Woman Clear in Son’s Killing
- New York Times, December 24, 1988

A judge today set aside the murder conviction of a 24-year-old woman who had argued that she was suffering from ”baby blues” when she ran her automobile over her infant son and then left the body in a trash can.The woman, Sheryl Massip, was convicted by a jury last month of second-degree murder in the death of her six-week-old son, Michael, on her birthday in April 1987.

But at a Superior Court hearing on a defense motion for a new trial, Judge Robert Fitzgerald ruled that Ms. Massip was not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and reduced the jury’s verdict to guilty of voluntary manslaughter.

”I do not believe the prosecution’s evidence established that she had the requisite mental state of malice aforethought,” Judge Fitzgerald said. ”The defendant was in fact legally insane at the time she killed her son.” Ms. Massip’s family applauded and cheered.

The defense attorney, Milton Grimes, argued during the trial that his client was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare hormonal imbalance that some experts say inspires mothers to acts of violence.