Postpartum Depression Alliance of Illinois
PPDIL HELPLINE: 847-205-4455
66 Dundee Rd #502, Northbrook, IL 60062

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Clemency Cases in Illinois

Debra Gindorf received a life sentence for infanticide in 1985. We have been staunch advocates for her clemency and have been collecting signitures to petition IL Governors for the past few years. No one raised a postpartum depression defense for her at the time of her conviction although many mental health experts since have evaluated her and concluded that she most likely suffered from postpartum psychosis or a severe PPD and was not in her right mind at the time.

Paula Sims has been serving 19 years in prison for the murder of her two babies and is also hoping for clemency. Like Debra, she didn't receive a diagnosis of postpartum psychosis at the time as little was known about the disorder but has since been evaluated by mental health experts who have reviewed her case and concluded that it was likely that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis after having both children.

Only a very small percentage of women experience postpartum psychosis (1 in every 1000) and out of that 1% of women there is a 5% infanticide/suicide rate. Therefore the vast majority of women effected by PPMDs are not at risk for harming themselves or their baby.

We want to emphasis that we need prevention, identification and treatment for women who suffer postpartum mood disorders not punishment. 

                     Dr. Sarah Allen, Chair PPD IL Alliance 

CBS 2 News Segment about Paula Sims's Clemency Case

  This is a link to the printed story http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Quinn.Sims.clemency.2.1010194.html

 and the video http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=58616@wbbm.dayport.com

or read it here:

Paula Sims Killed Her Two Small Kids, Suffered From Postpartum Depression

 

 

Paula Sims killed her two small children and says postpartum depression was responsible.

Illinois Department of Corrections/CBS

Paula Sims is behind bars for killing her two children. But, she's pleading with the governor to set her free.

Why? Because he's done it before.

A mother taking the life of her own children is unthinkable. Listening to her ask for compassion and mercy may be hard to stomach. But Sims and a number of medical experts say she suffers from a mental disorder. The fact that Gov. Pat Quinn has granted clemency in a similar case convinced her to speak with CBS 2's Vince Gerasole.

"I dreamed of being a mother, I wanted to be a mother," Sims said.

But for nearly 20 years, she has been behind bars serving a life sentence for killing two infant daughters.

"How have you come to terms with the death of your children?" Gerasole asked in a telephone interview.

"I hated myself because I loved my children," she said. "I had a hard problem thinking I could have hurt them, let alone take their lives."

By phone from prison in Dwight, Sims admits in 1986 she drowned 13-week-old Lorelai and in 1989 took the life of six-week-old Heather. In both cases she led authorities on a manhunt for a masked intruder she claimed kidnapped the babies.

Gerasole asked her: "There are some people who would have no sympathy for you; what do you have to say to them?"

"I do understand that, but they don't understand --- they obviously have never been mentally ill," Sims said.

Years later, Sims was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, a severe form of depression. Earlier this month Debra Gindorf -- a Lake county woman who also suffered from the disorder and was serving time for the deaths of her own two children -- was granted clemency by Quinn. Now Sims' attorney is hopeful he'll do the same for his client.

"I think the answer for all right-minded people is to treat people with mental illness differently than we treat people who are just bad," the attorney, Jed Stone, said.

Prosecutors claim Sims developed the postpartum defense only after exhausting her original appeals. Health experts say the psychosis is rare but needs to be taken seriously.

"When somebody has postpartum psychosis, they need to be hospitalized," Dr. Sara Allen of the Illinois Post Partum Depression Alliance said.

Sims, in the late-1980's never got that kind of help, but she says she shares her story now to save the lives of others.

"I argued with voices in my head wanting me to do something bad, and I wasn't going to do nothing bad," she said.

"I knew that I had hallucinations of someone stealing my children -- a masked gunman," she said. "I knew I saw it, and I wasn't telling a lie. I was telling the truth."

Gerasole asked: "If you could say one thing to Gov. Quinn right now, what would you say?"

"I would just ask him to please look at the facts and be directed in what God wants him to do," she replied.

