Shirley Ree Smith: NPR producer Joseph Shapiro talks about, "A New Turn In Calif. 'Shaken Baby' Case : NPR

STORY: "A New Turn In Calif. 'Shaken Baby' Case : NPR," published on "All Things Considered" on April 8, 2012.

GIST: "Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan speaks with NPR reporter Joseph Shapiro about the sentence of Shirley Ree Smith's "shaken baby" case. California Gov. Jerry Brown has commuted Smith's sentence. Despite her claims of innocence, Smith was convicted in December 1997, and has been free since 2006 awaiting the results of her appeals.........SULLIVAN: In your reporting on the story, you discovered that what we think we know about unexpected deaths of young children is changing. Has that affected Smith's case? SHAPIRO: It did, Laura. Fifteen years ago, child abuse was a default assumption. The last person with the child was almost certainly the perpetrator of an outrageous crime. But now, doctors and scientists have a better understanding of other causes, including diseases and blood clotting disorders that leave marks on the body that can mimic the signs of child abuse. Last month in Texas, Ernie Lopez walked out of prison likely to face a new trial. That was another case we reported on last year. Medical examiners in that case, they never looked at the medical evidence that the baby had an extreme form of a blood clotting disorder. In the Smith case, there is reason to suspect that it might have been from some trauma at birth. It might have been a short fall he took from the couch where he was sleeping or that he was sleeping face down. SULLIVAN: Is Shirley Ree Smith's case typical? SHAPIRO: It is. Almost always the accused are people on the margins of society. Like Shirley Smith, they're poor, they're members of minority groups, they have little education. Often - and this wasn't true in Shirley Ree Smith's case, but often, they've had some previous run-ins with the law. These things are the equivalent of wearing a hoodie. They make you quickly suspected, and they make you easier to convict.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In July, 2011, I announced the awarding of "The Charles Smith Blog award" to National Public Radio, Frontline and Propublica, for their timely, revealing joint investigation "The Child Cases" and particularly NPR reporter Joseph Shapiro and producer Sandra Bartlett, who I had met while they were working on the Canadian side of the story - the Charles Smith saga. On announcing the award, I noted that: "The probe makes the point that when a child dies under suspicious circumstances, abuse is often suspected, as in the case of six-month-old Isis Vas, whose death was deemed "a clear-cut and classic" case of child abuse, sending a man named Ernie Lopez to prison for 60 years. It points out that now a Texas judge has moved to overturn Lopez's conviction, and that new questions are being asked about the quality of expert testimony in this and many other similar cases. The NPR, Frontline, Propublica joint investigation unearthed more than 20 child death cases in which people were jailed on medical evidence -- involving abuse, assault and "shaken-baby syndrome" -- that was later found unreliable or flat-out wrong. Are death investigators being properly trained for child cases? (The answer was clearly "no.") The investigation exposes the harm to innocent parents and caregivers caused by a misguided belief in the infallibilty of "shaken-baby syndrome." Of particular note is a ground-breaking interview by NPR's Shapiro with Norman Guthkelch, the pediatric neurosurgeon who is credited with first observing the condition in young children, who speaks out for the first time about his concerns regarding how that diagnosis is used. Guthkelch worries that it is too often applied by medical examiners and doctors without considering other possible causes for a child's death or injury. As shaken-baby syndrome is currently under attack in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom - where a disturbing number of wrongful convictions have been exposed - this interview could help contribute to the syndrome's welcome demise. Our congratulations to NPR, Frontline and Propublica for their admirable investigation on such an important, timely, largely neglected topic which is of interest far beyond America's boundaries."

HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;

THE ENTIRE STORY CAN BE FOUND AT:

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/07/150202570/a-new-turn-in-calif-shaken-baby-case

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.