Dec. 30 (UPI) -- An Alabama judge has vacated the conviction of a woman sentenced to 18 years in prison for the death of her unborn baby upon discovery of new evidence that may show she may not be to blame for the stillbirth.

A judge has ordered a new trial for an Alabama woman who was sentenced to 18 years in prison following a stillbirth that her attorneys argued was caused by an infection rather than drug use. Lee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Tickal vacated Brooke Shoemaker’s 2020 conviction for chemical endangerment of a child resulting in death. Tickal said Shoemaker's attorneys presented credible new evidence that the infection caused the stillbirth.