Was Mom Wrongly Convicted of Killing Baby?

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."He said there was no way we could win because he didn't have the money for the medical people he needed to testify for me," Briggs said. "He told me to take the plea that would be the only chance, that there wasn't no way the judge would give me prison time."

In October 2000, Briggs pleaded guilty to second-degree felony charges of injury to a child. Two months later, a judge sentenced her to 17 years behind bars.

New Medical Opinions

Briggs' family was in despair. The restaurant they ran was in dire straits. Then, a cook at the eatery put Goss in touch with attorney Charles Portz.

Portz had medical examiners in three other states look at Daniel's autopsy, and all three came back with the same finding: Daniel died of natural causes.

The medical examiner who performed the original autopsy has said she stands by her findings. But in December 2003, the Harris County chief medical examiner, Dr. Luis Sanchez, amended the autopsy report, listing the cause of Daniel's death as "undetermined."

Sanchez testified in a hearing Friday that "there was no clear evidence" Daniel was shaken or suffered any other trauma. He also said that Daniel received very little oxygen to the brain for a considerable period of time because the breathing tube was in the wrong place.

The matter is now in the hands of a Harris County district judge, who can decide ifBriggs' conviction should be immediately overturned, or if the matter should besent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Briggs hopes the judge will rule in her favor and that she will soon be back home with her family. She says she wants to be vindicated, but she isn't looking for an apology.

"For a part of me, it doesn't matter, as long as God knows and I have my family," she said.

There is an especially pressing reason for her to get home: Briggs has another son, Joseph, who she had to give up when she went to prison.Now 4 years old, Joseph lives with his godparents. It has been almost four years since his mother has been allowed to hold him.

Every day Briggs sits in prison is a day too long, says Portz.

"I would like to see her released so she can be reunited with her other child and get on with her life," he said. "She has been punished by being sent to prison for doing absolutely nothing wrong."