Claudia Elisa Hernandez, a California mom who has been charged with the fatal torture of her 3-year-old daughter, is pleading with a religious card to avoid punishment. The woman killed her daughter in what is being described as a religious exorcism, performed inside a San Jose church.
According to The Mirror US, Claudia is now seeking her case to be dismissed by taking the help of California’s Racial Justice Act (RJA). The mom’s hearing is set for January 22, 2026, but before appearing in court, she and her team have come up with the argument that their family is being singled out because of their religious beliefs.
It has been three years since Claudia, along with her father and brother, killed her child, Arely, driven by the feeling that the baby was possessed.
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After the child had woken up screaming, Claudia and her family thought that the devil had possessed the baby. Cops said that “They arrived at 6:30 a.m. [Sept. 24, 2022], and over the next 12 hours, they violently pinned her down and stuck fingers down her throat to make her vomit, which they believed would help her get the spirit out.”
The child reportedly pleaded for the family to stop but to no avail. Days before her arrest, the mom made a chilling video where she said, “I could sit here and be negative, be sad about the whole situation that she passed away, but it’s like, there’s no point, you know, because it is what it is. It is what it is.”
The nonchalance in her attitude further highlighted how the woman might have committed the crime in a cool mind. While prosecutors are now going for 25 years to life in prison for all the three members involved in baby Arely’s death, the defense team is playing the religious card hard to get out of the same.
The filing in court also mentions that Claudia’s father, who came from El Salvador to the US as a Pastor, had previously also participated in religious ceremonies that aimed at casting out evil spirits.
It should be noted here that California’s Racial Justice Act, which is the primary defense of Claudia’s legal team, became law in 2021. It permits defendants to contest charges if race, ethnicity or national origin influences how a case is handled or pursued, even without evidence of deliberate discrimination as The Mirror US reported.
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Referring to this legislation, the family’s legal team said that their religious beliefs prejudiced the judgment of the ones investigating as they repeatedly asked the family about their mental health and their church was also characterized as an illegitimate place of worship.
However, as pointed out by legal scholar Douglas Laycock, “Most fundamentally, constitutional rights, including the right to free exercise of religion, can be overridden when necessary to serve a compelling government interest. Preserving the lives of children is a compelling interest if anything is.”
Eugene Volokh, First Amendment expert and UCLA law professor emeritus echoed similar sentiments, saying, “Injuring people is illegal, regardless of whether you have religious motivations for doing so.”
The murder of a 3-year-old child, regardless of the motivation behind it, stands as a monstrous act. As Claudia and her family’s hearing day inches closer, it now remains to be seen if they can free themselves using the religion card.
