The case of Taylor Parker, a Texas woman sentenced to death for murdering her pregnant friend and cutting her unborn daughter from the womb, has been thrust back into the spotlight by a new Netflix documentary. Parker, now 34, was convicted in 2022 of capital murder for the October 2020 attack on Reagan Simmons-Hancock in Oklahoma. The documentary, titled Maternal Instinct, airs next week.
Parker drove to Simmons-Hancock's home and slashed or stabbed her about 100 times before removing the baby with a scalpel. The victim was seven and a half months pregnant. Parker fled with the infant but was pulled over by a state trooper for erratic driving, who found her covered in dried blood while holding the dead baby. Simmons-Hancock's three-year-old daughter was discovered unharmed under a blanket in her bed.
At trial, Parker's defence did not deny the killing but sought to keep her off death row. Prosecutors argued the crime was elaborately premeditated, with Parker having plotted for months to claim the baby as her own. A neurologist testifying for the defence said something was very wrong with her brain, describing a condition called frontal lobe syndrome. In October 2022, Parker was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death a month later.
On appeal, lawyers argued Parker should not have faced capital murder because the baby may not have been alive when cut from the womb, meaning the kidnapping charge was invalid. They also claimed extensive media coverage denied her a fair trial. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction, and last month the US Supreme Court declined to review the case. No execution date has been set. Parker is one of only seven women on death row in Texas.
Court accounts reveal Parker had convinced her boyfriend, Wade Griffin, that she was pregnant, despite having had a hysterectomy in 2019. The couple held a gender-reveal party, and she collected baby items. Griffin described their relationship as an emotional rollercoaster. Investigators testified that Parker had watched numerous videos on delivering and caring for babies. Prosecutors contended she faked the pregnancy and committed the murder to keep her boyfriend.
