CONVICTED KILLER LOSES FINAL APPEAL IN CHILD KILLING CASE

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a final appeal from a Mathews woman sentenced to life in prison for the 2007 stabbing deaths of her two young children.

Amy Hebert’s attorneys had sought to have the high court overturn a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejection of arguments that her trial counsel was ineffective and that any reasonable person sitting on a jury could see that she was mentally ill.

Charged with First Degree Murder, Hebert mounted an insanity defense against then-District Attorney Cam Morvant’s attempt to have her sentenced to death.

The jury could not reach a decision on the death penalty, causing District Judge Jerome Barbera to impose two consecutive life terms.

The Fifth Circuit – the federal government’s appeals court – found against Hebert when she sought a writ of Habeas Corpus in 2017. Her appeal followed a refusal from the Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeal and subsequently the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Hebert had said that a voice she believed to be Satan ordered her to kill 9-year-old Camille and 7-year-old Braxton. She also killed the family’s dog and stabbed and injured herself. Evidence introduced by prosecutors included a letter to her husband and to his mother that they suggested showed jealousy as a motive.

Residents of local communities reeled from news of the case, horrified by the children’s deaths. Her trial was the first in the Bayou Region whose coverage was enhanced by a reporter’s use of Twitter to distribute up-to-the-minute developments.

After convicting Hebert of First-Degree Murder the jury began hearing the penalty phase of the trial, weighing whether she should be condemned or serve life in prison.

The defense called four experts: Dr. Alexandra Phillips, Dr. David Self, Dr. Glenn Ahava, and Dr. Phillip Resnick. Dr. Phillips prescribed anti-psychotic medication for Hebert after concluding that she was “completely psychotic” when she claimed that she saw and heard Satan in the hospital room. Dr. Resnick opined that Hebert was psychotic when she killed her children because she was having auditory hallucinations in which she heard the voice of Satan commanding her to kill the children and then commit suicide to keep the family together. The voice, according to Hebert, then instructed her to write the notes left at the scene of the crime. Dr. Ahava, an expert in forensic psychology, testified that Hebert was psychotic and likely could not distinguish right from wrong on the day of the offense based on her history of mental health problems and the excessive number of stabs wounds on the children. Dr. Self, an expert in forensic psychiatry, diagnosed Hebert as suffering from major depression with recurrent and severe psychosis. He further concluded that Hebert must have been psychotic because “only the most psychotic people attack their own eyes.”

In response, the State called two rebuttal experts: Dr. Rafael Salcedo and Dr. George Seiden. Dr. Salcedo, an expert in clinical and forensic psychology, conceded at trial that Hebert suffered from a psychotic disorder but concluded that Hebert was still able to distinguish right from wrong. In reaching this conclusion, Dr. Salcedo relied on Hebert’s notes, which he opined revealed the logical mental process of someone seeking revenge through a retribution killing. Dr. Seiden, an expert in general and forensic psychiatry, opined that Hebert was capable of telling right from wrong because there was no evidence that Hebert exhibited psychosis before killing her children. He also relied on the notes as evidence of Hebert’s mental state, and he opined that the line “Sorry Daddy, Celeste & Renee” showed Hebert understood the wrongfulness of her actions.

After her conviction Hebert appealed unsuccessfully in the state courts. After exhausting all other avenues of relief, Hebert filed a habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, which found against her. The appeal then moved into the Fifth Circuit.

A new round of appeals drew like responses, right up to last month’s Supreme Court rejection.

CONVICTED KILLER LOSES FINAL APPEAL IN CHILD KILLING CASE