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

Features

March 5, 2013

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

Charles Wilson Associated Press Tue Mar 05, 2013, 03:00 PM CST

Indianapolis — Lawyers for a Chinese immigrant whose premature baby died after she tried to kill herself by eating rat poison are asking an Indianapolis judge to bar autopsy photographs from her murder trial, saying the pictures are overly gory and likely to prejudice jurors.

Bei Bei Shuai’s attorneys said in documents filed Friday in Marion County Court that a medical examiner from Delaware who reviewed the photographs called them “appallingly unprofessional.”

“Photos of dead infants are by nature inflammatory and prejudicial,” defense attorneys wrote in one of several motions filed.

A spokeswoman for Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry had no comment Saturday.

Shuai was hospitalized after she attempted suicide by eating rat poison on Dec. 23, 2010, when she was eight months pregnant. Doctors delivered her daughter, Angel Shuai, on Dec. 31 and the infant died three days later.

Prosecutors arrested Bei Bei Shuai on charges of murder and feticide in March 2011, saying a note she left to her former boyfriend proved that Shuai intended to kill her baby when she ate the rat poison.

But Judge Sheila Carlisle ruled in January that the doctor who determined the poison caused the baby’s death hadn’t considered other possible causes, including a drug administered to Shuai while she was in the hospital. That effectively deprived prosecutors of the cause of death on which their case rested.

Prosecutors said earlier this week they wouldn’t appeal Carlisle’s ruling, and their next step was unclear.

Shuai’s lawyers said in their motion to bar the autopsy photographs that the pictures didn’t prove anything because they didn’t show any evidence of effects from the poison. Instead, they unnecessarily depicted the infant’s body in various “gruesome” stages of dissection, the documents said.

Delaware Chief State Medical Examiner Richard Callery advised Shuai’s attorneys that some of the photographs were unprofessional and inflammatory, the documents said.

Shuai’s lawyers also renewed their call for the judge to dismiss the murder charges, saying that she had only intended to commit suicide, which is not illegal in Indiana. They also said that the fetal murder law under which Shuai was charged was intended to protect pregnant women from attack, not to protect fetuses from their mothers.

The case in Indiana has drawn international attention from medical groups and reproductive rights advocates who claim it could set a precedent by which pregnant women could be prosecuted for smoking or other behavior that authorities deem dangerous to an unborn child. Dozens of organizations have filed friend-of-the-court briefs on behalf of Shuai.

Shuai was released on bond last May. Her trial is currently set for April 22.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Features

Is it really possible to not know you're pregnant until the birth?
Trish Staine had just finished running 10 miles while training for a half-marathon when she started going into labor. The mother of three said she hadn't gained any weight or felt any fetal movement in the months before and had no idea she was pregnant. Is it possible for a woman not to know she's pregnant before she starts giving birth?

June 18, 2013 1 Photo
Mass. madam's arrest could prove embarrassing
Young women who worked for accused madam Lori Barron told police they performed sex acts on hundreds of area men, including a police officer, firefighters, a city councilor, teachers, lawyers and court workers, according to police reports filed Tuesday.

June 18, 2013 1 Photo
Consumers' desire for local, organic food drives online grocery business
Just a few years ago, consumers who were fervent about eating locally-grown and organic foods had to head out to the nearest Whole Foods or farmers market. Now all it takes is a few swipes of the mouse at an online grocer like Door to Door Organics, Relay Foods or AmazonFresh.

June 18, 2013 1 Photo
Purchases by dementia sufferers put stores in quandary
An increasing number of lawsuits have been filed across Japan against department stores that allowed unusual purchases to be made by elderly people with dementia.

June 17, 2013 1 Photo
VIDEO: National anthem singer gets hit with racial tweets
After 11-year-old Sebastian De La Cruz sang the national anthem at game three of the NBA finals, rascist tweets poured in. Some tweets questioned De La Cruz's right to be in the country, to which he said: "People don't know, they just assume that I'm just Mexican, but I'm not from Mexico, I'm from San Antonio, born and raised."

June 17, 2013 1 Photo
VIDEO: You won't believe how much Google interns are paid
Many interns work for free. Not at Google.

June 17, 2013 1 Photo
VIDEO: NASA Releases incredible images of tornadoes on the sun
Space weather can have a surprising impact here on Earth.

June 16, 2013 1 Photo
Police arrest man accused of dining and then dashing
A man who has sampled many of Gloucester’s better restaurants without paying was arrested in a final fiasco at Azorean last weekend.

June 16, 2013 1 Photo
22 maps outline America's linguistic differences Not everyone in the continental U.S. agrees on how to pronounce "caramel," or whether to use "soda, pop or coke." A series of maps created by Joshua Katz, a Ph.D student at NC State University illustrate these differences.
June 13, 2013
When did sunscreen get so complicated?
Summer is almost here, which means it's time for picnics, pool parties, and every parent's favorite pastime: chasing after your kid with the sunscreen bottle. But what's arguably more arduous than slathering lotion onto a screaming 3-year-old is choosing the right sunscreen.

June 12, 2013 1 Photo
More Features Headlines

Features

Search Results

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

Site Map

Contact Us