QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'The unbelievable tragedy of a child's death was compounded by
the prosecution of an innocent person for murder... 'The truth set Hannah free
in the end, and ID (Investigation Discovery) is proud to tell the story of those who worked
tirelessly to overturn her conviction.'
Kevin Bennett,
general manager of Investigation Discovery.
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RELEASE: "Investigation Discovery" presents ‘Until Proven Innocent,’ the
Story of Hannah Overton, Who Was Wrongfully Convicted in the Death of
Her Foster Son from Salt Poisoning, publushed by Discovery
Communications on
November 27, 2016.
GIST: "Hannah Overton is a mother, a woman of
God, a former nurse and, in Texas's prison system, known as Overton
1478117. In October 2006, a four-year-old from Corpus Christi named
Andrew Burd died mysteriously of salt poisoning. Overton, his foster
mother, was charged with capital murder, vilified from all quarters, and
sent to prison for life. Was this churchgoing young woman really a
vicious child killer, or had the tragedy claimed its second victim? The
two-hour documentary
'Until Proven Innocent' chronicles
the gross miscarriage of justice that sent Hannah Overton to jail with a
life sentence and the fight to win her freedom. Making its exclusive
television premiere on
Thursday, December 1 from 9-11pm ET as part of Investigation Discovery's ...documentary strand,
'Until Proven Innocent' 'Until Proven Innocent'is
told entirely through
first-person interviews with Overton, her family and closest confidants,
and experts and key figures involved in the high-profile appeal,
including Texas attorneys Cynthia Orr, Gerry Goldstein and John Raley.
'The unbelievable tragedy of a child's death was compounded by
the prosecution of an innocent person for murder,' said Kevin Bennett,
general manager of Investigation Discovery. 'The truth set Hannah free
in the end, and ID is proud to tell the story of those who worked
tirelessly to overturn her conviction.'
About the case: Andrew Burd's short life began turbulently. His mother was only
16 when she gave birth, and Andrew spent his first two years surrounded
by substance abuse and child neglect. By the time he turned three, his
mother and father had lost parental rights and Andrew was placed in the
foster care system in Corpus Christi, Texas. Hannah and Larry Overton
met Andrew at church, where they fell in love with him and felt
compelled to adopt him into their family that already included five
biological children. Andrew spent his first night with the Overtons on
Mother's Day in 2005, and seemed to quickly grow attached to his new
family. Four months later, on October 2, 2006, Andrew fell suddenly and
acutely ill while he was alone with Hannah. The Overtons rushed him to a
nearby urgent care clinic after he became unresponsive and his
breathing labored, but by the time they arrived, he had fallen
unconscious. The following evening, Andrew was dead. The cause of death
was determined to be salt poisoning, an extremely rare occurrence that,
in children, results from either a child inadvertently ingesting too
much salt or a caretaker deliberately forcing the child to do so. People
who knew the Overtons were certain that Andrew's bewildering death was
accidental. But law enforcement and emergency medical personnel who
treated Andrew thought otherwise. The following week, Hannah-who had no
history with Child Protective Services and no previous arrests, and had
never had so much as a parking ticket-was charged with capital murder. In a special premiere event,
'Until Proven Innocent' premieres on
Thursday, December 1 at 9/8
as part of the ID FILMS
strand, the television home for projects that shine a light on
important, overlooked aspects of our justice system and showcase
compelling stories of mystery, intrigue, and determination.
'Until Proven Innocent' is produced by P+R
Productions with Kelli Weinzierl and Pamela Colloff as executive
producers and Jenna Jackson and Anthony Jackson as directors."
The entire release can be found at:
http://www.publicnow.com/view/F9085D73F9E5C2ADC7F37EFE95833AD9DE02E592?2016-11-17-23:37:31+00:00-xxx8781
See National Registry of Exonerations entry by Maurice Possley at the link below: "On October 2, 2006, 29-year-old Hannah Overton and her husband,
Larry brought Andrew Burd, their four-year-old foster son whom they were
in the process of adopting, to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas
after the boy stopped breathing. The boy was diagnosed with a toxic salt
overdose and died the following day.
