PHILADELPHIA (Court TV) — Philadelphia prosecutors believe Marie Noe's guilty plea Monday to smothering her eight infants brought closure to a 50-year-old case. But several critics believe Noe's lenient — and merciful — 20-year probation sentence sent the wrong message: that the victims' lives were less valuable than their killer's.

Noe pleaded guilty to eight counts of second-degree murder in a case that spanned two decades, from 1949 to 1968. During that 20-year period, all 10 of Noe's children died. One died in the hospital six hours after birth, another was stillborn. During her guilty plea Monday, Noe publically admitted to killing the other eight, who were once believed to be victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Despite her admission to eight murders, Noe will not have to spend any time in jail. Prosecutors agreed to give her 20 years of probation, the first five of which will be spent in home confinement and psychiatric analysis. Prosecutors seemed to agree that Noe — and perhaps the rest of society — would benefit most from counseling instead of a prison sentence. Noes's sentence requires that she undergo mental health treatment sessions with a psychiatrist to determine the cause of her repeated infanticide. Researchers hope to learn from the study why new mothers sometimes kill their newborns.

Deputy District Attorney Charles Gallagher defended the decision not to seek jail time for Noe.

"This was the most humane way we could have dealt with Mrs. Noe," Gallagher said. "Rather than spend millions of dollars housing her in a prison, we're spending the money on treatment and research. Maybe we'll learn why she did it. Maybe after a series of treatements, we'll get to the bottom of it, which is important, very important."

Gallagher and District Attorney Lynne Abraham also suggested that Noe's age and the failing health of her husband Arthur prompted the lenient sentence. Abraham also indicated to Court TV's "Pros & Cons" that due to the age of the case and the possibility that the confession may have been challenged and thrown out at trial, the plea bargain and sentence was the best outcome for the case.

"I think the sentence was the best thing for a 50 year-old case in that Marie Noe confessed in open court for the first time to the murders, we achieved a method and means of investigating why women would kill their infants and we achieved a sentence where it's not the best of sentences. Marie Noe will be confined to her home," Abraham said.

But Marsha Levitz, a lawyer with Juvenile Law Center, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that prosecutors let Noe get away with mass murder and neglected to obtain justice for Noe's children, who could not defend themselves againt their mother.

"These were infants. There were eight of them," Levitz said. "To send a message that one can get probation and counseling for eight murders does make one wonder what value you place on their lives.

Investigators had long suspected that Noe killed her children. In each death, Noe was at home alone with the children. But she denied the killings each time, claiming the children died in their sleep — and police were unable to prove murder.

The case returned to the spotlight after the 1997 publication of a book about SIDS, "The Death of Innocents," and an April cover story in a Philadelphia magazine which detailed Noe's story.

Noe told police last year that she suffocated four of the infants but she did not remember the other four deaths. However, she said she was probably responsible for all of them. Noe's attorney, David Rudenstein then said his client's confession was taken under "abominable circumstances" and that she was led to believe she had no choice but to sign it.

Police released Noe's confession for the first time Monday. While recalling how she committed the murders,Noe refered to her children several times as "it". She also described how her second child, Elizabeth, fought her as she brought a pillow to the fussing baby's face.

"She was fussing," Noe told police. "Elizabeth was a lot stronger than [Noe's first child] Richard was, and she was fighting when the pillow was over her face. I held the pillow over her face until she stopped moving."

Noe also said she hid her actions from her husband and relatives but hoped that police would eventually catch her. "I was hoping that they [police] would. I knew what I was doing was very wrong," Noe confessed.

If Noe had gone to trial, she would not have faced the death penalty because she committed the murders when Pennsylvania did not have the death penalty.

— Bryan Robinson

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