I Spent Years on Death Row for Killing My Baby But I Was Innocent
What should have been a tragic medical condition was framed as murder, and the state of Mississippi almost cost me my life.
In 1989, a 17-year-old teenager from Columbus, Mississippi was wrongfully convicted of murdering her 9-month-old son. This occurred after she had just lost her 2-year-old son and was living alone, as she had no family or transportation. On the night of April 11, 1989, she decided to go for a jog after putting her youngest son to bed, believing he was sleeping safely in his crib.
Upon returning, she found her son unresponsive and rushed him to the hospital, where doctors were unable to save him. Desperate and fearing the consequences, she gave false statements to the police, accusing herself of murder. She was subsequently charged with capital murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection. After four years on death row, with little support from her attorneys, she was able to secure new legal representation in 1995.
These new attorneys presented evidence showing that the bruises on her son's body were due to her attempts to resuscitate him, ultimately leading to her exoneration and release from death row in December 1995. She became the first woman in the United States to be exonerated from death row.
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