Netflix Streams 1 New True-Crime Film, 'Maternal Instinct,' on Taylor Parker Case

Q: With her final appeal denied last month, what is the final chapter for death row inmate Taylor Parker?

Taylor Parker’s case is effectively at its end in the courts: after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal last month, her capital murder conviction and death sentence remain in place, and the final chapter is execution by lethal injection unless some new, extraordinary legal challenge emerges. For now, Parker remains on Texas death row at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville. She is one of seven women on death row in the state. No execution date has been set yet, but the Supreme Court’s refusal to review the case means she has exhausted the normal appeals process at the highest judicial level. Parker was convicted in 2022 of capital murder in the killing of Reagan Simmons-Hancock and the abduction of Simmons-Hancock’s unborn child. Texas appellate courts had already upheld both the conviction and sentence before the Supreme Court declined review. In practical terms, the next step would be for Texas authorities and the courts to move toward scheduling an execution date. Until that happens, Parker remains incarcerated on death row awaiting that decision.

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Jun 12

Netflix has begun streaming “Maternal Instinct,” a new true-crime documentary directed by Jessica Dimmock about the Taylor Parker case.
The film follows a pregnant young woman whose story unravels after a state trooper finds she has just given birth in her car, then builds toward what Netflix calls an “unthinkable crime.”
Dimmock said she initially knew nothing about Parker’s crimes and chose a slow reveal to mirror how the victim’s family experienced the case.
Produced by Story Syndicate with executive producer Liz Garbus, the documentary is framed as a tough watch centered on a relatively little-known but exceptionally cruel crime.