MARIA SHEPHERD CASE; PART 3; GLOBE AND MAIL JUSTICE REPORTER KIRK MAKIN REPORTS;

"MS. SHEPHERD SAID IN AN AFFIDAVIT THAT HER LAWYER WARNED HER AGAINST TRYING TO PLEAD NOT GUILTY. "HE TOLD ME THAT DR. SMITH WAS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH," IT SAID. "I REMEMBER THE FIRST DAY OF THE PRELIMINARY HEARING, WHEN DR. SMITH WALKED INTO COURT. IT WAS LIKE A SUPERHERO HAD ENTERED THE ROOM.""

JUSTICE REPORTER KIRK MAKIN; GLOBE AND MAIL;

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"Seventeen years after she pleaded guilty to killing her three-year-old stepdaughter, a Toronto woman was permitted yesterday to reopen her case and seek exoneration," Justice Reporter Kirk Makin reports under the heading "17-year-old manslaughter case to be reopened;"

"Moments after Ontario Court of Appeal Judge Marc Rosenberg granted Maria Shepherd's request, the mother of four wept in a courthouse hallway and said that going through life as a reviled child killer "has been extremely difficult. It has not been a journey that I would wish on anyone at all," the story, published earlier today" continues;

""There were many circumstances surrounding my plea - first and foremost, the loss of my children," she said.

"Being separated from the children was probably the worst thing I could imagine at the time."

Crown counsel Jennifer Woollcombe consented to reopening the case yesterday.

Ms. Shepherd, a 39-year-old Filipina immigrant, spent two years less a day in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the 1991 death of her stepdaughter, Kasandra.

Ms. Shepherd acknowledged that she struck the child in a moment of frustration, but claimed it was a minor blow that she could not have imagined would have led to the child having seizures and dying.

The Shepherd case is one of a dozen cases to come up for judicial review following the discrediting of Charles Smith, a top forensic pathologist who supplied key evidence against the defendants.

Ms. Shepherd said in an affidavit that her lawyer warned her against trying to plead not guilty. "He told me that Dr. Smith was a force to be reckoned with," it said. "I remember the first day of the preliminary hearing, when Dr. Smith walked into court. It was like a superhero had entered the room."

James Lockyer, a lawyer for the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, said in an interview that the Shepherd case is inordinately complicated because Ms. Shepherd had many interactions with the medical and children's aid systems prior to Kasandra's death.

Indeed, a lengthy coroner's inquiry held into Kasandra's death resulted in dozens of recommendations on how to prevent similar deaths.

"There are huge quantities of material that make it hard to assimilate," Mr. Lockyer said.

"And Smith's findings are criticized in several regards, not just one. Almost everything he said seems to have been wrong.""

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;