Edwards v. Texas (original by judge slaughter)
Annotate this CaseBaby L.B. was born in 2017 to her mother, Appellant Danielle Edwards, and her father, Morris Branton. At some point, Child Protective Services (“CPS”) opened an investigation into Appellant for suspected child abuse. During the course of the investigation, in June 2018, Appellant tested positive for cocaine and admitted to CPS that she had used cocaine several times in the past two weeks. In response, CPS removed L.B. from Appellant’s care and requested that a hair-follicle test be conducted on L.B. to evaluate whether she had been exposed to cocaine. The hair-follicle test revealed that L.B. had a significant amount of cocaine and cocaine metabolites in her system, with results exceeding 20,000 picograms per milligram, the maximum reportable amount. Appellant was subsequently indicted for injury to a child for recklessly causing L.B. a “serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury” by “allowing [L.B.] access to cocaine and the infant was able to ingest the cocaine[.]” The issue presented for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' review was whether the mother, who repeatedly used cocaine while breastfeeding her baby, could be found guilty of reckless injury to a child for causing serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury when the baby becomes addicted to cocaine and suffers withdrawals. The Court found that the burden was on the State to provide the jury with sufficient evidence to prove that the cocaine, addiction, and/or withdrawal actually caused the baby serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury. Because the State in this case failed to provide such evidence, we reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and remand the cause to that court for further proceedings.
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