The former Muskingum University student serving a life sentence for the murder of her newborn is now recommended for a new hearing after Ohio’s 5th District Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision last week.

Emile Weaver, 23, was convicted of aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse and two counts of tampering with evidence in June 2016 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On April 22, 2015, Weaver gave birth to her daughter, Addison Grace Weaver, inside her sorority house bathroom. Court documents say Weaver delivered the baby into a toilet and later placed the newborn in a garbage bag with the placenta, paper towels and some of her own clothing.

It wasn’t until later that day when two of Weaver’s sorority sisters discovered the baby’s body in the garbage can outside the house.

A month after sentencing, Weaver motioned to appeal in the 5th District Court of Appeals, where the court’s decision was upheld in June 2017. An additional appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court was denied in February 2018.

When appealing to the supreme court, Weaver’s public defender, Nikki Baszynski, also filed for a separate post-conviction relief petition, asking for a new hearing based on claims that Weaver’s former legal counsel was “ineffective for failing to present evidence concerning neonaticide in mitigation sentencing” during the time of trial.

The petition was dismissed in September 2017 by Judge Mark Fleegle of the Muskingum County Common Pleas Court on grounds that her appeal did not qualify for hearing because it could have been argued during the direct appeal process.

Last week, that decision was reversed by the 5th District Court of Appeals, in which judges recommended a hearing at the trial court.

Attached to the petition was an affidavit written by Clara Lewis, an American Studies professor at Stanford University who studied Weaver’s trial transcript and docket, as well as read news reports and related social media posts from the time.

Upon review of the documents and after interviewing Weaver last August, Lewis found Weaver’s sentence to be “disproportionately harsh” when compared to sentencings in similar cases.

Lewis, an expert in sociology of law and social theory, who most recently began focusing her research on the social and cultural causes of neonaticide, concluded that Weaver’s case can be classified as contemporary neonaticide.

In the affidavit, Lewis wrote “Emile’s defense failed to present the factors that would have mitigated the severity of her sentence. Relevant information about the social and cultural causes of neonaticide that amount to mitigating circumstances were never introduced or properly considered.”

Lewis cited immaturity and social isolation as primary mitigating factors that could have been presented during trial but were not.

“Emile’s immaturity is evidenced by her attempt to receive both birth control and her pregnancy denial,” Lewis wrote.

Further, Lewis said Weaver’s attempt to obtain birth control, as detailed in trial, was an attempt to have a person in a position of authority to “take control and tell her what to do.”

Lewis argued that Weaver’s apparent pregnancy denial was “a sign of immaturity, not evil.”

Arguing social isolation, Lewis wrote that Weaver’s relationship with the father of her baby and her sorority sisters contributed to her pregnancy denial and social isolation, suggesting she had fostered underlying conditions of neonaticide. Furthermore, Lewis wrote that pregnancy denial is a socially co-created phenomenon.

She went on to cite examples brought up in trial that back her argument, pointing out text message conversations between Weaver and her ex-boyfriend, Logan Roberts.

Lewis said Roberts encouraged Weaver to keep her pregnancy a secret.

“These text messages speak to Logan’s active role in ensuring that Emile felt shamed for her condition and that she was isolated from the friends who could have helped her,” Lewis wrote.

Lewis also wrote that Weaver’s sorority sisters reinforced her “fiction” by going along with it through daily interactions.

“Even though she had a visible baby bump by the end of her pregnancy, they never pressed her to confront the truth and continued to include her in activities and events that were inappropriate given her condition,” Lewis wrote.

Despite her arguments on behalf of Weaver, Lewis also wrote that “the loss of her newborn’s life is a tragedy for which Emile deserves to be punished.”

Lewis wrote that had existing research on neonaticide been used in Weaver’s defense during trial, perhaps it would have resulted in a lesser sentencing.

A hearing at the Muskingum County Common Pleas Court is pending.