Appeals Court Upholds Sentence For Oklahoma Mom Who Killed Son

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the life prison sentence of a 45-year-old woman convicted of first-degree murder in the suffocation death of her six-year-old son.

The court affirmed the conviction and sentence of Rebecca Pettit, who was found guilty by a jury in Sequoyah County in 2009 of the 2000 death of 6-year-old Adam Pettit. Sheriff's deputies found the boy's lifeless body and Pettit unconscious in her home with cuts to her wrist and ankles.

A jury convicted her in 2005 and recommended life in prison. The appeals court overturned that conviction on the grounds that Pettit represented herself during the trial but never waived her right to an attorney.

In a decision handed down late Thursday, the appeals court denied claims that Pettit was denied a fair trial.