SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - After three years and several court decisions, Illinois plans to keep fighting to strip convicted Florida child-killer Sheryl Hardy of the right to raise a second son, an official said Tuesday.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office will ask the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn a March 10 ruling by an appellate court that said Hardy can regain custody of her 3-year-old, said Gary Feinerman, who oversees appeals in the office.
It would be only the latest twist in a saga that started in 1989, when Hardy, then Sheryl Coe, went to jail for nine years after admitting to standing by as her then-husband, Thomas Coe of Lakeland, repeatedly rammed her 2-year-old son into a toilet headfirst for soiling his pants.
The child, Bradley McGee, died. Hardy was convicted of second-degree murder; Coe got a life sentence for first-degree murder.
The case prompted a $79-million overhaul of Florida's child-welfare system.
Hardy's lawyer, Matthew Maurer, said his client has been punished enough.
"When people do something wrong, the focus in our society is to try to rehabilitate them," he said. "That's exactly what she did, but she's still being punished."
After her release from prison, Hardy returned to her hometown 34 miles northeast of St. Louis, remarried and had another son, Billy Hardy, in February 2001.
She has been fighting for custody of the child since the Department of Children and Family Services placed him in a foster home the day after his birth, due to Hardy's past conviction.
