Court Grants New Trial to Convicted Killer
(AP) - KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-An appeals court has ordered a new trial for a woman convicted of killing her 4-month-old son by giving him a pacifier coated with the powerful narcotic OxyContin.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals said Friday that the trial judge improperly allowed testimony about three days of partying and drug use by Debra Elaine Kirk and her estranged husband before the 2002 death of her baby, Lacie.
"To say that (Kirk's) lifestyle was `unwholesome' or her parenting skills questionable would be excessively charitable," Appeals Judge Thomas Woodall wrote. "However, a jury cannot be allowed to convict a defendant for bad character."
Authorities said Kirk, 24, put the wet pacifier in some crushed OxyContin and stuck it in the baby's mouth to make him go back to sleep.
She was convicted of aggravated child abuse and criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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