A Texas mother who was jailed for life without possibility of parole for the 2006 death of a foster child has been released after her conviction was overturned.
Hannah Overton's case drew attention nationwide because of allegations the child died of salt poisoning after being fed Zatarain's Cajun Seasoning.
Authorities say they will put her through another trial, but she was freed this week on $50,000 bond.
WND has reported on a number of developments in the case, including when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided an application for a new hearing was required.
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"Applicant has alleged facts that, if true, might entitle her to relief," the higher court concluded. "The trial court is the appropriate forum for findings of fact."
When the trial court refused to intervene, again, the appellate judges again stepped in, ruling just weeks ago that Overton's attorneys had failed to provide effective assistance to her during her trial, meaning her conviction must be thrown out.
The judges cited the failure to call Dr. Michael Moritz to testify for the defense.
Moritz, a leading expert on "sodium intoxication," was hired by the defense team and gave a deposition, "but that deposition was never entered into evidence at applicant's trial and he did not otherwise testify."
"Mortiz's deposition was about two hours in length and contained much testimony that was favorable to the defense," the court found. After a summary of his work and research, "he then went on to describe, in detail, emotional deprivation syndrome, which is often associated with extreme eating habits and explained how many of its features were present in A.B. [the child who died]."
The doctor "refuted much of what [a physician for the prosecution] testified to, such as the amount of Zatarain's A.B. would have had to ingest for his sodium to be at the level it was, and determined that [the prosecution witness] did not evaluate the cause of A.B.'s hypernatremia at all, a significant oversight."
"He described the difficulty applicant would have had in forcing that amount of salt or Zatarain's into A.B., who would have fought back, spit it out, or vomited, but asserted that if A.B. had a psychological problem, such as emotional deprivation syndrome, he could have consumed it voluntarily."
The doctor "concluded that applicant did not poison the child and that A.B. consuming something himself was the most likely cause of his sodium intoxication."
"It is clear from the habeas hearing and deposition itself that Dr. Mortiz's testimony would have directly supported applicant's defense and refuted much of the state's evidence," the judges wrote. "We believe that Dr. Mortiz's credibility combined with his testimony would have had a strong impact on the jury and sufficiently undermines the outcome of the trial."
According to the Houston Chronicle, as a result, District Judge Mario Ramirez this week set Overton's bail at $50,000, and she was released. Ramirez took over the case, the report said, after Judge Jose Longoria was removed for lack of impartiality.
Overton already has served more than seven years of a life sentence for the original capital murder conviction for the death of Andrew Burd in 2006.
Overton was with her husband, Larry, and her five children after her release.
"It was kind of surreal when she got off the elevator and then held her children for the first time in seven years. It's a long-coming answer to prayer," Anita Miotti, 47, told the newspaper.
Miotti is a member of Calvary Chapel Coastlands church, where the Overtons attend.
"I'm overwhelmed. I'm just filled with joy and happiness, and I credit it all to God," Miotti said.
Overton always has maintained she is innocent.
And while Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka told the newspaper he plans a new trial for Overton, no details have been announced.
WND reported earlier when Texas Monthly Executive Editor Pamela Colloff did an extensive examination of the case and wrote about her findings.
Overton was convicted in the death of Burd, a 4-year-old foster child she and her husband were adopting. He reportedly died of salt poisoning, and "prosecutors painted a macabre portrait" of the woman, arguing "she snapped under the demands of parenting and forced Andrew to eat 23 teaspoons of salt."
But Colloff reported: "Prosecutors had never been able to explain, for example, how Hannah – who was six months pregnant and recovering from whiplash at the time of Andrew's death – had managed to overpower him and force him to eat a large quantity of salt. … And they were never able to establish a plausible motive."
The attorney now working on her case is Cynthia Orr of San Antonio, who has worked with the Innocence Project, which advocates on behalf of those apparently wrongly convicted.
The case originally attracted publicity because of prosecutors' claims that Burd died because he had ingested too much Zatarain's Cajun Seasoning.
The evidence revealed the Overton family had been dealing with several behavioral issues and an eating disorder that involved consuming strange objects, a condition attributed to the alcohol, crack cocaine and methamphetamine use of his birth mother before the boy was born.
The background of the case is profiled on the FreeHannah.com website, which has been set up by Overton's supporters to provide information about the case and lobby on her behalf.