BACKGROUNDER: "Russell Silverstein, co-President of AIDWYC, said today “Maria Shepherd has suffered immeasurably due to her wrongful
conviction and deserves to have her name cleared by the Ontario Court of
Appeal today. Sadly, she is not the only person to have suffered at
the hands of Dr. Smith.” On
the late afternoon of Tuesday, April 9, 1991, Kasandra Shepherd began
vomiting in her bedroom, was gasping for air and went into a coma.
She was taken to the Hospital for Sick Kids (H.S.C) and two days later was taken off life support and died. Dr. Charles Smith was then the pediatric pathologist at H.S.C. He conducted Kasandra’s autopsy at the H.S.C. and told
the police that Kasandra had died as a result of abuse, involving a
blow or blows to the head, leaving a watch-shaped mark under her scalp. On April 24, 1991, Maria Shepherd, 21 years old at the time, was charged with manslaughter in Kasandra’s death. At
the time of her trial in 1992, Maria had three children of her own –
Jordan (then 6 years old), Natasha (2) and Chelsea (8 months). Under
extreme pressure and consumed by concern that if she continued to claim
innocence the Children’s Aid Society would take away her three children
from her, Maria pleaded guilty mid-trial to manslaughter. On
October 22, 1992, she was sentenced to imprisonment for two years less a
day. She was pregnant at the time with her fourth child and, on March
31, 1993, five months into her prison sentence, she gave birth to Chanel
in prison. She was released on parole on June 21, 1993. Upon her
release, she was reunited with Jordan, Natasha, Chelsea and Chanel. In
2007, after a review of Charles Smith’s work, concerns arose that
Kasandra was not a homicide victim at all, but had died of natural
causes. If so, Maria Shepherd had been convicted of a crime that never
happened. Ms.
Shepherd was contacted by AIDWYC and told of these developments. She
had continued to strongly assert her innocence and she asked AIDWYC to
investigate and, if possible, reopen Kasandra’s case. AIDWYC
had the case reviewed by Dr. Simon Avis, a forensic pathologist from
St. John’s Newfoundland, Dr. David Ramsay, a forensic neuropathologist
from London, and Dr. Patrick Barnes, a forensic radiologist from
Stanford University, California. All agreed that Dr. Smith’s findings
were wrong and he had wrongly attributed Kasandra’s death to homicide. Experts who have looked at the case have come to some damning conclusions about Dr. Smith’s work. They refer to his opinions as “unreliable in the extreme”, “inappropriate and misleading” and “pseudo-scientific. They
conclude that the case of Kasandra’s death could not be determined but
it could have resulted from a pre-existing epileptic condition, or from a
mild head injury resulting from a fall that became fatal. Today,
Maria Shepherd is asking the Court of Appeal to consider the new
evidence, and set aside her guilty plea and acquit her of the
manslaughter of Kasandra. Her request is supported by the Attorney
General of Ontario.... Maria’s case is another deplorable example of unsustainable assertions made by a seemingly infallible expert witness. There
were other repercussions from her case. Kasandra’s family doctor was
charged with obstruction of justice but, fortunately, the charge was
dismissed. A lengthy Inquest was held, with much media attention and
public scrutiny, and resulted in 73 recommendations to several
government agencies on the basis that “concrete changes have to be done
to our society’s outlook on child abuse.” Ms. Shepherd will be in the courtroom and will speak outside the court to the press afterward. She said today: “The
best thing for all these 25 years is that my family – my husband,
Ashley, who was Kasandra’s father, my son Jordan (now 29), my daughter
Natasha (26), Chelsea (25) and Chanel (22) – have supported me. They
will all be with me at the appeal today. These have been painful years
for us all. Kasandra was an important and special member of our family.
We loved her. We believe that she is with us today and that she can now
finally rest in peace.”AIDWYC’S senior counsel, James Lockyer, will be representing Maria Shepherd in the Court of Appeal."
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See "Woman implicated by Charles Smith's flawed evidence hopes for closure and peace." by reporter Wendy Gillis, published on February 28, 2016 by the Toronto Star. (A very fine, comprehensive story with background on other cases botched by Smith, a timeline, and Maria Shepherd on video. HL);
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2016/02/28/woman-implicated-by-charles-smiths-flawed-evidence-hopes-for-closure-and-peace.html
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:
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See "Woman implicated by Charles Smith's flawed evidence hopes for closure and peace." by reporter Wendy Gillis, published on February 28, 2016 by the Toronto Star. (A very fine, comprehensive story with background on other cases botched by Smith, a timeline, and Maria Shepherd on video. HL);
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2016/02/28/woman-implicated-by-charles-smiths-flawed-evidence-hopes-for-closure-and-peace.html
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/
