MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge has ordered a new trial for an Alabama woman who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a stillbirth that her attorney argued was caused by an infection rather than drug use.
Lee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Tickal vacated Brooke Shoemaker’s 2020 chemical child endangerment conviction resulting in death. In his Dec. 22 ruling ordering a new trial, the judge wrote that the new information, if accepted by jurors, “will assist in exculpating the crime.” Prosecutors are appealing the decision.
Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy group that helped Shoemaker appeal, said Shoemaker is one of at least dozens of women who have been sued over miscarriages of pregnancies and hundreds of others for pregnancy-related conduct. Her 18-year sentence is one of the longest in such a case, according to the organization.
In 2017, Shoemaker gave birth to a stillbirth when she was approximately 24 to 26 weeks pregnant. She admitted to medical staff that she had used methamphetamine during her pregnancy.
The state medical examiner found methamphetamine in the fetus’ blood, but the cause of death has not yet been determined.
Shoemaker’s attorneys argued there was no evidence drug use caused the miscarriage. In her appeal, her attorneys submitted expert opinions based on a review of pathology slides that a genetic abnormality and severe infection caused the pregnancy to be terminated.
Karen Thompson, legal director of Pregnancy Justice, welcomed the decision and said the allegations against Shoemaker were never based in fact.
“Judges do recognize the validity of the science. One of the problems we see in cases like this across the country is there is no desire or need to prove any harm,” Thompson said in a phone interview.
In a statement released through Pregnancy Justice, Shoemaker said she hopes to return home next year to be with her baby and her parents.
“I hope my new trial will end with me being released because I just lost my pregnancy at home due to an infection. I love and want my baby, but I never deserved this,” Shoemaker said.
Prosecutors are appealing the decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. They argued that Shoemaker did not present new evidence but “simply found a new expert willing to reinterpret the evidence that existed before trial.” In 2020, the district attorney praised the verdict as “justice for this baby.”
According to Pregnancy Justice, Alabama leads the nation in pregnancy-related prosecutions, with the majority of cases related to drug use.
Alabama’s chemical hazard law was originally approved by lawmakers as a way to address harm to children from meth labs, but has also been used to prosecute pregnant women. The Alabama Supreme Court upheld this interpretation in 2013, writing that the term “children” in the law includes “unborn children.”
