MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A judge has ordered a new trial for an Alabama woman who was sentenced to 18 years in prison after giving birth to a stillborn baby that her attorneys argued was caused by an infection rather than drug use.
Lee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Tickal vacated Brooke Shoemaker’s 2020 conviction for chemical endangerment of a child resulting in death. Tickal said Shoemaker’s lawyers presented credible new evidence that the infection caused the stillbirth.
“Had the facts been known and presented to a jury, the results likely would have been different,” Tickal wrote in a Dec. 22 ruling ordering a new trial.
Shoemaker is one of at least several dozen women who have been prosecuted after losing a pregnancy, and one of hundreds of women who have been prosecuted for pregnancy-related behavioraccording to Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organization helping with her appeal. Her 18-year sentence is one of the longest in similar cases, according to the organization.
In 2017, Shoemaker had a stillborn baby around 24 to 26 weeks pregnant. She admitted to the medical staff that she used meth during pregnancy.
The state medical examiner found the presence of methamphetamine in the fetus’s bloodstream, but listed the cause of death as unknown.
The shoemaker’s lawyers argued that there was no evidence that drug use caused the pregnancy loss. In their appeal, her defense attorneys submitted an expert opinion based on a review of pathology specimens 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 any factual basis for the allegations against Shoemaker.
“The judge really recognized the validity of the science. One of the problems we see in cases like this across the country is that there’s 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 be home with her children and parents next year.
“Hopefully my new trial will end with me being released because I just lost my pregnancy at home to an infection. I loved and wanted my child and I never deserved it,” Shoemaker said.
Prosecutors are appealing the decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Švec will remain in custody pending the appeal.
“Our office remains steadfast in the investigation and prosecution of this case. We remain committed to seeking justice for this child and seeking accountability through the legal process,” Lee County District Attorney Jessica L. Ventiere said in a statement released Tuesday.
Alabama leads the nation in pregnancy-related prosecutions, with the majority of cases involving drug use, according to Pregnancy Justice.
Alabama’s chemical endangerment law was originally passed by lawmakers as a way to address harm to children from meth labs, but it has also been used to prosecute pregnant women. The Alabama Supreme Court upheld this interpretation in 2013, writing that the word child in the statute includes “an unborn child.”
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