Taylor Parker, a Texas woman on death row for murdering her pregnant friend and cutting the unborn baby from her womb, has given birth in prison, according to reports. Parker, 34, was convicted in 2022 of capital murder for the 2020 killing of Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who was seven and a half months pregnant. Parker removed the baby, Braxlynn, using a scalpel after stabbing Simmons-Hancock about 100 times.
Parker was arrested shortly after the crime, with the victim's blood on her hands and the dead infant in her lap. She confessed in an Oklahoma hospital, where she had gone to check on the baby. At trial, her defense did not deny the act but sought to avoid the death penalty, arguing that Parker had frontal lobe syndrome, a brain condition. In October 2022, she was sentenced to death.
Parker's case has drawn renewed attention with the release of a Netflix documentary, 'Maternal Instinct,' which airs next week. The documentary explores the rare and horrific nature of fetal abduction by maternal evisceration, which has occurred only about 15 times in the US since 1987.
On appeal, Parker's lawyers argued that she should not have been charged with capital murder because the baby may not have been alive when removed, making the kidnapping charge invalid. They also claimed she did not receive a fair trial due to media coverage. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld her conviction, and the US Supreme Court declined to review the case last month. An execution date has not been set.
Parker is one of only seven women on death row in Texas. She had faked a pregnancy to her boyfriend, Wade Griffin, even throwing a gender-reveal party, despite having had a hysterectomy in 2019. Prosecutors said she committed the murder to keep her boyfriend, who testified that their relationship was an 'emotional rollercoaster.'
