A Lafourche Parish judge has denied a Mathews woman's request to have her 2009 convictions for killing of her two young children set aside.
Amy T. Hebert was found guilty in the stabbing deaths of her children Camille, 9, and Braxton, 7, at their home on Aug. 20, 2007.
She is serving two consecutive life sentences at the Louisiana Correctional Institution for Women in St. Gabriel.
Hebert was seeking a new trial based on a number of allegations she made in a standard post-conviction relief application.
The dismissal of those claims brings to a close her attempts to attack the convictions at the state trial court level.
"We have fought these post-conviction claims with the same intensity that we prosecuted both the trial and appeal," Lafourche District Attorney Camille A. Morvant II said in a news release today. "It's a reminder that not only is it important to the family of the victims to secure a conviction, but also it's just as vital that we fight to maintain the validity of that verdict throughout the post-trial process."
Hebert was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 2009 after a two-month trial, and her convictions were affirmed on appeal in 2011.
Some of the defendant's most recent allegations had been dismissed earlier in response to procedural objections lodged by the Lafourche Parish District Attorney's Office. Hebert's remaining claims were dismissed without a hearing by state District Judge Jerome J. Barbera III of Thibodaux on Dec. 29, before he retired at year's end.
Hebert's claims centered on the alleged ineffectiveness of her trial and the attorneys who represented her in her appeal.
Barbera disagreed, noting that "defense counsel used their experience and training in the most skillful manner to properly defend the petitioner against the charge."
Hebert may seek to have the trial court's ruling reviewed by the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal.
"The fact that the trial judge felt there was no need for a hearing on any of these issues reinforces our view that none of the defendant's claims had any merit," Morvant said. "I've said it before, but this trial was well litigated by both sides, so after the jury returned its verdict, there weren't going to be very many mistakes to review."
