'SHE WAS EVICTED FROM HER APARTMENT BECAUSE HER LANDLORD DECIDED SHE WAS A "BABY KILLER"; HER NEW NEIGHBOURS ALSO MADE IT CLEAR THEY DID NOT WANT HER. MEANWHILE, THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY STEPPED IN AND TOOK HER SON AUSTIN, NOW 15, AND PLACED HIM IN FOSTER CARE. HE WAS LATER ADOPTED. "I WAS SCARED THAT I WOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO BE A MOTHER AGAIN. I WAS SCARED OF BEING CONVICTED OF MURDER AND RECEIVING A LIFE SENTENCE."
HER LAWYER AT THE TIME AND THE CROWN ATTORNEY STRUCK A DEAL IN WHICH SHE WOULD PLEAD NOT GUILTY TO THE LESSER OFFENCE OF INFANTICIDE, BUT WOULD NOT CONTEST THE FACTS -- THAT CONTAINED A CLAIM THAT SHE HAD SMOTHERED JOSHUA -- AND WOULD OFFER NO EVIDENCE OTHER THAN A PSYCHIATRIC REPORT, MR. LOCKYER WROTE. IN ITS RESPONSE, THE CROWN ACKNOWLEDGED THAT MS. SHERRET-ROBINSON BELIEVED SHE DID NOT STAND A CHANCE AGAINST DR. SMITH'S FINDINGS. IN FACT, THE DOCTOR'S OPINION WAS A CENTRAL UNDERPINNING OF THE CROWN'S CASE. "WITHOUT IT, THERE WAS NO REASONABLE PROSPECT OF CONVICTION," THE CROWN WROTE.'
REPORTER NATALIE ALCOBA; THE NATIONAL POST;
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BACKGROUND:
An overview of Joshua's case prepared by Commission staff indicates that:
Joshua was born in Belleville, Ontario on September 23, 1995 to Sherry Lee-Ann Sherret and Peter. Joshua had an older half-brother born on July 4, 1994 to Sherry and another partner. Sherry, Peter, Joshua and Joshua's bother all resided together in Trenton, Ontario. Joshua died on January 23, 1996, at the age of four months in Trenton,Ontario.
At the time of Joshua's death Sherry was 20 years old. On March 27, 1996, sherry was charged with first-degree murder in Joshua's death. After a preliminary inquiry she was committed to stand trial on that charge. However, that committal was subsequently quashed and she was ordered to stand trial on a charge of second-degree murder instead.
On January 4, 1999, a new indictment charging infanticide was placed before the Ontario Court of Justice (General Division). Sherry entered a plea of not guilty. However, the Crown then read into the record certain agreed facts. The defence called no evidence in response to the facts read in and did not dispute them. As a result sherry was convicted of infanticide. On June 2, 1999, she was sentenced to a one-year custodial term followed by two years of probation. Just prior to the laying of the criminal charge, on March 7, 1996, Joshua's brother was apprehended by the Northumberland Children's Aid Society and placed in foster care. He was ultimately adopted by his foster family. In September, 2005, Sherry had another child, a daughter. The Children's Aid Society obtained a Supervision Order in October, 2006, in relation to this child. On April 11, 2007, that order was terminated.
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Reporter Natalie Alcoba's presents a perfect segue into today's historic hearing at the Ontario Court of Appeal her National Post story which appeared on November 24, 2009, under the heading "Crown seeks acquittal in Joshua case" and the sub-heading:
"Pathologist Smith's findings discounted in baby's death
"Branded a baby killer, aching for a son who had died and another that had been placed in foster care, Sherry Sherret-Robinson has a clear memory of the day disgraced forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Smith came to testify at her preliminary hearing," the story begins.
"She heard him say he thought she had probably smothered and killed her four-month-old, Joshua, in their Trenton, Ont., home," it continues.
