Hannah Overton gets restitution for wrongful incarceration

Hannah Overton, the Texas mom convicted in 2007 of killing her foster son, learned this week she will receive nearly $600,000 from the state to compensate her for the seven years she spent in prison. Last year, Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez officially declared Overton innocent in the death of 4-year-old Andrew Burd, who died of salt poisoning. A Texas appellate court overturned Overton’s conviction in 2014, but Gonzalez’s predecessor refiled the charges. In 2015, then–District Attorney Mark Skurka dropped the charges, but Overton remained at risk of a retrial until Gonzalez officially declared her innocent. “I’m very thankful that this compensation is finally coming through,” Overton told ABC News. “No amount of money will ever bring back the years that were taken away, and the seven years of freedom I lost. I could never thank my attorneys enough for fighting endlessly to prove my innocence and bring me home.” Overton also revealed this week she is pregnant with her sixth child. Many in the Christian community in Corpus Christi, a coastal city in South Texas, believed Overton’s arrest and eventual conviction were motivated in part by her faith. The prosecution tried to use her Christianity against her during her trial, showing jurors video of her praying in a police interrogation room. The Overtons maintained Andrew had an eating disorder that made him constantly hungry, which led to him accidently ingesting too much salt.