Tennessee Supreme Court to review Lindsey Lowe's appeal

The Tennessee Supreme Court said Monday it will review a Hendersonville woman's appeal after she was convicted of smothering her newborn twins to death in 2011.

Lindsey Lowe’s appellate attorney David Raybin asked the state Supreme Court to review the appeal after the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the first-degree murder convictions over the summer.

Lowe's defense has argued that key evidence should not have been used against her.

"In granting review, the Supreme Court asked both sides to address the legality of the search warrants used to search her bedroom and whether the court can apply the "good faith" exception where the warrant might be invalid," Raybin said Monday. "We are arguing that it's not constitutional."

The good faith exception is used when the court decides not to suppress evidence gathered when officers thought in good faith they were following the law. For example, if a search warrant has a clerical error, but officers thought it was a legal warrant, that evidence could be admissible.

"This is a big issue going on in the courts right now," he said.

In August 2015, Raybin argued that police did not properly read Lowe her Miranda rights, including the right to an attorney and the right to remain silent.

Raybin also said that Lowe’s videotaped confession to police should not have been allowed and that Hendersonville police used “coercion and trickery” to get Lowe to make the statement. In it, Lowe admitted she put her hand over one baby’s mouth until the infant stopped crying and then did the same to the second child after giving birth to them in a toilet.

The same issues were raised by Lowe’s attorneys John Pellegrin and James Ramsey at trial and in separate hearings leading up to the trial before Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay.

Lowe is serving a more than 50-year sentence at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville. A jury found her guilty of two counts each of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in March 2013.

Lowe's father alerted Hendersonville police in September 2011 after the babies' bodies and bloody towels were found in Lowe’s laundry basket at the family's home.

She told police that no one knew she was pregnant, and even she thought she was having a bowel movement when she gave birth to two boys, according to court documents. The 6-and-a-half-pound boys lived for only five minutes.

During trial, it was alleged Lowe killed the babies to conceal her pregnancy from her family and her fiance, who was not the father.

Reach Ariana Sawyer at asawyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8382 and on Twitter @a_maia_sawyer.