May 14, 2009 9:10 pm US/Central
Quinn Gets Appeal From Another Child Killer
Paula Sims Killed Her Two Small Kids, Suffered From Postpartum Depression
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Paula Sims killed her two small children and says postpartum depression was responsible.
Illinois Department of Corrections/CBS
Paula Sims is behind bars for killing her two children. But, she's pleading with the governor to set her free.
Why? Because he's done it before.
A mother taking the life of her own children is unthinkable. Listening to her ask for compassion and mercy may be hard to stomach. But Sims and a number of medical experts say she suffers from a mental disorder. The fact that Gov. Pat Quinn has granted clemency in a similar case convinced her to speak with CBS 2's Vince Gerasole.
"I dreamed of being a mother, I wanted to be a mother," Sims said.
But for nearly 20 years, she has been behind bars serving a life sentence for killing two infant daughters.
"How have you come to terms with the death of your children?" Gerasole asked in a telephone interview.
"I hated myself because I loved my children," she said. "I had a hard problem thinking I could have hurt them, let alone take their lives."
By phone from prison in Dwight, Sims admits in 1986 she drowned 13-week-old Lorelai and in 1989 took the life of six-week-old Heather. In both cases she led authorities on a manhunt for a masked intruder she claimed kidnapped the babies.
Gerasole asked her: "There are some people who would have no sympathy for you; what do you have to say to them?"
"I do understand that, but they don't understand --- they obviously have never been mentally ill," Sims said.
Years later, Sims was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, a severe form of depression. Earlier this month
Debra Gindorf -- a Lake county woman who also suffered from the disorder and was serving time for the deaths of her own two children -- was granted clemency by Quinn. Now Sims' attorney is hopeful he'll do the same for his client.
"I think the answer for all right-minded people is to treat people with mental illness differently than we treat people who are just bad," the attorney, Jed Stone, said.
Prosecutors claim Sims developed the postpartum defense only after exhausting her original appeals. Health experts say the psychosis is rare but needs to be taken seriously.
"When somebody has postpartum psychosis, they need to be hospitalized," Dr. Sara Allen of the Illinois Post Partum Depression Alliance said.
Sims, in the late-1980's never got that kind of help, but she says she shares her story now to save the lives of others.
"I argued with voices in my head wanting me to do something bad, and I wasn't going to do nothing bad," she said.
"I knew that I had hallucinations of someone stealing my children -- a masked gunman," she said. "I knew I saw it, and I wasn't telling a lie. I was telling the truth."
Gerasole asked: "If you could say one thing to Gov. Quinn right now, what would you say?"
"I would just ask him to please look at the facts and be directed in what God wants him to do," she replied.
Sims, who is 49, applied for clemency in 2006. The governor's office has declined to comment but reports it has some 2,400 clemency petitions to review.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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