A parole board recommended that a woman who was sentenced to life in prison nearly 20 years ago for the malnutrition death of her infant child who was fed cow’s milk instead of baby formula should be freed.
Tiffany Woods, 43, pleaded for her release in front of the Louisiana Board of Pardons after spending 17 years in prison for the second-degree murder of her baby, Emmanuel.
Emmanuel was just five months old when he died in 2005. At the time he was born, Woods and her family were living in New Orleans. He was born prematurely at just three pounds and tested positive for a deficiency that makes the body unable to break down certain fats. This condition increases the risk of sudden death due to low blood sugar, so babies need very frequent feedings. However, hospital staff didn’t notify Woods of this when the baby was discharged.
After undergoing intensive care, Emmanuel went home just three weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Woods was 25 then.
The day before Katrina hit, Woods fled to Shreveport, Louisiana, with her four children. They stayed at a sports arena and then a motel before moving to a rented house. She had been feeding Emmanuel baby formula until the family ran out of food vouchers, so she decided to feed him cow’s milk which pediatricians advise against for children under 1 year old.
“The formula he was taking, he wasn’t swallowing. He was always throwing it up, and then we ran out of WIC (food) vouchers, so I decided to switch it … I switched it to organic milk. I thought he was doing better, but he wasn’t thriving,” Woods said to the parole board.
At that time, Woods said she had been suffering from depression and stress due to the terrible aftermath of Katrina and made some “poor choices,” including giving her baby cow’s milk.
“At that stage of my life I was a young mother who was trying to take care of her children the best she could. And I made some terrible decisions. But the woman…
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