Sims, who is 49, applied for clemency in 2006. The governor's office has declined to comment but reports it has some 2,400 clemency petitions to review.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Debra Gindorf Receives Clemency From Governor Quinn

Follow the link below to the SunTimes article appearing May 1, 2009:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1554450,quinn-commutes-post-partum-woman-050109.article

or read it here:

Quinn commutes sentence of post-partum mom who killed kids

Gov. Quinn on Friday commuted the life prison sentence of a woman who killed her children in 1985 while in the throes of postpartum depression.

Debra Gindorf, 45, was 20 when she gave her 3-month-old son, Jason, and 23-month-old daughter, Christina, overdoses of sleeping medication in her apartment in north suburban Zion.

Debra Gindorf, 45, was 20 when she gave her 3-month-old son Jason and her 23-month-old daughter in Zion. Gov. Quinn today commuted her life prison sentence. In 1986, Gindorf was found guilty but mentally ill.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times file)

In 1986, Gindorf was found guilty but mentally ill. She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Under Quinn's commutation, she is to be released from Dwight Correctional Center later this month.

Two women who fought for Gindorf's release -- Carol Blocker, who lost her daughter to postpartum illness, and Sarah D. Allen, a psychologist who heads the Postpartum Depression Illinois Alliance -- were ebullient about Quinn's decision. It comes amid a growing awareness of how severely the illness can affect behavior.

"Oh my god, my heart is just racing. I didn't think Quinn would do it," said Blocker, whose daughter Melanie Blocker Stokes jumped from the 12th floor of a Chicago Days Inn in 2001 shortly after giving birth. "It means that he has common sense and he has a heart."

Rep. Bobby Rush, who has championed postpartum-awareness issues in Congress, said Quinn's move is unprecedented in Illinois and "a significant step in recognizing some of the important issues as they relate to new mothers' health."

Whether there will be any backlash against Quinn -- until recently, sympathy for postpartum moms who killed their kids has been scant -- remains to be seen. His office declined to comment about Gindorf, whose clemency petition was among 18 the governor acted upon Friday.

"The action, we feel, speaks for itself," Quinn spokesman Bob Reed said.

No one raised postpartum depression as a defense at the time of Gindorf's conviction, including her attorney. But since then, all nine mental health experts who evaluated her determined she most likely suffered from postpartum psychosis.

Kathleen Hamill, Gindorf's current lawyer, said she had not yet spoken to her client but thinks Gindorf will function well in society.

"She is a good-hearted person and has been taking college courses" in prison, Hamill said.

But when Gindorf killed her children, she was in a "crazed thought system where she believed the world was a terrible place. She wanted to take her children to heaven with her," Hamill said.

Gindorf -- whose marriage to an abusive husband had ended in divorce when she was pregnant with her son -- swallowed sleeping pills and several shots of Southern Comfort. She testified that she laid down next to her kids, kissed them and told them, "We are going to be happy."

In the morning, she awoke to her dead children. Later that day, she turned herself in to Zion police.

Gindorf's latest hearing before the state prisoner review board was in 2003, when Blocker called for Gindorf's release. Rod Blagojevich was governor at the time, and Gindorf remained in prison.

Allen said she hopes Gindorf's release will shine a spotlight on postpartum issues: In 2006, as many as 36,100 mothers statewide "struggled with moderate to severe postpartum emotional symptoms," Allen said.

For Blocker, Gindorf's release offers hope that six other imprisoned postpartum moms she communicates with regularly might also be released. It stirred up thoughts of her vivacious daughter, whose suicide at age 41 shocked Chicagoans.

"Melanie is inspiring me," Blocker said. "I can almost hear her voice saying, 'Mommy, don't stop. You saw what it did to me. Please help these women.' "

Carol Blocker Continues to Push for Postpartum Depression Screening & Education From Postpartum Progress

Postpartum Depression: Real, But Still Stigmatized From World of Psychology

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CONTACT
PPDIL HELPLINE: 847-205-4455
66 Dundee Rd #502, Northbrook, IL 60062
Email: Dr. Sarah Allen

 Copyright © 2003 Postpartum Depression Alliance of Illinois. All Rights Reserved.

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Last updated: 04/25/09