The justice system got it really wrong in the case of Hannah Overton.

As to Hannah and Andrew, Andrew’s blood became extremely thin due to the high levels of sodium. When he was first admitted, he had only bruises on his knees, typical of an active 4 year old boy.

As time went by with his blood ultra thin, every medical intervention left a mark, virtually every touch.

The Overtons did not make him sleep on bare plywood. Andrew had soiled his mattress by pooping and smearing it around. (This is not an uncommon behavior for emotionally disturbed children.) The foam mattress was still wet outside in the yard. Larry Overton tried to put Andrew to bed in his older brother’s bed, then in with a younger brother, but Andrew insisted on being in his bed. So he put him on there with a sleeping bag. That didn’t last long, as Andrew kept throwing the sleeping bag off. Finally they put him on the floor in their room in the sleeping bag. If that’s child abuse, then all the people who take their kids camping or have sleepovers with kids on the floor are guilty.

As to why they waited to seek medical help: Andrew had been very active until he suddenly threw up. He started to help Hannah clean up the vomit, then said he was cold. He walked to the bedroom where she bundled him up in blankets. Most parents in that situation would not think their child was in mortal danger. Hannah asked Larry to come home, and when he did he checked on Andrew who was in the bed saying “cold.” They thought he was coming down with a stomach flu. As he became more ill, they tried different home remedies — a warm shower with Larry and a nebulizer because his breathing sounded congested. Once they realized he was in serious trouble, they were in the car and on the way to the emergency clinic within 5 minutes.

You are correct in that the Overtons could have sent Andrew back and disrupted the adoption at anytime. They believed they were giving him a “forever family” and he was most often very happy there. They certainly didn’t do it for the money — they would have received no money after the adoption was final.

In a perfect “Walgreens” world, all the people who adopt kids from the foster system would be wealthy, childless couples. But that’s not the world we live in. The Overtons are not atypical adoptive parents. They love children, and thought they were doing a good thing.

I understand she doesn’t want to be locked up for life, but murder is murder. How many killers in prison say they are innocent?

They were in the process of adopting Andrew. Therefore what little money they would have gotten would have stopped. If greed was the reason for taking Andrew, then they would not have proceeded with adoption proceedures.

There is no evidence Andrew was force-fed anything. When you force feed someone, there are abrassions on the mouth &/or lips. This was not the case with Andrew. And Hannah was 5 months pregnant with a back injury. She would not have been able to wrestle him & force him to drink anything.

Andrew clearly had an eating disorder. He ate strange foods & non-foods. This in not uncommon in foster kids. Many foster & adoptive parents had posted comments on the ABC 20/20 site told there own stories. More than one said they had to hide the salt shakers because of how bad it got.

The adoption case worker cofirmed the fact that Hannah expressed concern about Andrew’s eating disorder. Because the adoption was not finalized, mental screening for PICA woudl have to had gone through the adoption agency. The case worker said she was going to get to that.

The mattress was soiled, washed & left in the back yard to dry. He spent ONE NIGHT sleeping on a sleeping bag. If sleeping ONE NIGHT in a sleeping bag is abuse, then so is camping!

And it was NOT 3 hours wait. That was one of the inaccuracies spread my the local paper, more interested in sensationalism that facts.

Andrew threw up & said he was cold. It looked like the flu or a stomach bug. No reason to call 911. When Andrew was acting like he was loosing consciousness, they picked him up & drove him to the clinic.

By the way, Troy Davis got a stay of execution, hours before he was to be killed. I don’t know whether he’s guilty. But I do know there are serious doubts as to his guilty. We must abolish the death penalty.