Court orders resentencing for mother who threw newborn baby in trash
Rachel Schilke
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The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered the resentencing of an Ohio woman who was imprisoned for killing her daughter and throwing her in the trash.
Emilie Weaver, 27, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of aggravated murder and other counts for the death of her daughter, which happened in April 2015.
Her attorney had requested life in prison with a chance of parole in a minimum of 20 years, but Muskingum County Court Judge Mark Fleegle, who oversaw her trial, had said she did not appear to be remorseful and sentenced her without parole, per NTD News.
However, the state Supreme Court overturned Fleegle’s decision on Dec. 8 — which had been previously upheld by an appellate court — in a 4-3 decision.
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote in the majority opinion that Fleegle demonstrated an “arbitrary and unreasonable attitude” toward evidence of both neonaticide and pregnancy-negation syndrome.
Weaver had argued in a plea for post-conviction relief that her lawyer did not present a complete explanation of neonaticide, the murder of an infant within 24 hours of birth. She argues that she could have received a lesser sentence with that explanation.
Fleegle, who was in charge of the post-conviction relief hearing, discredited an expert witness who attempted to explain Weaver’s claimed condition of “pregnancy-negation syndrome,” a condition in which a person is in denial about their pregnancy.
Prosecutors said Weaver gave birth in the bathroom of the Delta Gamma Theta sorority house at Muskingum University and purposefully caused her newborn’s death by throwing her into the trash at the house. The baby died from asphyxiation after being placed in a plastic bag.
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Weaver testified during the trial that she believed the newborn was dead when she put her in the trash.
A new sentencing hearing date is unknown at this time.