Johnson, 20, of Monee, has decided to take a plea deal, although her lawyers did not specify which charges she would be pleading guilty to. Johnson, a former an agricultural communications major at Illinois, faced up to 75 years behind bars if convicted of the first-degree murder of her baby.
Johnson told investigators she gave birth inside a bathroom at her residence hall in Champaign in March, then tried to quiet him with her hand or a towel. As a result, Johnson faced charges of murder, child endangerment and concealment of a homicidal death.
Johnson’s lawyers released a statement released following Johnson’s appearance before Judge Tom Difanis in Champaign County court:
“With the loving support of her family, Lindsay has made the difficult decision to enter into a plea agreement in April that will resolve the criminal charges filed against her,”
As for why the court allowed Johnson to accept a plea day, Santa Clara University law professor Michelle Oberman has a theory:
via Chicago Tribune:
Santa Clara University law professor Michelle Oberman said sentences for women who are convicted of neonaticide, as the act of killing an infant within the baby’s first 24 hours of life is known, can run the gamut from probation with counseling to decades behind bars.
Oberman, who has studied hundreds of such cases over the past 20-plus years, said women with competent legal representation generally receive sentences of no more than a year or two in prison, with many getting probation. The unremitting shame and stigmatization that mothers convicted of killing their newborns experience is often seen as punishment enough by judges, who see no positive in putting them behind bars, researchers said.
Johnson gave birth to a boy at Bousfield Hall on the U of I campus on March 13, 2016. According to prosecutors, she killed him shortly after.
Police were involved after they were called to check on a student, Johnson, who had been inside the bathroom for a couple of hours.
In the dorm bathroom, police found evidence of childbirth. After tracking down Johnson on campus, they found the dead newborn inside of her backpack.
