Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of Theranos, arrives for a motion hearing on Monday, November 4, 2019 at the US District Court House in the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose, California.
Yichuan Cao | NurPhoto | Getty Images
Elizabeth Holmes was given a six-week delay to start her trial on Wednesday, because the government said she was blinded by the news that she was pregnant and expected to give birth in July. The trial will now start on August 31.
Holmes appeared on a Zoom call Wednesday, in which assistant US attorney Robert Leach said prosecutors had not been told about Holmes’s pregnancy until March 2, adding “It’s frustrating and disappointing to hear about this now. “
Holmes, Theranos’ former CEO, is said to have been about five months pregnant at the time.
Despite the repeated delays in her trial, Kevin Downey, one of her attorneys, said “eager to contest the charges. Based on the medical advice we have been given to set this schedule at a pace that would be faster than six weeks. postpartum would be aggressive and not recommended. “
The unexpected news leads some legal experts to question whether being a new mom will help sway a jury in Holmes’s favor.
“Whether consciously or unconsciously, judges, prosecutors and jurors may be concerned about the effect of the mother’s incarceration on a newborn in ways they don’t do when the suspect is male,” said Danny Cevallos. legal analyst at NBC News.
“Being a new mom can only help win her sympathy from judges,” he said.
Holmes is facing a dozen felony charges against her defunct Silicon Valley startup. She founded Theranos and promised to revolutionize healthcare as a 19-year-old Stanford dropout. Once valued at $ 9 billion, Theranos had a star-studded board before it collapsed in 2018.
“If convicted, even if her guidelines for criminal incarceration dictate, her lawyers will put her motherhood front and center before the courts,” Cevallos said.
A study by Sonja Starr, a criminal law professor at the University of Chicago, found that statistically, a woman is less likely to be convicted and less likely to receive a longer sentence than a man.
Her findings show “dramatic unexplained gender gaps in federal criminal cases. Conditional to arrest violations, criminal history, and other observable pre-charge observations, men receive an average of 63 percent longer sentences than women. Women are also significantly more likely to avoid charges and convictions.” twice as likely to avoid incarceration as they are convicted. “
Her study further states that “childcare reduces the likelihood of judges recommending prison.”
“In short, the interaction between family status and gender appears to be more substantial than any formal legal mechanism for dealing with family difficulties can explain.”
While questions arise whether her new mother will help her on the jury, former Holmes employees told CNBC they were not surprised by news of her pregnancy. Holmes was in a relationship with hotel heir Billy Evans, but the father’s identity is unknown.
Holmes is awaiting trial on charges that could put her in prison for up to 20 years.