USA - Texas. Former death row inmate Cathy Henderson sentenced to 25 years in retrial

Former death row inmate Cathy Henderson, 58, White, today pleaded guilty to murder in the death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, months before her case was to go to trial a 2nd time. Henderson had been sentenced to death on May 25, 1995 after having been convicted of killing Baugh, while babysitting at the boy's home on Jan. 21, 1994. On Dec. 5, 2012 (see), the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a new trial to Henderson because scientific evidence that came to light after the trial and recent developments in the study of biomechanics suggested that the baby could have died from head injuries suffered in a accidental fall rather than from a deliberate blow. In 2007, Henderson was only two days away from her scheduled execution when the Court of Criminal Appeals granted her a reprieve and ordered the lower court to hear arguments in her appeal. Henderson has always maintained the death was an accident. She said she panicked, packed Brandon's body in a wine cooler box and buried him in a shallow grave 60 miles away. Henderson then left Texas before being apprehended in Missouri under an assumed name. On Sept. 9, 2013 (see) Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said she would have not sought the death penalty again when Henderson would have been retried for capital murder. Rather, Henderson would have faced a sentence of life in prison, Lehmberg said.