Judge denies woman’s challenge to conviction in son’s death | Live Well
WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago female who pleaded responsible in her 5-calendar year-outdated son’s beating dying cannot obstacle her conviction and 35-yr sentence, a decide ruled Wednesday
JoAnn Cunningham, 39, of Crystal Lake, claimed in her March petition for put up-conviction aid that she suffered from postpartum melancholy and psychosis when she killed her son. Cunningham claimed she was “seeing demons and hearing voices” at the time of her son AJ’s dying.
Authorities say Cunningham killed AJ on April 15, 2019, right after she became indignant about soiled underwear that he experienced tried to cover. She pressured the boy to stand in a cold shower for at minimum 20 minutes, strike him in the head with the shower head, then place him to mattress cold, soaked and bare, in accordance to authorities.
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AJ’s human body was located wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave in close proximity to the family’s household in Crystal Lake.
McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt presided around her negotiated plea on Dec. 5, 2019, and sentencing on July 16, 2020. Andrew Freund, AJ’s father, also pleaded responsible in his loss of life and is serving a 30-12 months prison sentence.
Wilbrandt wrote in his ruling that Cunningham’s arguments in her petition “do not offer the ‘gist’ of a meritorious assert of sizeable deprivation of a federal or state constitutional proper and that they are patently without the need of merit.”
Cunningham argued that no witnesses had been known as to testify on her behalf she was not authorized to testify herself, nor did she offer a confession she was not read her Miranda legal rights and she was “illiterate” as to her constitutional rights, The Northwest Herald reported.
Wilbrandt wrote in his ruling, that witnesses had been called on her behalf and protection attorneys offered “wide-ranging evidence” of her heritage of drug abuse and substance abuse remedy. She also delivered a prolonged statement addressing her “long-standing record of both equally approved and illegal drug use,” the choose wrote.
Wilbrandt also dismissed as “without merit” Cunningham’s declare that her 35-12 months jail sentence is “cruel and strange punishment.”
Cunningham filed the handwritten petition from jail without the need of the assist of an attorney.
For copyright facts, check out with the distributor of this item, The Northwest Herald.