The Sentencing of Offenders with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome‪.‬

Introduction On May 29th, 2002, the Globe and Mail covered the story of a nine-year-old girl, Jessica Russel, who had been brutally slain by David Trott. A murder, although certainly tragic, would not necessarily garner in-depth coverage in a national paper. What caught the attention of the Globe reporter was the resignation of the accused' s lawyer subsequent to his client's decision to plead guilty. Mr. Trott's personal history is not unlike the history frequently heard in court: he was bounced around the foster care system from the time he was 12 years old and was known to the police at an early age. In his teens he graduated from petty crimes, to assault and auto theft. Only days before Jessica's murder, Trott was in jail awaiting a psychiatric assessment stemming from a previous assault charge. The assessment never arrived and the judge released him.