Court of appeals finds no Miranda violation in case of college student convicted of murdering her baby

In Aldridge v. Com., the Virginia Court of Appeals in a lengthy opinion by Judge Humphreys joined by Senior Judge Coleman held. among other things, that the police did not violate the 18 year-old defendant's Miranda rights when they questioned her about the death of a newborn baby, whose body was found in a rented storage facility, and that the Commonwealth had met its burden of proving that the baby had lived and was killed. Judge Benton dissented on the Miranda and corpus delicti issues, based on which he would have reversed the defendant's conviction.