Ten days later, the Overtons were arrested on charges of
capital murder. Prosecutors said Hannah forced the boy to drink water
laced with Cajun spices as punishment for misbehaving. The prosecution
claimed the boy vomited and was in and out of consciousness, but the
couple waited nearly three hours before seeking medical help. Police said that one of Overton’s five biological children told
investigators that Hannah watched Andrew on a security camera in a
bedroom and used food and pepper as a form of punishment. A neighbor
told police that Hannah called her about
3 p.m.
that day and asked her
to watch one of her children because Andrew was intentionally vomiting
and defecating and “smearing it everywhere.” The neighbor said Hannah
claimed Andrew was vomiting and defecating not because he was sick, but
“to get to me.” The Overtons were granted separate trials. Hannah went
to trial
in Nueces County Criminal District Court in August 2007. The neighbor,
Kathryn Haller, testified that “Hannah said, ‘He's not sick. He’s doing
it to try to get to me.’” Haller also said that Overton told her that
Andrew had thrown his feces at her earlier, that he threatened to smear
it as he had the night before, and that he had vomited. Haller said
Overton was afraid her younger child, Sebastian, would get into the mess
Andrew had created, so she asked Haller to watch Sebastian. The county
medical examiner testified that the boy died of salt poisoning and
appeared to have blunt head trauma. Dr. Alexandre Rotta, who treated the
boy when he was brought to
the hospital, testified that Hannah told him Andrew had eaten a bowl of
chili, and that when he asked for more and threw a fit she gave him a
glass of water with chili powder in it. Rotta testified that tests of
Andrew’s blood showed a sodium level higher than he had ever seen
before. Rotta also testified that he believed the child would have
survived if he had been treated before suffering cardiac arrest,
although Rotta did not see the boy until many hours after he was first
brought to the hospital. Overton, a former private-duty nurse, testified
in her own
defense and said that Andrew was “obsessed with eating” and ate more
than her other children at every meal. She told the jury that his
obsession was getting worse—that he was eating off of the floor, getting
into the garbage, and even eating the cat’s food. Overton testified
that Andrew would become upset whenever she prevented him from eating
what he wanted, and that she had reported his excessive and
inappropriate eating activity to the adoption supervisor, who suggested
that he might have an eating disorder. She said that on the day of the
incident, after feeding the
children their breakfast, she fell asleep while they were watching
cartoons. When she awoke, Andrew was in the pantry eating something, but
she couldn’t recall what it was. She said she put him in a timeout for
three minutes and Andrew threw a tantrum, defecated in his pants, and
threw his feces at her—behavior that had occurred in the past. Overton
said she cleaned him up and changed his clothes, but he defecated again
and smeared it on the floor. Overton said she relented and reheated some
leftover soup and
chili mixture. She said her husband came home and they left for an
appointment with her chiropractor for a treatment for a back injury.
When they returned home, her husband went back to work and Andrew
complained he was hungry. Overton said that after the boy began crying,
she gave him more
chili with Cajun seasoning added to it. When she refused his demand for
a second serving, he threatened to defecate on her. Overton testified
that she decided to give him a cup of water with “a couple of sprinkles”
of the Cajun seasoning so that he would get the flavor she thought he
wanted and would settle down. Overton said she filled a cup full of
water and then poured some out because she thought it was too much. She
said she put the mixture in a cup and Andrew drank it, but then demanded
more chili and began to throw a fit. She told the jury that after about
a 20-minute tantrum, Andrew
stumbled to the floor, said he was cold, and vomited. Overton testified
she thought “that he had gotten himself so worked up that he threw up.”
She telephoned her husband and told him to come home, but before he
arrived, Andrew began to shake, so she wrapped him in a blanket and put
him into his bed with a heating pad. After consulting her intermediate
EMT course book, Overton said
she thought might have been “in some sort of shock,” but she was not
overly concerned because this overwrought behavior had happened on prior
occasions. She and her husband put Andrew into a warm bath and she used
a nebulizer on him because his breathing sounded congested. They took
him out of the bath and dressed him. Although his vital signs were
normal, he was moaning. When his breathing became abnormal and Andrew
became less
responsive, the couple drove Andrew to an urgent care center. On the
way, he stopped breathing and Overton began CPR. The boy vomited into
her mouth and began breathing again. When they were getting out of the
car in the parking lot of the urgent care center, he stopped breathing
again, she said. Several family friends testified and confirmed that
Andrew seem
to have an insatiable appetite. A member of the Overton’s church told
the jury they had to hide trashcans from the boy. On September 7, 2007,
the jury convicted Overton of capital
murder. The jury was polled and the jurors said their conviction as
based on the failure of the couple to seek prompt medical attention—not
because she had force-fed the boy the water and spice mixture. Overton
was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In
2008, her husband pled no contest to a reduced charge of criminally
negligent homicide and was sentenced to deferred adjudication for five
years, which allowed him to care for their children. His conviction was
vacated and dismissed in 2013, after he successfully completed the
probationary period. Overton’s conviction and sentence were upheld on
appeal. In 2011,
Overton’s appellate attorney, Cynthia Orr, filed a state petition for a
writ of habeas corpus seeking a new trial. The petition claimed that
the prosecution had failed to
disclose to Overton’s trial lawyers evidence that the salt level of
Andrew’s stomach contents when he arrived at the urgent care center was
48 milliequivalents per liter. This was inconsistent with the state’s
accusation that she had just force fed him sodium raising his blood
sodium level to 245 milliequivalents per liter. The higher level
recorded later, the defense contended, was the result of fluids and
sodium medicines that were given to Andrew as part of the efforts to
save his life. The defense said that when the boy was first taken to
Driscoll
Urgent Care Center, he was given a saline IV. Andrew was then
transported to Spohn Hospital. There, Andrew went into cardiac arrest.
