Brooke Shoemaker’s bid for another chance in court advanced after an Alabama judge ordered a new trial in a case that has drawn national attention for how prosecutors have tied pregnancy loss to alleged drug use.
Lee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Tickal vacated Shoemaker’s 2020 conviction for chemical endangerment of a child resulting in death, according to the Dec. 22 ruling summarized in a reporting account released on Dec. 30. Tickal said Shoemaker’s attorneys presented what he described as credible new evidence that an infection caused the stillbirth, and he wrote that the case likely would have ended differently if jurors had heard that evidence.
In the judge’s ruling ordering a new trial, Tickal said, “Should the facts had been known, and brought before the jury, the results probably would have been different,” according to the account of the decision. The ruling followed Shoemaker’s stillbirth in 2017 at about 24 to 26 weeks of pregnancy, when she reported to medical staff that she used methamphetamine during pregnancy.
The reporting also described how the state medical examiner found methamphetamine present in the fetus’ bloodstream but listed the cause of death as undetermined. Shoemaker’s attorneys argued in court that prosecutors had not shown that drug use caused the pregnancy loss, and they submitted an expert opinion based on a review of pathology slides that pointed to a genetic abnormality and a severe infection as causes of the demise.
Shoemaker received an 18-year sentence after the 2020 conviction, and the case is part of broader scrutiny of pregnancy-related prosecutions in Alabama. Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organization that has assisted her appeal, said Shoemaker was among dozens of women prosecuted after pregnancy loss and among hundreds prosecuted for pregnancy-related conduct.
Karen Thompson, Pregnancy Justice’s legal director, welcomed the ruling and said there was “never a factual basis for the charges against Shoemaker,” describing the decision as an acceptance of science. Thompson also said one of the problems in these cases across the country is the lack of an effort to prove harm in court.
Shoemaker, speaking through Pregnancy Justice, said in a statement that she was hopeful she would be home with her children and parents next year. She said, “I’m hopeful that my new trial will end with me being freed, because I simply lost my pregnancy at home because of an infection. I loved and wanted my baby, and I never deserved this.”
Prosecutors said the case will continue. The Lee County district attorney’s office said it was appealing the decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and that Shoemaker will remain incarcerated during the appeal process, according to the reporting.
In its discussion of the legal backdrop, the reporting noted that Alabama’s chemical endangerment law was approved by lawmakers to address harm to children from meth labs but has been used to prosecute pregnant women. The Alabama Supreme Court upheld that interpretation in 2013, writing that the word “child” in the law includes an “unborn child.”