak. **Message the Board of Corrections**: The citizen board that oversees the GDC publishes no contact details for its members. GPS built the missing front door: pick a board member and a policy message and send it from your own email at [https://gps.press/write-the-board/.](https://gps.press/write-the-board/.) **File Public Records Requests**: Georgia's Open Records Act gives every citizen the right to request incident reports, death records, staffing data, medical logs, and financial documents. Start with the GPS Action Toolkits at [https://gps.press/toolkits/.](https://gps.press/toolkits/.) The Open Records Toolkit walks you through what to ask for, gives you ready-to-file request templates, and tells you what to do when the state says no. File directly with GDC at [https://georgiadcor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/SupportHome.aspx.](https://georgiadcor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/SupportHome.aspx.) **Attend Public Meetings**: The Georgia Board of Corrections and legislative committees hold public meetings. Your presence is noticed. **Contact the Department of Justice**: File civil rights complaints at [https://civilrights.justice.gov.](https://civilrights.justice.gov.) Federal oversight has forced abusive systems to change before. **Support Organizations Doing This Work**: Donate to or volunteer with Georgia-based prison reform groups fighting for change on the ground. **Vote**: Research candidates' positions on criminal justice. Primary elections often determine outcomes in Georgia. **Contact GPS**: If you have information about conditions inside Georgia's prisons, reach us securely at GPS.press. --- ## Further Reading **[The Sleeping Giants: Two Georgia Statutes That Could Unlock Post-Conviction Justice](https://gps.press/the-sleeping-giants/)** *Two laws already on Georgia's books that could reopen convictions the courts have refused to look at.* **[Sixteen Months: How Georgia Kept the Right and Closed Every Door to It](https://gps.press/one-justice-one-year-how-georgia-erased-a-146-year-rule/)** *How Georgia's habeas deadline shut the route that would surface unconstitutional convictions.* **[Who Are the Victims: Before They Were Prisoners](https://gps.press/who-are-the-victims-before-they-were-prisoners/)** *What the record shows about the people Georgia sentences, before the sentence.* **[Burned by the State: Junk Forensic Science and the Georgia Cases the Courts Won't Reopen](https://gps.press/burned-by-the-state-junk-forensic-science-and-the-georgia-cases-the-courts-wont-reopen/)** *Convictions built on discredited science, and the procedural walls that keep them standing.* **[Guilty Until Proven Innocent: You WILL Be Found Guilty](https://gps.press/guilty-until-proven-innocent-you-will-be-found-guilty/)** *How Georgia's charging and plea system produces convictions whether or not the State can prove its case.* --- ## GPS Intelligence System The GPS Intelligence System keeps research profiles that stay current, gathering data, news, settlements and analysis on Georgia's prisons and the issues that define them. The profiles below carry the deeper context for what this article raises: **[End the Warehouse](https://gps.press/intelligence/issue/end-the-warehouse/)** *The sentencing laws that fill Georgia's prisons, including the life sentences this article counts, and the campaign to shrink them.* **[Legal Access](https://gps.press/intelligence/issue/legal-access/)** *How people in Georgia's prisons reach, or fail to reach, the courts that could review their sentences.* --- ## Explore the Data GPS makes GDC statistics accessible to the public through several resources: - **[GPS Statistics Portal](https://gps.press/gdc-statistics/)**: Interactive dashboards translating complex GDC reports into accessible formats, updated within days of official releases. - **[GPS Lighthouse AI](https://gps.press/ask-ai/)**: Ask questions about Georgia's prison system and get answers drawn from GPS's investigative archive and data analysis. - **[GPS llms.txt](https://gps.press/llms.txt)**: A single machine-readable index of every GPS data resource, published using the open llms.txt standard. Point any AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) at this URL and the model can navigate to facility profiles, intelligence briefs, mortality records, statistics, and the full investigative archive, with no other configuration needed. It is the fastest way to ground an AI conversation in verified GPS data. - **[GPS Public MCP Server](https://data.gps.press/mcp)**: For AI tools that support the Model Context Protocol (Claude, ChatGPT, and others), connect directly to GPS's data: read-only tools covering population, facilities, mortality, parole, the Georgia Code, settlements, and more. Every answer arrives with its source link and citation built in. For a walkthrough of how to put these resources to work with AI, see **[How to Use GPS Data with AI Tools](https://gps.press/how-to-use-gps-data-with-ai-tools/)**: a step-by-step guide for researchers, advocates, families, and journalists analyzing Georgia prison conditions, statistics, and policy with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Contact GPS at media@gps.press for access to underlying datasets used in this analysis. --- ## About Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) is a nonprofit investigative newsroom built in partnership with incarcerated reporters, families, advocates, and data analysts. Operating independently from the Georgia Department of Corrections, GPS documents the truth the state refuses to acknowledge: extreme violence, fatal medical neglect, gang-controlled dorms, collapsed staffing, fraudulent reporting practices, and unconstitutional conditions across Georgia's prisons. Through confidential reporting channels, secure communication, evidence verification, public-records requests, legislative research, and professional investigative standards, GPS provides the transparency the system lacks. Our mission is to expose abuses, protect incarcerated people, support families, and push Georgia toward meaningful reform based on human rights, evidence, and public accountability. Every article is part of a larger fight: to end the silence, reveal the truth, and demand justice. ![GPS Footer](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GPS-Ad2.jpg) ---