Infant died after mother had beers and shared the same bed, court says not a crime

Maryland: In 2013, a Maryland woman was charged and convicted by a jury in the co-sleeping death of her infant. The woman went to sleep with her baby after wrapping up a virtual happy hour on Facebook and a couple of beers. Next morning, she woke up to find her daughter listless and with blue lips.

However, Maryland’s highest court this week threw out her 2013 conviction and 20-year sentence. The court was not ready to criminalize co-sleeping with an infant. The all-female majority ruled that there was not enough evidence to find that the mother was negligent.

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Each year in the United States, there are about 3,500 sleep-related deaths of babies that include sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), accidental suffocation and deaths from other causes as per the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.