Five years after her conviction for withholding medication that could potentially have saved the life of her cancer-stricken son, a Massachusetts woman has been released for prison.
Only necn was there as Salem mother Kristen LaBrie arrived at her mother's Danvers home.
LaBrie had been in prison since she was convicted in 2011 for withholding cancer medication from her 9-year-old son Jeremy, who had leukemia.
"She was convicted of the attempted murder of her little boy who was autistic, who she was in charge of the care and love and treatment of him," said Essex County Assistant District Attorney Kim Faitella.
But last month, the Supreme Judicial Court vacated that conviction. Thursday, a judge let LaBrie out on personal recognizance pending a new trial.
"I'm just happy, she needs to be home," said LaBrie's mother, Simone Cobb.
"Plan is to get her back to some kind of routine so that she can get into society again," said John Morris, LaBrie's defense attorney.
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The SJC had ruled LaBrie's trial attorney was ineffective.
"He didn't hire a pediatric oncologist to rebut the Commonwealth's two pediatric oncologists," Morris said.
LaBrie's new attorney says even though she only had about a year to go on her eight-to-10-year sentence with time credited for good behavior, it was important to her to get a second chance to clear her name.
"She gets a second chance," said Morris. "She gets another bite at the apple, another opportunity to show that she didn't commit what the Commonwealth is alleging she committed."
LaBrie is due back in court for a pretrial hearing June 3.
She has a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at her mother's home and remains on probation from a reckless endangerment charge that was not vacated.
