'Unlawful and illegal detention': Florida lawyer says incarceration violates due process of unborn child

Florida attorney William M. Norris recently filed an emergency request to the state's Third District Court of Appeals, arguing pregnant Natalia Harrell's incarceration is "unlawful," as a "fetus’ incarceration is a violation of his rights guaranteed by the U.S. and Florida constitutions," Miami Herald reports.

Per Miami Herald, Harrell was "arrested and charged with second-degree murder" in Miami-Dade County at six weeks pregnant last July, following a "fatal quarrel" in an Uber.

The 24-year-old, according to NBC Miami, has now been pregnant for about eight months, and while imprisoned, the baby "has received inadequate prenatal care while Harrell has been held without bond," which Miami Herald notes "could even set a precedent amid a legal system navigating complex arguments in a post-Roe world."

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Norris' emergency request, also known as a writ of habeas corpus, states "'draconian confinement' is harming Harrell’s unborn child," and reads, “UNBORN CHILD has not been charged with any crime by the State. Further, the State has placed the UNBORN CHILD in such inherently dangerous environment by placing the UNBORN CHILD in close proximity to violent criminal offenders.”

"An unborn child is a person," Norris said. "A person has constitutional rights and one of them is the right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law."

The writ of habeas corpus also states "the fetus isn’t receiving adequate prenatal care, including vitamins and visits to specialists, and also has been the victim of negligence — at one point being trapped in a corrections transport van without air conditioning while temperatures exceeded 100 degrees."

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Furthermore, the document, which must receive response from Director of Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation in a matter of days, advocates for Harrell's release so the "child can get necessary care and treatment, be free from 'unlawful and illegal detention' and avoid entering the world in a dangerous environment like a prison cell."

Miami Herald's full report is available at this link. NBC Miami's is here.

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