Melissa Calusinski: Illinois: Former day care worker serving 31-year prison sentence for murder of 16-month old toddler at day care center to appear on "48 hours" Saturday on CBS. She maintains her innocence. Chicago Tribune.

STORY: "Chicago-area woman to appear on '48 Hours,' by reporter Duaa Eldeib, published by the Chicago Tribune on February 27, 2015.

PHOTO CAPTIONS: "Melissa Calusinski is in prison for the murder 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan. Chicago-area woman who will appear on '48 Hours' maintains her innocence. Chicago-area woman serving 31-year prison sentence to share her story on '48 Hours' Former day care worker convicted of murder maintains innocence."

GIST:  "A Chicago-area woman who is serving a 31-year prison sentence for a murder she said she did not commit will share her story with a national audience this weekend on the news program "48 Hours." Melissa Calusinski was convicted of killing 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan by slamming him to the ground at a Lincolnshire day care center in 2009. Calusinski, of Carpentersville, confessed to throwing the Deerfield toddler to the ground but maintained that police coerced the confession during a 10-hour interrogation. She was 25 when she was convicted in 2011.  Her lawyers appealed the ruling, arguing that the evidence didn't prove her guilty of murder and that the jury should not have been allowed to hear the confession. During trial, her defense team also contended that Calusinski's low IQ played a role in her confession. State appellate judges last year rejected the appeal. Authorities have denied that Calusinski's confession was coerced. Her lawyers hope her case will be the latest to unravel in Lake County, a jurisdiction troubled by bungled investigations, false confessions and wrongful convictions. The "48 Hours" segment "Blaming Melissa" will air Saturday on CBS. The show also will include interviews with Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim and Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd, both of whom were elected after Calusinski's conviction. According to "48 Hours," Rudd was "shocked" after his review of the initial autopsy findings."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-melissa-calusinski-48-hours-met-20150226-story.html

See  video preview on '48 Hours' site": "All new:  Blaming Melissa:  A young woman is serving a 31-year murder sentence for a crime she says she didn't commit. If that’s the case, why did she confess? "48 Hours"' Erin Moriarty investigates Saturday, Feb. 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS."

 http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/preview-blaming-melissa/

See also related commentary by Deborah Tuerkheimer for CBS News entitled "Questionable convictions in "shaken baby cases." (Deborah Tuerkheimer is a Professor of Law at Northwestern University and the author of "Flawed Convictions: 'Shaken Baby Syndrome' and the Inertia of Injustice." She also appears on Saturday's "48 Hours" investigation into the case of Melissa Calusinski, a former day care provider who says she is wrongfully convicted in a toddler's death. Here, Tuerkheimer weighs in on questionable convictions in child death cases.)..."A few months ago, a 55-year-old Florida day care provider became yet another caregiver accused of shaking a toddler to death. The woman, who had worked with children for decades, denied harming the boy. But pediatricians concluded that this was a case of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS). Even before an autopsy was performed, the state charged the woman with murder. She is being held in jail without bond and if convicted, she faces mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole. Based on the press reports, this case resembles many that I have written about in my book, Flawed Convictions: "Shaken Baby Syndrome" and the Inertia of Injustice. Without witnesses or external signs of abuse, the classic diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome rests on three neurological symptoms, otherwise known as the "triad": bleeding beneath the outermost layer of the brain, retinal bleeding, and brain swelling. These symptoms are said to prove that a baby was violently shaken and, what's more, to identify the abuser-- whoever was present when the child was last lucid. Shaken Baby Syndrome is, in essence, a medical diagnosis of murder. In order to convict, prosecutors must rely entirely on the claims of science. But the science has shifted. In recent years, there has been a growing consensus among experts that the neurological symptoms once viewed as conclusive evidence of abuse may well have natural causes, and that old brain injuries can re-bleed upon little or no impact. In short, current science raises significant questions about the guilt of many caregivers convicted of shaking babies."

The entire commentary can be found at:

 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/questionable-convictions-in-shaken-baby-cases/

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com.
 
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;