Posts tagged "Bei Bei Shuai"

Mom’s lawyers want to bar baby’s autopsy photos

Lawyers for a Chinese immigrant whose premature baby died after the pregnant woman tried to kill herself by eating rat poison are asking an Indianapolis judge to bar the infant’s autopsy photographs from her murder trial.

Bei Bei Shuai’s (bay bay shway) attorneys said in documents filed Friday that the photos are overly gory and inflammatory.

They say a medical examiner from Delaware who reviewed the photographs called them “appallingly unprofessional.”

Shuai’s lawyers also renewed their call for the judge to dismiss murder charges against her. That motion comes a few weeks after Judge Sheila Carlisle barred key testimony from Shuai’s trial.

Prosecutors said this week they wouldn’t appeal that ruling.

Shuai attempted suicide by eating rat poison in December 2010, when she was eight months pregnant.

Woman who ate poison while pregnant rejects plea deal to avoid murder charge in baby’s death

A Chinese immigrant who Indiana prosecutors say ate rat poison when she was eight months pregnant rejected a plea agreement Friday that would have negated a murder charge in her newborn baby’s death.

Bei Bei Shuai 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 even received a suspended sentence.

The 35-year-old Shanghai native, who was freed on bond in May after more than a year in jail, has until Aug. 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.”

Several medical and women’s rights groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Shuai. Some briefs claim that a conviction in the case 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. A lawyer with the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women is assisting in Shuai’s defense.

Shuai was eight months pregnant on Dec. 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 Dec. 31, but died from bleeding in the brain three days later after being removed from life support.

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 she 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 the charges, but Carlisle refused. Higher courts also declined to dismiss the charges, but did order Carlisle to set bond — a rarity in Indiana murder cases.

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, but gave both sides 30 days in which to file legal briefs.

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.

In court documents filed Thursday, Pence denied that she had violated the legal code of conduct and claimed that her statements were within the boundaries of free speech.

Curry also said his office had issued a subpoena to The Guardian newspaper in England seeking a video recording of its interview with Shuai. Curry said the newspaper was “resisting” the subpoena.

A spokeswoman for The Guardian did not return a request for comment Friday night.

____

Associated Press writer Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.

Ind. woman whose fetus died after rat poison suicide try freed from jail pending murder trial

A Chinese immigrant who tried to kill herself by eating rat poison was free on bond Tuesday after more than a year in an Indianapolis jail on charges that she killed her 33-week-old fetus.

Bei Bei Shuai lugging a plastic bag full of her belongings and leaned on her attorney as she walked up a ramp toward reporters and friends waiting on the sidewalk outside the jail.

“I feel very happy,” the 35-year-old Shanghai native said moments before she broke into tears and hugged her friends.

Defense attorney Linda Pence said one of Shuai’s first moves would be to call her mother in China. Work on preparing for Shuai’s Dec. 3 trial, she said, could wait a day.

“Today is a day of celebration,” Pence said.

Shuai was 33 weeks pregnant when she ate rat poison on Dec. 23, 2010, after her boyfriend broke up with her. Shuai was hospitalized and doctors detected little wrong with the fetus’ health for the first few days. The premature girl, Angel Shuai, was delivered by cesarean section Dec. 31, but she died from bleeding in the brain three days later after being removed from life support.

Prosecutors charged Shuai with murder in March 2011, arguing that a suicide note she wrote showed she intended to kill her baby as well as herself.

Shuai’s attorneys sought to have the charges against her dismissed or have her released on bond, but Carlisle rejected those motions. The Indiana Court of Appeals declined to order the charges dropped, but did order Carlisle to set bail for Shuai, saying the defense had enough evidence to rebut the charges against her but that the case against her wasn’t strong enough to keep her in jail.

Marion Superior Court Judge Sheila Carlisle set a $50,000 bond for Shuai on Friday and ordered her to surrender her passport and submit to GPS tracking after her release. She also was told not to leave the state without the court’s permission.

Shuai’s friends told Carlisle that Shuai could live with them and work in their restaurant until her trial.

Defense attorneys said the law under which Shuai was charged was intended to be used to protect pregnant women, not to be used against them. They argued that prosecuting a woman based on the outcome of her pregnancy violates her constitutional rights to due process, equal treatment and privacy.

Several medical and women’s rights groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Shuai, some saying that a conviction in this case could set a precedent by which pregnant women can be prosecuted for smoking or other behavior deemed a danger to the fetus.

Shuai’s trial is set to begin Dec. 3.

___

Follow Charles Wilson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharlesDWilson