STORY: "Death penalty ruled out for Henderson retrial: Henderson granted new trial in baby's 1994 death," by reporter Chuck Lindell, published by the Statesman on September 10, 2013.
GIST: "Travis County prosecutors will not seek the death penalty when Cathy Lynn Henderson is retried for the 1994 death of an infant she was babysitting. Henderson, who was once two days from execution for the death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh, will be tried for capital murder and faces a potential sentence of life in prison, District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said Monday. “I just think it’s best considering the evidence we have,” Lehmberg said. “Considering what the jury will be hearing, I think that’s the wisest decision.” Henderson was granted a new trial last December by a sharply divided Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled that scientific advances raised doubts about testimony from prosecution experts about Brandon’s cause of death. In the time since the ruling, Travis County prosecutors reviewed the original trial, the appeals court ruling, new evidence presented by Henderson’s legal team and other information to help determine what charge Henderson would face. Lehmberg said she made her decision in recent days. “We will pursue capital murder but not pursue the death penalty in this second trial,” she said Monday. Henderson, now 56, had claimed that Brandon died after slipping from her arms and falling about 4 feet to the tile-on-concrete floor of her kitchen. She said she panicked and buried the boy’s body in a Bell County field before fleeing to Missouri, where she was found and arrested 11 days later. At Henderson’s 1995 trial, then-medical examiner Roberto Bayardo testified that it was “impossible” to attribute the boy’s extensive head injury to an accidental fall. The only explanation, he said, was a deliberate and forceful blow struck by Henderson, adding that Brandon would have had to fall from “higher than a two-story building” to sustain a similar injury. But Bayardo recanted in an affidavit included in Henderson’s 2007 appeal, saying advancements in the understanding of pediatric head injuries indicate that relatively short falls onto a hard surface could produce injuries similar to those he discovered during Brandon’s 1994 autopsy. Henderson was two days from a June 13, 2007, execution date when the Court of Criminal Appeals halted proceedings — directing Travis County District Judge Jon Wisser, who had presided over her trial, to examine Henderson’s claims linked to biomechanics, an emerging science that measures the effect of force on the human body. Wisser recommended that Henderson receive a new trial, finding that jurors would have been unlikely to convict Henderson had they known about new scientific discoveries into head trauma, including studies showing that falls of less than 4 feet can be lethal, producing complex skull fractures similar to what Brandon Baugh suffered."
The entire story can be found at:
GIST: "Travis County prosecutors will not seek the death penalty when Cathy Lynn Henderson is retried for the 1994 death of an infant she was babysitting. Henderson, who was once two days from execution for the death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh, will be tried for capital murder and faces a potential sentence of life in prison, District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said Monday. “I just think it’s best considering the evidence we have,” Lehmberg said. “Considering what the jury will be hearing, I think that’s the wisest decision.” Henderson was granted a new trial last December by a sharply divided Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled that scientific advances raised doubts about testimony from prosecution experts about Brandon’s cause of death. In the time since the ruling, Travis County prosecutors reviewed the original trial, the appeals court ruling, new evidence presented by Henderson’s legal team and other information to help determine what charge Henderson would face. Lehmberg said she made her decision in recent days. “We will pursue capital murder but not pursue the death penalty in this second trial,” she said Monday. Henderson, now 56, had claimed that Brandon died after slipping from her arms and falling about 4 feet to the tile-on-concrete floor of her kitchen. She said she panicked and buried the boy’s body in a Bell County field before fleeing to Missouri, where she was found and arrested 11 days later. At Henderson’s 1995 trial, then-medical examiner Roberto Bayardo testified that it was “impossible” to attribute the boy’s extensive head injury to an accidental fall. The only explanation, he said, was a deliberate and forceful blow struck by Henderson, adding that Brandon would have had to fall from “higher than a two-story building” to sustain a similar injury. But Bayardo recanted in an affidavit included in Henderson’s 2007 appeal, saying advancements in the understanding of pediatric head injuries indicate that relatively short falls onto a hard surface could produce injuries similar to those he discovered during Brandon’s 1994 autopsy. Henderson was two days from a June 13, 2007, execution date when the Court of Criminal Appeals halted proceedings — directing Travis County District Judge Jon Wisser, who had presided over her trial, to examine Henderson’s claims linked to biomechanics, an emerging science that measures the effect of force on the human body. Wisser recommended that Henderson receive a new trial, finding that jurors would have been unlikely to convict Henderson had they known about new scientific discoveries into head trauma, including studies showing that falls of less than 4 feet can be lethal, producing complex skull fractures similar to what Brandon Baugh suffered."
The entire story can be found at:
See the Texas Cort of Criminal Appeals decision at:
http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/PDFOPINIONINFO2.ASP?OPINIONID=23413
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
