As a criminal defense lawyer and movie critic, I could not help but be struck by the interconnecting relationship of the tragic saga of Charity Bailey's life and the movies "The Kite Runner" and "Juno". Without question, this is one of those instances where art mirrors life.

In a recent front-page article in the Indianapolis Star on Ms. Bailey and the death of her young daughter TaJanay ("Portrait of a Troubled Childhood", 01/06/08), reporters Tim Evans and Jon Murray describe Charity's upbringing. As this 20-year-old sits alone in a jail cell accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter, we now learn that her childhood was exactly the same as that of her late daughter's.

Born to a crack addicted mother, sexually abused and shuttled from home to home, it is now clear that Charity never had a meaningful chance in life. While this may be uncomfortable for some to hear, Charity is nothing more than what TaJanay would have grown up to be had she survived her similar abusive upbringing.

For several decades, I served as a public defender in the Marion County Criminal Justice System. I quit three times, the last being in 1986, principally because of the frustrations resulting from representing so many hopeless cases involving sexual abuse.

In the end, I simply could not deal with the fundamental absurdity of society trying to incarcerate my client for a lengthy period of years for sexual abuse when that client was similarly abused as a child. Meaning no disrespect, but I grew sick and tired of the rhetoric of the "Right to Life" movement that demanded the birth of these children and then effectively ignored their hideous existence until it was too late and the deformed chicken literally came home to roost.

That is precisely why I did not find the ending of "The Kite Runner" to be as spiritually uplifting as so many people did. Having rescued a young boy from years of sexual abuse by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the movie ends with this young boy flying a kite in the loving embrace of his foster family. While many in the audience openly wept tears of joy, I was overwhelmed with the thought that this young boy was likely to grow up and become a sexual predator himself.

In the spectacular movie "Juno"(a movie I have reviewed twice), a defining moment occurs as the 16-year-old Ellen Page is about to inform her parents of her pregnancy. As her loving father, in a career-defining role by the veteran character actor J. K. Simmons, interrupts her to ask if she needs money or a lawyer, she looks at him and says, "What I really need is a little mercy".

As I have pointed out in those earlier reviews, after then telling her parents of her condition, her father looks at her and softly says, "Juno, I really didn't think you were that type of girl", to which Juno responds with tears in her eyes, "Dad, I don't really know what kind of girl I am".

The point is that most teenagers don't know what kind of person they are even if raised in the most loving of families. However, if they evolve into their teenage years following years of drug and sexual abuse, they literally never have a chance to find out by any standard.

Given Charity Bailey's abusive background, she, like Juno, needs a little of mercy. I urge all of you that are ready to condemn Ms. Bailey to remember that we are all guaranteed certain inalienable rights beyond just life itself, namely liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Ms. Bailey's pursuit of happiness was wrongfully taken away from her as a result of her disastrous upbringing. While that in no way excuses her conduct relating to the death of her daughter, she is entitled to mercy.

Right now here in Indianapolis there are hundreds of 3-year-old Charity Bailey's growing up in similar circumstances. If we can spend ten billions of dollars on a war in Iraq that has conservatively resulted in the death of over one hundred and fifty thousand Iraqi men, women and children, then is it too much to suggest that we devote the resources to these children so that we will not be forced to incarcerate them when they become teenage parents?