The mother of the Oxford school shooter will return to court in the new year as she asks for a new trial and to be released on bond pending her appeal.
Jennifer Crumbley was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths caused by her son, Ethan Crumbley. Ethan murdered four students and injured seven others in a shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. Jennifer and her husband, James, were convicted on charges they failed to act to prevent the shooting.
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Jennifer has filed an appeal in her case and, in a new motion, has asked to be released from prison while the court determines whether she should be awarded a new trial. Michael Dezsi, who is representing Jennifer in the appeal, told Court TV that he believes they have a strong basis for an appeal, in part because, “We don’t believe Ms. Crumbley committed any crime.”
“We believe that we’re on very solid ground in asking the Court to throw this case out for the simple fact that there’s just simply no duty recognized in the law that compels somebody to prevent the intentional criminal acts of a third person,” Dezsi told Court TV. “And it doesn’t matter if that third person is your son, your husband or your brother or simply a stranger. … An individual doesn’t have the duty to protect other people from the intentional criminal acts of others.”
At her sentencing in April, Jennifer told the court, “The prosecution has tried to mold us into the type of parents society wants to believe are so horrible that only a school or mass shooter could be bred from. This is a very unfair assumption to have. We were good parents, we were the average family.”
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The Crumbley’s case drew national attention, in part because it was the first time a school shooter’s parents had been charged for the crime. “There’s a simple reason it’s never been brought before,” Dezsi said. “It’s not illegal. Mrs. Crumbley didn’t do anything wrong. She wasn’t aware of what her son was planning.”
On Jan. 8, Jennifer is due in court for a hearing where she will argue for the conviction to be overturned and for her release. Dezsi said they have no plans to end their appeal if they’re not successful: “We believe eventually some court in this process is going to throw this case out.”
This story was originally published by Lauren Silver at Court TV.
