快讯：华裔彭璇溺死女儿被判二级谋杀

据多伦多星报最新报道，今天早晨，彭璇(Linda) 溺死女儿案的陪审团向法庭提交他们做出的裁决，华裔彭璇被判在家中的浴缸溺死患有自闭症（autistic）4岁女儿陈嘉嘉（Scarlett Chen），彭璇二级谋杀罪成立。

这是本案陪审团在为期两天的闭门商议之后做出的裁决。

本案发生在2004年7月12日，被害人的父亲David Chen 发现女儿陈嘉嘉溺死在他们Markham Rd 夹Sheppard Ave East 家中的浴缸内。

据被告彭璇后来在法庭陈述，她当时把女儿安置在卧室午睡，但不清楚她为何走到卫生间，并淹死在二楼的浴缸内。她记得当时在浴缸内放满了水，将一些厨具放在里面准备清洗。

但7个月后，彭璇被警方逮捕，并被控一级谋杀罪名。后来该项控罪被改成二级谋杀。

按照保释聆讯提供的证据，就在其被捕后不久，彭璇曾经将自己的眼镜片打碎，并用碎片划伤自己的胳膊。

陈嘉嘉是个活泼的女孩，她身体健康但发育有些迟缓，经医生诊断患有中度自闭症。

（陈嘉嘉 Scarlett Chen）

彭璇溺死女儿案从去年11月开始审理，其间陪审员多次更换。第2次选出的陪审团听过40多名证人的口供，审查过共计67件呈堂物证，前天才开始陪审团闭门商议阶段。

根据加拿大法律，如果被告二级谋杀罪名成立，最高可判终身监禁，服刑10年至25年才能申请假释。目前法官 Justice Benotto 尚未裁决彭璇服刑多少年后才能申请假释。

详情请见多伦多星报的原文：Mother found guilty of drowning autistic daughter

Xuan (Linda) Peng has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the drowning death of her 4-year-old autistic daughter Scarlett in a bathtub in the family home.

A Superior Court jury returned its verdict Saturday morning after two days of deliberations.

Scarlett Chen was discovered unconscious by her distraught father David Chen in the tub on the second floor of the family's townhouse on Rosebank Dr., near Markham Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E. on July 12, 2004.

Peng told police that she had put their daughter down for a nap in the adjoining bedroom, and had no idea she had climbed into the bathtub, which the woman had filled with water to clean some kitchen utensils.

However, seven months later, homicide detectives charged the 36-year-old Chinese immigrant with first-degree murder. The charges were later reduced to second-degree murder.

Shortly after her arrest, Peng removed her glasses, smashed them, and used them to slash her arms, according to evidence at her bail hearing. The jury didn't hear this.

Scarlett was a lively little girl, physically healthy but developmentally delayed. She was diagnosed as mildly autistic.

In September 2001, Peng and her husband sent Scarlett, at age one, to live with her maternal grandmother Li Ning in China. She was to remain there for 30 months, until March 2004, when she returned to live with her parents, accompanied by her grandmother.

She was to die four months later.

Crown prosecutors Joshua Levy and Kim Motyl argued that Scarlett never really bonded with her parents, and that her diminutive mother couldn't cope with her.

However defence lawyers Kathryn Wells and John Mann insisted she was a loving mother devoted to raising her only daughter. Her husband testified that she adored Scarlett.

After Scarlett was born, Peng began to suffer from depression, and that was one of the reasons she could not care for her child, police said in a bail hearing in 2005. She was diagnosed as suffering from a bipolar affliction disorder.

However the jury did not hear about her mental illness. Justice Mary Lou Benotto ruled that such information would be unduly prejudicial.

During the trial, the emotional toll sometimes showed. With the jury gone, Peng once had to be restrained by her mother and husband in the courtroom after she cried out in distress. She was taken away to hospital by ambulance.

Some days she lay her head on a courtroom table and appeared to sleep.

The prosecutors argued that Peng was upset at news delivered by a pediatrician, just hours before Scarlett died, that there would be no surgical solution for the little girl's problems. However, her husband testified that the family was quite pleased with the doctor's news that good programs were available for the child.

That evening, with her mother and husband out of the home for a few hours, Peng was left alone, for the first time, with her little girl for a significant period, prosecutors pointed out.

They argued that she couldn't cope and that explained why she kept calling her husband on his cellphone urging him to return. In a moment of frustration, she drowned Scarlett in the bathtub, holding her down under the water, they argued.

By its verdict, the jury signalled that it agreed.

The sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison. Justice Benotto must rule on how long, within a range of 10 to 25 years, she must serve before being eligible to apply for parole.