Commissions

Greenlit: Until Proven Innocent, Investigation Discovery

Until Proven Innocent (1 x 120′) – Hannah Overton is a mother, a woman of God, a former nurse and, in Texas’s prison system, known as Overton 1478117. In October 2006, a four-year-old from Corpus Christi named Andrew Burd died mysteriously of salt poisoning. Overton, his foster mother, was charged with capital murder, vilified from all quarters, and sent to prison for life. Was this churchgoing young woman really a vicious child killer, or had the tragedy claimed its second victim? This documentary chronicles the gross miscarriage of justice that sent Hannah Overton to jail with a life sentence and the fight to win her freedom. The story is told entirely through first-person interviews with Overton, her family and closest confidants, and experts and key figures involved in the high-profile appeal, including Texas attorneys Cynthia Orr, Gerry Goldstein and John Raley.

Andrew Burd’s short life began turbulently. His mother was only 16 when she gave birth, and Andrew spent his first two years surrounded by substance abuse and child neglect. By the time he turned three, his mother and father had lost parental rights and Andrew was placed in the foster care system in Corpus Christi, Texas. Hannah and Larry Overton met Andrew at church, where they fell in love with him and felt compelled to adopt him into their family that already included five biological children. Andrew spent his first night with the Overtons on Mother’s Day in 2005, and seemed to quickly grow attached to his new family.

Four months later, on October 2, 2006, Andrew fell suddenly and acutely ill while he was alone with Hannah. The Overtons rushed him to a nearby urgent care clinic after he became unresponsive and his breathing labored, but by the time they arrived, he had fallen unconscious. The following evening, Andrew was dead. The cause of death was determined to be salt poisoning, an extremely rare occurrence that, in children, results from either a child inadvertently ingesting too much salt or a caretaker deliberately forcing the child to do so. People who knew the Overtons were certain that Andrew’s bewildering death was accidental. But law enforcement and emergency medical personnel who treated Andrew thought otherwise. The following week, Hannah—who had no history with Child Protective Services and no previous arrests, and had never had so much as a parking ticket—was charged with capital murder.

Platform: Investigation Discovery

Producer: P+R Productions

TX: 1st December 2016

Source: Discovery press release