"He testified the infant had a fracture on his skull, another on his ankle, and that there was trauma on his neck. They were all injuries Ms. Sherret-Robinson could not explain, she says in an affidavit filed with the Ontario Court of Appeal, but as she looked around the courtroom in 1998, she saw that "everyone was very impressed by him."
That was before there was reason to doubt Dr. Smith's capabilities, the Crown says in response to an application by defence lawyer James Lockyer to have Ms. Sherret-Robinson's conviction overturned based on new evidence. The Crown agrees, saying in court documents to be considered by a panel of judges on Dec. 7 that the experts now point to accidental asphyxiation as the likely cause of death. "The fresh evidence should be admitted, the appeal allowed, the appellant's conviction set aside and an acquittal entered," Crown attorney Riun Shandler writes.
Two reviews into the work of Dr. Smith, formerly of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, have seriously discredited his expertise. A coroner's review found he made questionable conclusions of foul play in 13 cases that had resulted in criminal convictions, while a public inquiry led by Justice Stephen Goudge concluded he "actively misled" his superiors.
Ms. Sherret-Robinson, now 34, served her eight months in jail after a judge found her guilty of infanticide. Upon release, she moved to Belleville, gave birth to a girl, and was under intense scrutiny by the Children's Aid Society when she turned to Mr. Lockyer and the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted for help.
Mr. Lockyer has submitted evidence from Dr. Michael Pollanen, chief forensic pathologist for the province of Ontario, Dr. David Ramsay, a neuropathologist from the London Health Sciences Centre and Dr. Jack Crane, state pathologist for Northern Ireland.
Dr. Pollanen found no evidence of a skull fracture, and said the sections of the neck where Dr. Smith had reported hemorrhaging were in fact post mortem artefacts that were created by Dr. Smith during the autopsy, Mr. Lockyer said in a factum he filed to the court.
Dr. Pollanen and Dr. Crane concluded that there is no definitive cause of death, but say the baby may have died as a result of his playpen, filled with thick comforters and blankets, being an unsafe sleeping environment. Dr. Crane also said Dr. Smith failed to mention the possibility of a "natural disease" in Joshua's lungs. Signs of inflammation may point to an early respiratory infection that could have contributed to his sudden death, he found. Dr. Ramsay said there was no neurological explanation for Joshua's death.
"All three experts conclude that there is no basis on the pathological findings to support an inference made by Dr. Smith that death occurred by deliberate asphyxiation; only that it cannot be excluded," the Crown wrote.
In her affidavit, Ms. Sherret-Robinson says she did not smother her baby and that she never admitted to doing so. She recounts the events of Jan. 22, 1996, when she kissed Joshua on the forehead, lay him in the playpen he had been sleeping in and tucked blankets around him. When she went to get him the next morning, he was dead. "I will never forget the terror I felt when I reached down to pick him up and discovered that he was blue and his little body was completely stiff," she said. She described the "emotional upheavals" that followed when it became clear the police thought she had killed her son "yet all I wanted to do was curl up in a hole and be with Joshua."
She was evicted from her apartment because her landlord decided she was a "baby killer"; her new neighbours also made it clear they did not want her. Meanwhile, the Children's Aid Society stepped in and took her son Austin, now 15, and placed him in foster care. He was later adopted. "I was scared that I would never be allowed to be a mother again. I was scared of being convicted of murder and receiving a life sentence."
Her lawyer at the time and the Crown attorney struck a deal in which she would plead not guilty to the lesser offence of infanticide, but would not contest the facts -- that contained a claim that she had smothered Joshua -- and would offer no evidence other than a psychiatric report, Mr. Lockyer wrote. In its response, the Crown acknowledged that Ms. Sherret-Robinson believed she did not stand a chance against Dr. Smith's findings. In fact, the doctor's opinion was a central underpinning of the Crown's case. "Without it, there was no reasonable prospect of conviction," the Crown wrote.
The hearing is set for 10.30 AM at Osgoode Hall.
The story can be found at:
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/index.html?subject=Sherry+Sherret-Robinson&type=Person
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
