kayceebee
New Member
This is a tragic situation for this young lady if she is truly innocent.......
July 20, 2004 Brandy Briggs sits in a Texas prison, serving a 17-year sentence for shaking her 2-month-old son so severely that he later died. But now, a medical examiner says the baby was never shaken at all.
Briggs, from a small town outside Houston, was just 17 years old when her son, Daniel Lemmons, was born. During his short life, Daniel was in and out of hospitals, suffering from kidney problems and urinary tract infections.
On May 2, 1999, Briggs called 911, saying she had gotten up to feed her baby and found him barely breathing in his crib. Daniel was taken to the emergency room at one hospital, where the medical staff made a horrible mistake. They put a breathing tube in his stomach, not his lungs, and pumped air into his stomach for 42 minutes.
Daniel was transferred to another hospital, where the breathing tube mistake was corrected, and he was put on life support. He died in his mother's arms on May 9, 1999 Mother's Day.
Briggs' nightmare only got worse. A Harris County assistant medical examiner ruled Daniel had died from "shaken baby syndrome," and his young mother was charged with murder.
Four years later, tears come to Briggs' eyes as she remembers what it was like to have her child die in her arms, and then be accused of killing him.
"It is hard, very hard, there are so many nights, I lay in bed and cry," Briggs, now 23, said from the women's prison at Gatesville, Texas. "It is something that will never leave me."
He Told Me to Take the Plea
When Briggs was charged with murder, her family went into debt to pay her attorney's fee, $10,000. Briggs' mother, Shelbia Goss, says she has always known her daughter was innocent. But money was a problem.
"We had no more money, we was losing everything we actually had, we didn't have anything left, all our money was going to fighting for her innocence, and so here she is, in prison, because we don't have any money," Goss said.
Instead of questioning the medical evidence and fighting the case, the attorney told Briggs she should plead guilty to a reduced charge and spend some time on probation.
Continued
1 | 2 | 3 | Next http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/US/imprisoned_mother_040720-1.html
July 20, 2004 Brandy Briggs sits in a Texas prison, serving a 17-year sentence for shaking her 2-month-old son so severely that he later died. But now, a medical examiner says the baby was never shaken at all.
Briggs, from a small town outside Houston, was just 17 years old when her son, Daniel Lemmons, was born. During his short life, Daniel was in and out of hospitals, suffering from kidney problems and urinary tract infections.
On May 2, 1999, Briggs called 911, saying she had gotten up to feed her baby and found him barely breathing in his crib. Daniel was taken to the emergency room at one hospital, where the medical staff made a horrible mistake. They put a breathing tube in his stomach, not his lungs, and pumped air into his stomach for 42 minutes.
Daniel was transferred to another hospital, where the breathing tube mistake was corrected, and he was put on life support. He died in his mother's arms on May 9, 1999 Mother's Day.
Briggs' nightmare only got worse. A Harris County assistant medical examiner ruled Daniel had died from "shaken baby syndrome," and his young mother was charged with murder.
Four years later, tears come to Briggs' eyes as she remembers what it was like to have her child die in her arms, and then be accused of killing him.
"It is hard, very hard, there are so many nights, I lay in bed and cry," Briggs, now 23, said from the women's prison at Gatesville, Texas. "It is something that will never leave me."
He Told Me to Take the Plea
When Briggs was charged with murder, her family went into debt to pay her attorney's fee, $10,000. Briggs' mother, Shelbia Goss, says she has always known her daughter was innocent. But money was a problem.
"We had no more money, we was losing everything we actually had, we didn't have anything left, all our money was going to fighting for her innocence, and so here she is, in prison, because we don't have any money," Goss said.
Instead of questioning the medical evidence and fighting the case, the attorney told Briggs she should plead guilty to a reduced charge and spend some time on probation.
Continued
1 | 2 | 3 | Next http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/US/imprisoned_mother_040720-1.html