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The Minnesota Board of Pardons voted unanimously Monday to allow a Burnsville woman who drowned her newborn baby in a bathtub to serve out the remainder of her sentence on supervised release.
Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea supported 35-year-old Samantha Heiges’ request to have her sentence commuted so that she can help raise her living daughter. The board members and Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell required supervised visits between Heiges and her daughter to ensure her safety.
In 2005, Heiges was involved in an abusive relationship. Heiges says she gave birth to a baby in an apartment bathtub at the time after the baby’s father physically hurt her in an effort to terminate the pregnancy. The man told Heiges to kill the baby and threatened to kill her and the baby if Heiges didn’t end the baby’s life herself, she says.
Heiges at a prior Board of Pardons hearing told the panel that she drowned the baby and put it in a shoebox because she was afraid for her life.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t feel guilt and remorse for what happened,” she said during the November meeting.Samantha Heiges
Heiges rejected a plea deal and a potential 4-year sentence at the time in favor of a jury trial. A Dakota County jury convicted Heiges of second-degree intentional murder. She was sentenced to one month shy of 25 years in prison, of which she has served nearly 13 years.
Following the board’s decision, Heiges will remain on supervised release until November of 2033.
Her then-boyfriend was charged with aiding an offender involved in second-degree murder. The charge against him was dismissed in 2009, officials said.
Dozens of other applicants were set to come before the board on Monday and Tuesday as part of the panel’s winter meeting. Those who’ve served out their sentence can apply to have charges wiped from their criminal record and those still serving out the sentence can appeal to the board to have a sentence commuted.
All three members of the board have to agree to grant a pardon or commutation.
Puts one’s mistakes front and center for the world to see.
Walz on Monday said.
But allows them to move on from those past offenses.
