A New Look at Evidence in Child’s Death
Hannah Overton was sentenced to life in prison after her foster son died in 2006. Photo by Dan WintersAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A woman serving a life sentence for the death of her foster son is trying to be set free.
In 2006, 4-year-old Andrew Burd of Corpus Christi died mysteriously of salt poisoning. His foster mother, Hannah Overton, was convicted of the murder and sent to prison for life, but in February, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered an examination of Overton’s claims of innocence.
Texas Monthly’s executive editor, Pamela Coloff, has been following the story closely. KUT’s Nathan Bernier spoke with Coloff about what we now know about salt poisoning.
That was a revelatory moment, to hear that there really was no scientific evidence anymore that upheld the prosecution’s case. Dr. [Michael] Moritz talked about how many things that the doctors had perceived as abuse, the terrible bruises, the hemorrhaging under the scalp, which the medical examiner thought was due to blunt-force trauma to Andrew’s head, were actually symptomatic of acute sodium toxicity.
Podcast: Download (6.0MB)
“… was convicted of the murder”,
in my opinion, should read, “was convicted of murder”,
because the child’s death was not a murder.