Judge denies woman’s challenge to conviction in son’s death | Live Well

WOODSTOCK, Sick. (AP) — A suburban Chicago lady who pleaded responsible in her 5-yr-old son’s beating dying are unable to problem her conviction and 35-calendar year sentence, a choose dominated Wednesday

JoAnn Cunningham, 39, of Crystal Lake, claimed in her March petition for article-conviction relief that she endured from postpartum despair and psychosis when she killed her son. Cunningham claimed she was “seeing demons and listening to voices” at the time of her son AJ’s death.

Authorities say Cunningham killed AJ on April 15, 2019, right after she turned offended about dirty underwear that he had attempted to cover. She compelled the boy to stand in a chilly shower for at least 20 minutes, strike him in the head with the shower head, then set him to mattress cold, moist and naked, in accordance to authorities.

AJ’s entire body was located wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave in close proximity to the family’s household in Crystal Lake.

McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt presided more than her negotiated plea on Dec. 5, 2019, and sentencing on July 16, 2020. Andrew Freund, AJ’s father, also pleaded responsible in his demise and is serving a 30-calendar year prison sentence.

Wilbrandt wrote in his ruling that Cunningham’s arguments in her petition “do not present the ‘gist’ of a meritorious declare of substantial deprivation of a federal or state constitutional suitable and that they are patently without the need of advantage.”

Cunningham argued that no witnesses were called to testify on her behalf she was not permitted to testify herself, nor did she present a confession she was not go through her Miranda rights and she was “illiterate” as to her constitutional legal rights, The Northwest Herald noted.

Wilbrandt wrote in his ruling, that witnesses were referred to as on her behalf and protection attorneys introduced “wide-ranging evidence” of her background of drug abuse and material abuse cure. She also supplied a prolonged assertion addressing her “long-standing history of equally prescribed and illegal drug use,” the decide wrote.

Wilbrandt also dismissed as “without merit” Cunningham’s declare that her 35-yr prison sentence is “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Cunningham filed the handwritten petition from prison without the assist of an lawyer.