Uploaded June 2010 | Updated September 2026, 19 hours ago
The state Supreme Court on Friday ordered a new trial for a man convicted of stabbing a pregnant woman to death in Waterbury in 1998, ruling that the death penalty was improperly applied in the death of an unborn child.
Robert Courchesne stabbed Demetris Rodgers to death in a bank parking lot over a drug debt. Rodgers was 8 1/2 months pregnant.
Rodgers' child, Antonia Rodgers, was delivered in an emergency cesarean section at Waterbury Hospital shortly after the stabbing. The baby remained on life support for 42 days, but died hours after life support was removed as a result of a lack of oxygen to her brain that she suffered after her mother was killed and before she was delivered.
Courchesne was charged with two counts of murder as well as two counts of capital felony, which is punishable by death, for killing two or more people at once and for killing a person under 16.
The Supreme Court, in a 4-3 opinion released Friday, ruled that the trial court improperly applied the common-law "born alive rule" in concluding that Antonia was a "person." Specifically, the opinion states, "The panel applied the wrong evidentiary standard in finding that the state had established beyond a reasonable doubt that Antonia was born alive."
It also says, "The panel improperly failed to consider whether ... Antonia was brain dead at the time of her delivery due to the irreversible cessation of brain function even though her circulatory and respiratory systems were maintained by artificial means for 42 days after her delivery."
The court upheld the murder conviction for Demetris Rodgers' death, but that count does not carry the death penalty.
The state Supreme Court on Friday ordered a new trial for a man convicted of stabbing a pregnant woman to death in Waterbury in 1998, ruling that the death penalty was improperly applied in the death of an unborn child.
Robert Courchesne stabbed Demetris Rodgers to death in a bank parking lot over a drug debt. Rodgers was 8 1/2 months pregnant.
Rodgers' child, Antonia Rodgers, was delivered in an emergency cesarean section at Waterbury Hospital shortly after the stabbing. The baby remained on life support for 42 days, but died hours after life support was removed as a result of a lack of oxygen to her brain that she suffered after her mother was killed and before she was delivered.
Courchesne was charged with two counts of murder as well as two counts of capital felony, which is punishable by death, for killing two or more people at once and for killing a person under 16.
The Supreme Court, in a 4-3 opinion released Friday, ruled that the trial court improperly applied the common-law "born alive rule" in concluding that Antonia was a "person." Specifically, the opinion states, "The panel applied the wrong evidentiary standard in finding that the state had established beyond a reasonable doubt that Antonia was born alive."
It also says, "The panel improperly failed to consider whether ... Antonia was brain dead at the time of her delivery due to the irreversible cessation of brain function even though her circulatory and respiratory systems were maintained by artificial means for 42 days after her delivery."
The court upheld the murder conviction for Demetris Rodgers' death, but that count does not carry the death penalty.
