"SMITH, WHO WAS ONCE CONSIDERED THE TOP IN HIS FIELD, TOLD MARQUARDT'S 1995 TRIAL THAT TWO-YEAR-OLD KENNETH WYNNE DIED FROM ASPHYXIA AFTER BEING SMOTHERED OR STRANGLED.
SIX EXPERTS HAVE SINCE DISCREDITED SMITH'S FINDINGS, INCLUDING FIVE WHO EXAMINED THE CASE AS PART OF A PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO ONTARIO'S PEDIATRIC FORENSIC PATHOLOGY SYSTEM."
REPORTER JANICE TIBBETTS: THE NATIONAL POST;
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"OTTAWA -- Tammy Marquardt, who was imprisoned for 14 years for the death of her toddler son, won a chance to clear her name Thursday when the Supreme Court of Canada reopened her case because her conviction was based largely on testimony from disgraced pathologist Charles Smith," the National Post story by reporter Janice Tibbetts begins;
"A three-judge panel sent the case back to the Ontario Court of Appeal to reconsider whether Marquardt suffered "a miscarriage of justice," the story, which appears under the heading, "Supreme Court orders new appeal for mother's conviction," continues;
"The 37-year-old Toronto woman was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder when she was released on bail in March, pending the Supreme Court's decision.
Marquardt's lawyer, James Lockyer, said he would like the appeal court to declare Marquardt not guilty, using the strongest language possible to vindicate her.
"She didn't kill her son, it's pretty simple," said Mr. Lockyer, founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, which has fought for Marquardt's freedom.
"The evidence established that her son had a pre-existing epileptic condition and died as a consequence of it."
Smith, who was once considered the top in his field, told Marquardt's 1995 trial that two-year-old Kenneth Wynne died from asphyxia after being smothered or strangled.
Six experts have since discredited Smith's findings, including five who examined the case as part of a public inquiry into Ontario's pediatric forensic pathology system.
The inquiry was called after a provincial review concluded Smith made serious errors in 20 of 45 criminally suspicious deaths he investigated from 1991 to 2001. The review called into question criminal convictions in 13 of the cases.
Marquardt was the last person included in the review to remain imprisoned.
After she was charged, she refused to accept a plea bargain for manslaughter and she has maintained that she discovered her son struggling and tangled in his bed sheet before he went limp.
Mr. Lockyer said the outcome "is going to take some time" because the Crown has sought a further forensic opinion in Marquardt's case and the appeal court may want to consider that when it rehears the case.
The last time the appeal court looked at Marquardt's case was in 1998, several years before Smith's failings were publicly exposed.
Marquardt, who is currently living at a Toronto drug-treatment centre, has two other sons who were apprehended by the state and later adopted.
Mr. Lockyer said she has no contact with them."
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
