BREAKING NEWS: (Published by ON SBS): "A coalition of accused families is asking for an objective scientific evaluation of today’s medical guidelines for diagnosing child abuse, specifically but not exclusively shaken baby syndrome. “Our child-protection system is in crisis, right now,” says Jennie Aspelin, whose husband Kristian stood accused for two years of shaking their baby to death. “If anything good can come out of our nightmare, it will be through our advocating for change.” In November of 2010, Kristian Aspelin told emergency responders he had slipped in the kitchen while carrying 3-month-old Johan. But the child abuse expert at San Francisco General Hospital told police that children do not receive serious injuries from short falls and, further, that John’s brain injury proved he had been shaken to death. The county charged Kristian with murder. For two years, while Kristian and his wife had lost their baby, and their 3-year-old needed stability, Kristian was forced to live apart from his family while fighting the charges. In time, experts hired by the defense found compounding factors in the medical records and conducted biomechanical tests that demonstrated the fall Kristian described could cause serious injury. The county dropped the charges, leaving the Aspelins deeply in debt but reunited. So now Jennie Aspelin is helping to spread the word about the Protecting Innocent Families petition, a project that grew out of the 2013 conference for families falsely accused of child physical abuse sponsored by the Evidence Based Medicine and Social Investigation group. The petition has just gone live, on March 4. Organizers say they hope to gather signatures from 1,000 people who believe they have seen dogmatic thinking about child abuse result in accusations against innocent parents and caretakers.........The petition, which will be submitted to the U.S. Congress and to equivalent bodies in other countries, asks for an objective scientific review of the child abuse literature, to establish which opinions are based on statistically significant research and which opinions have become common knowledge without scientific review. The petitioners suggest that the National Academies of Sciences take on the job, as a follow-up to their important and influential 2009 review of forensics in the courtroom. This petition comes from the affected families at the same time that forensics professionals are raising objections about other aspects of forensic science. For more information, please see the Protecting Innocent Families web site,
https://protectinginnocentfamilies.wordpress.com/, and the Protecting Innocent Families petition, http://tinyurl.com/InnocentFamilyPetition.
http://onsbs.com/2015/03/05/protecting-innocent-families-a-petition/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Readers. Due to a 'writing' assignment, I will not be filing fresh posts for several weeks. (With the exception of breaking news;) When I am back in action I will make up for lost time with a vengeance. In the meantime, please keep me up to date with developments and don't hesitate to bring new matters of interest to this Blog to my attention at hlevy15@gmail.com.
Best wishes,
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
PS: For latest coverage of the Mark Lundy retrial go to: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/mark-lundy-murder-retrial
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.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;
