Mother rejects plea deal on baby's death
July 15, 2012, Sunday
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A CHINESE immigrant who prosecutors say ate rat poison when eight months pregnant rejected a plea agreement Friday that would have negated a murder charge in her newborn baby's death.
Bei Bei Shuai, 35, turned down prosecutors' offer to drop a murder charge if she pleads guilty to a lesser charge of attempted feticide during a court hearing in Indianapolis, her lawyer and prosecutors said. If Shuai had accepted the deal, she could have faced six to 20 years in prison or received a suspended sentence.
The Shanghai native who was freed on bond in May after more than a year in jail, has until August 31 to change her mind.
Defense attorney Linda Pence said Shuai wants to clear her name and avoid the stigma of guilt. "She intends to fight these charges vigorously," Pence said. "She doesn't want any other woman to go through what she has gone through."
Medical and women's rights groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Shuai. Some briefs claim that a conviction could set a precedent by which pregnant women could be prosecuted for smoking or other behavior that authorities deemed a danger to their unborn child.
Shuai was eight months pregnant on December 23, 2010, when she ate rat poison after her boyfriend broke up with her. Shuai was hospitalized and doctors detected little wrong with the unborn child's health for the first few days. The premature girl, Angel Shuai, was delivered by cesarean section December 31, but died from bleeding in the brain three days later.
Prosecutors charged Shuai with murder in March 2011, arguing that a suicide note she wrote showed that she intended for her baby to die with her. Pence disputes that claim.
"She never intended to kill her baby. She intended to kill herself, and would care for her baby in the afterlife. She wishes she would have died instead," Pence said.
For months, Shuai's attorneys tried to persuade Judge Sheila Carlisle to dismiss charges, but she refused. Higher courts also declined to dismiss the charges.
Defense lawyers also asked Carlisle to bar from evidence medical records related to Shuai's hospital treatment, which they said was given to police by a pathologist who did not have Shuai's consent. Carlisle did not rule on the defense motion Friday.
Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said Friday that his office had asked the judge to admonish Pence for making allegedly unethical statements in an effort to raise funds for Shuai's defense.
Pence denied she had violated the legal code of conduct.
Bei Bei Shuai, 35, turned down prosecutors' offer to drop a murder charge if she pleads guilty to a lesser charge of attempted feticide during a court hearing in Indianapolis, her lawyer and prosecutors said. If Shuai had accepted the deal, she could have faced six to 20 years in prison or received a suspended sentence.
The Shanghai native who was freed on bond in May after more than a year in jail, has until August 31 to change her mind.
Defense attorney Linda Pence said Shuai wants to clear her name and avoid the stigma of guilt. "She intends to fight these charges vigorously," Pence said. "She doesn't want any other woman to go through what she has gone through."
Medical and women's rights groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Shuai. Some briefs claim that a conviction could set a precedent by which pregnant women could be prosecuted for smoking or other behavior that authorities deemed a danger to their unborn child.
Shuai was eight months pregnant on December 23, 2010, when she ate rat poison after her boyfriend broke up with her. Shuai was hospitalized and doctors detected little wrong with the unborn child's health for the first few days. The premature girl, Angel Shuai, was delivered by cesarean section December 31, but died from bleeding in the brain three days later.
Prosecutors charged Shuai with murder in March 2011, arguing that a suicide note she wrote showed that she intended for her baby to die with her. Pence disputes that claim.
"She never intended to kill her baby. She intended to kill herself, and would care for her baby in the afterlife. She wishes she would have died instead," Pence said.
For months, Shuai's attorneys tried to persuade Judge Sheila Carlisle to dismiss charges, but she refused. Higher courts also declined to dismiss the charges.
Defense lawyers also asked Carlisle to bar from evidence medical records related to Shuai's hospital treatment, which they said was given to police by a pathologist who did not have Shuai's consent. Carlisle did not rule on the defense motion Friday.
Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said Friday that his office had asked the judge to admonish Pence for making allegedly unethical statements in an effort to raise funds for Shuai's defense.
Pence denied she had violated the legal code of conduct.
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