A Texas mom who has already spent seven years in prison for the murder of her four-year-old adopted son, and was released shortly before Christmas, will not face new murder charges.
Hannah Overton, 37, wiped back tears as she, along with her husband Larry and five children, celebrated news that after having her conviction overturned for poisoning her son, Andrew Burd, with an overdose of salt, prosecutors have dropped all charges against her and will no longer be looking into her case.
Throughout her incarceration, her family stood by her and protested her innocence, but Nueces County district attorney Mark Skurka had said shortly after she was released that he would push again for capital murder charges.
He could do this as her conviction was overturned because of ineffective counsel, meaning this would not be a case of double jeopardy.
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Hannah Overton (above wiping away tears with her daughter and son) will not be tried on murder charges again in the death of her adopted son
Overton's five children and husband Larry (above) were there to celebrate the news
In a news release however, Skura said that he would not be trying the case again due to 'a myriad of factors which came about after a careful review of the previous trial, re-interviewing some of the key witnesses, consulting with some of the medical experts involved in the case, reviewing evidence adduced at recent hearings and staffing the case with the current prosecutors assigned to the case.'
A judge then granted Skura's motion to dismiss.
'Wow, we don't even know where to begin,' Overton said after hearing this news.
'We are so excited about all God has done in and through all of this. He has carried us through.'
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ShareAn appellate court's majority opinion to overturn Overton's conviction last year wrote that her trial was 'problematic from the beginning,' according to ABC News.
Original prosecutor Sandra Eastwood was terminated for reasons unrelated to the original case years after Overton was convicted, and Overton has accused her of unprofessional conduct several times since.
On a fateful day in October 2006, Burd, whose biological teenage mother was a Meth addict, started acting up and then vomited, telling Overton that he didn't feel well.
When he said he felt cold, he took a warm bath but as his symptoms worsened, the Overtons took him to the Corpus Christi hospital for treatment. He died a day later from salt poisoning.
A week after his death, murder charges were brought against the mother. The lead prosecutor in the case, Eastwood, portrayed Overton as a frazzled care giver that had force fed Andrew cajun seasoning as a form of punishment, which caused the sodium poisoning.
But during the trial, the defense said the boy's death was accidental and was likely due to a medical condition, pica, that can cause a person to crave non-edible salty items like clay, sand or dirt.
The mother has been behind bars for seven years, separated from her husband and five children who are being cared for by their father and home schooled by a supportive church community that still believes in Overton's innocence.
Late last year her conviction was overturned because of ineffective counsel, but Nueces County district attorney Mark Skurka was set to try her again
Overturned: In September, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Overton's capital murder conviction in the 2006 salt poisoning death of her 4-year-old foster son, citing ineffective counsel at her 2007 trial for the death of Andrew Burd (right)
New details have emerged that allege the prosecutor in the case withheld evidence, like providing details on the boy's stomach content at the time of his death.
The defense said that the prosecution claimed that samples from the boy's vomit were unavailable but Overton's lawyers claimed Eastwood withheld evidence so the sample could not be tested.
The pediatrician that had treated Andrew before he was placed in Overton's care has also said that the child's medical state was not properly explained at the trial.
Dr Edgar Cortes said the boy had development issues that contributed to his eating disorder.
'I think that if we're going to be fair, if we're going to be just, we have to take all of the circumstances into consideration,' he testified at a February hearing, part of Overton's appeal.
Teachers and friends who knew the boy have agreed that he had unusual eating habits and even tried to eat trash on one occasion.
Andrew died a day after the Overtons took him to the hospital. Prosecutors claimed he died after Overton punished him by making him swallow spicy seasoning. Her defense was that Andrew had very odd eating habits or even an eating disorder called pica
The boy's Sunday School teacher had actually tried to persuade the Overtons not to take Andrew into their care because of his development issues, saying that the parents should think of the welfare of their other children.
But the Overtons have said that even knowing what they do now, they would still have welcomed Andrew into their hearts and their home.
'He had brothers and sisters and a mommy and daddy, what he called his forever family, because we had to go through a lot of pain since then,' Hannah Overton told 20/20 in 2008.
Eastwood's professional abilities have also been called into question. After the trial she was fired by the district attorney's office in Nueces County in 2010.
In 2011, she admitted she struggled with alcohol dependency issues and was also taking diet pills during her tenure as a prosecutor, though she has denied those issues tainted her ability during the Overton trial.
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