Judge orders new trial for woman sentenced to 18 years in prison after stillbirth

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A judge has ordered a new trial for an Alabama woman who was sentenced to 18 years in prison following a stillbirth that her attorneys said was caused by an infection rather than drug use.

Lee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Tickal overturned Brooke Shoemaker’s 2020 conviction for chemical endangerment of a child resulting in death. The judge wrote in a Dec. 22 decision ordering another trial that the new information, if accepted by jurors, “contributes to the innocence of the offense.” Prosecutors are appealing the decision.

Shoemaker is one of dozens of women who have been prosecuted following a miscarriage and one of hundreds who have been prosecuted for pregnancy-related conduct, according to Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organization helping her appeal. His 18-year sentence is one of the longest in such cases, according to the organization.

In 2017, Shoemaker had a stillbirth between 24 and 26 weeks pregnant. She admitted to medical staff that she had used methamphetamine while pregnant.

The state medical examiner found methamphetamine in the fetus’ blood, but said the cause of death was undetermined.

Shoemaker’s lawyers argued there was no evidence that drug use caused the miscarriage. In her appeal, her lawyers submitted an expert opinion, based on an examination of pathological slides, that a genetic abnormality and a serious infection caused the termination of the pregnancy.

Karen Thompson, legal director of Pregnancy Justice, welcomed the decision, saying there was never a factual basis for the charges against Shoemaker.

“The judge really recognized the validity of the science. One of the problems we see in these kinds of cases across the country is that there is no desire or need to prove harm,” Thompson said in a telephone interview.

Shoemaker, in a statement released by Pregnancy Justice, said she hopes to be able to return home to her children and parents next year.

“I hope my retrial ends with my release, because I simply lost my pregnancy at home to an infection. I loved and wanted my baby, and 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 available evidence before trial.” In 2020, the prosecutor hailed the conviction as “justice for this baby”.

Alabama leads the nation in pregnancy-related prosecutions, with most cases involving drug use, according to Pregnancy Justice.

Alabama’s chemical endangerment law was initially approved by lawmakers as a way to combat 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 word child in the law includes “the unborn child.”