Life Sentences For Miramar Woman's Killer Could Be Overturned

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A man who took the life of a Miramar woman and her unborn child will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Or will he?

Thursday afternoon Edward Babbs, 20, was given two life sentences by Broward Circuit Judge Bernard Bober for the murders of Stephanie Rabsatt and her unborn child in October 2009. But that may not be the end of it.

The U.S. Supreme Court is debating whether life-without-parole sentences for people who were 18 years old or younger when they committed the crime amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, according to The Sun Sentinel. When Babbs killed Rabsatt he was 17 years, 9 months and 28 days old.

Prosecutors claim Babbs, the father of the unborn child, wanted Rabsatt to have an abortion. The night of the murders, one of two bullets fire struck Rabsatt in the abdomen, the other hit the back of her head. The jury deliberated for about an hour and a half before coming back with guilty verdicts on two counts of first degree murder.

A life sentence without parole is mandatory under Florida law, unless the nation's high court intervenes.

Attorney James Lewis, hired after Babb's conviction, has already filed a motion for the court to toss the verdict and order a new trial, according to the paper. Lewis said there was not eyewitness or physical evidence to connect Babbs to the murder. He also claims a person who Babbs got into a fight with hours before Rabsatt was killed should have been considered a possible witness or suspect but was wasn't.