Tennessee seeks return to prison for Lindsey Lowe, attorneys say 'justice dictates' new trial
She was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of her newborn children in 2013 but released nine years later. Now Lindsey Lowe is facing a new attempt by prosecutors to put her behind bars.
Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay in October 2022 overturned Lowe's conviction and ordered that she get a new trial after finding that a biased juror violated her right to a fair trial.
The Tennessee Attorney General's Office appealed that decision the same month it was issued. Lowe's lawyers submitted a brief of their argument to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday, asking that the court uphold the Sumner County judge's decision to grant Lowe a new trial.
In 2013, a Sumner County jury found Lowe guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her newborn twins in 2011, whom prosecutors said her parents found dead in a laundry basket at her home. According to prosecutors, Lowe birthed the children into a toilet at her parents' home before smothering them to death.
As lawyers were selecting the members of the jury for the trial, one potential juror wrote down on a questionnaire that she believed Lowe "lied and killed her two newborns." However, when asked by an attorney whether she held a presumption of guilt or innocence toward Lowe, she said she didn't. Lowe's father, who testified at his daughter's post-conviction hearing in October 2022, said he saw the juror "fist pump" when she learned she was selected to serve on the jury, Lowe's brief filed Thursday states.
After being denied relief in several other courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, Lowe's lawyers filed her petition for post-conviction relief with the Sumner County court on Sept. 5, 2019, which was 35 days after a crucial one-year deadline triggered by the Tennessee Supreme Court's decision to deny another of her petitions.
Gay, the Sumner County judge, decided to hear the case despite the missed deadline after he found that Lowe had been misled by at least four of her attorneys about when her petition needed to be filed.
In its briefing, the state argues that the missed deadline alone was enough reason not to hear Lowe's case. It argues that even if the missed deadline is overlooked, the juror's responses on the questionnaire and hand gestures are "not enough to establish actual bias."
Lowe's attorney Tyler Yarbro argued that Lowe's lawyer at trial, by failing to remove the "biased" juror, was ineffective and further emphasized the need for a new trial.
"Lindsey Lowe is entitled to no greater relief, but justice dictates no less," Yarbro wrote.
The Court of Criminal Appeals has not set a date for oral argument in the case.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee aims to return Lindsey Lowe to prison on murder conviction