He also was given another saline IV as well as sodium bicarbonate.
Andrew was then transferred to Driscoll Children’s hospital where he was
again given a saline IV and sodium bicarbonate and where Rotta saw the
boy for the first time. Andrew went into cardiac arrest again and was
placed on a ventilator. By the time Rotta saw Andrew, the boy had been
subjected to considerable life-saving measures that included the
continuous use of saline IVs, epinephrine and sodium bicarbonate. The
high level of sodium detected at Spohn Hospital was not immediately
reported to doctors at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, so that the Andrew
was given more sodium. Moreover, the petition claimed that Overton’s
trial lawyers had
provided a constitutionally inadequate legal defense by failing to call
an expert witness, Dr. Michael Moritz, who could have testified that
the boy was not poisoned by Overton and likely had died because of
accidental self-initiated consumption earlier. The witness had been
interviewed under oath by the defense and prosecution during the trial,
but was not called to testify and the recording of his deposition was
not presented to the jury. The petition also included a letter from Anna
Jimenez, who had
been one of the two prosecutors at Overton’s trial. She said that she
believed the lead prosecutor on the case, Sandra Eastwood, had withheld
evidence favorable to Overton’s defense. In 2010, before the petition
was filed, Jimenez as appointed District Attorney and had fired Eastwood
for unrelated reasons. She ran for election in November 2010 and left
the office after she was defeated by Mark Skurka. “I am writing this
letter because I do believe that an
injustice has been done. I do not believe there was sufficient evidence
to indicate that Hannah Overton intentionally killed Andrew Burd,”
Jimenez wrote. “It is because I witnessed Sandra Eastwood's behavior
before, during and after trial that I fear she may have purposely
withheld evidence that may have been favorable to Hannah Overton's
defense.” The petition said evidence suggested that Andrew's death was
linked to a genetic disorder called Prader-Willi syndrome, which can
cause children to eat bizarre objects. District Judge Jose Longoria, who
presided over Overton’s
trial, dismissed the petition the same day it was filed. Orr appealed
and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Longoria to hold an
evidentiary hearing. During several days of testimony, Overton’s lawyers
conceded
they had failed to provide an adequate legal defense by failing to call
Moritz, an expert on hypernatremia—a medical condition related to an
elevated salt level. Moritz testified that Andrew exhibited symptoms of
emotional deprivation syndrome, which is often associated with extreme
eating habits. Moritz also said that the amount of Cajun spices needed
to
generate a sodium level of more than 250 would be enormously higher than
the amount Rotta testified to. Moritz said that Rotta’s failure to
evaluate the cause Andrew’s hypernatremia was a significant oversight.
And Moritz also testified that Overton would have had extreme difficulty
in forcing an amount of salt or Cajun spices into Andrew that would
have resulted in such a high sodium level, but that if Andrew had a
psychological problem, such as emotional deprivation syndrome, he could
have consumed that amount voluntarily. Despite the testimony, the judge
denied the writ again. In
September 2014, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the trial
judge’s finding, granted the writ and ordered a new trial. The appeals
court found that Overton’s lawyers had failed to provide an adequate
legal defense. The appeals court did not address the claim that the
prosecution had concealed evidence of the boy’s comparatively low sodium
level when he first arrived at the clinic. On December 16, 2014,
Overton was released on bond pending a
retrial. On April 8, 2015, Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka
dismissed the charge. He said the decision was “a result of a myriad of
factors which came about after a careful review of the previous trial,
re-interviewing some of the key witnesses, consulting with some of the
medical experts involved in the case, (and) reviewing evidence adduced
at recent hearings.”
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4674
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The
Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty
incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the
harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into
pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology
system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent
stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please
send any comments or information on other cases and issues of
interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
