Melissa Wright was at her Prattville, Alabama home in 2002.
She took out all the racks from her oven. She then calmly set the temperature to broil (around 600 degrees).
Then she did the unthinkable, she put her 14-month-old baby, Ashley in the oven.
Ashley’s father, Robert Smith, found her in the oven.
Image Credit: Elmore County District Attorney’s Office
Little Ashley’s body has been seriously burned. She underwent 28 different surgeries over the next ten years.
Wright pleaded guilty to her crimes and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003.
Wright had first claimed that her baby fell out of her arms and somehow landed in the oven.
Image Credit: Elmore County District Attorney’s Office
The evidence quickly showed that Wright’s story was made up.
Wright later claimed that she heard voices and they told her to put Ashley in the oven Ashley is a teenager now and is headed to high school.
At a parole hearing, she testified that her mother should stay in prison.
Image Credit: Elmore County District Attorney’s Office
Ashley’s older sister, Courtney Brenson, supported early release for her mother.
This ‘justice’ system boggle my mind, if you are given a 25-year sentence, you serve 25 years.
There should be none of this get out early business. Good behavior in prison?
Please, if they were so “good” they wouldn’t have ended up in prison in the first place.
Image Credit: Elmore County District Attorney’s Office
If you commit a crime, you should have to serve the whole sentence.
Ashley says she doesn’t love her birth mother – but she doesn’t hate her either.
She was raised by her aunt and uncle. Wright will be eligible for parole in 2021.
Share away, people.