PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In her second trial, Baumer’s defense lawyer testified that he hadn’t been knowledgeable enough about the medical aspects of her case to provide her with an adequate defense, just one of the many factors that led to her wrongful conviction and imprisonment. When it was all said and done, Baumer served almost five years of her 10-15 year sentence."
STORY: "A strong woman's triumph over a broken system," by staff reporter Eadion Grim, published by The Western Herald on December 6, 2017.
GIST: "In the fall of 2003, Baumer was
in the process of adopting her nephew, her sister being unable to care
for him. In October 2003, Baumer took her then five-week-old nephew into
the emergency room because he wasn’t eating. The ER ran a series of
tests before transporting the infant to a local children’s hospital
where doctors still weren’t sure what was wrong. Ultimately, they
discovered that he had experienced bleeding in his brain, and a few days
later Baumer received a call from the sheriff's office asking her to
come in and answer some questions. In the spirit of compliancy, and
having no indication that she was being interrogated, Baumer didn’t ask
for an attorney and answered all of their questions. Eventually, she
realized that she was the primary suspect in a child abuse case, and in
February 2004 she was charged. Her case went to trial in August 2005,
and after five weeks, Baumer was convicted of first degree child abuse
and sentenced to 10-15 years in prison. She maintained her innocence the
entire time. “I was so sure, from day one, I
was going to hear ‘I’m sorry we’ve made a terrible mistake,’” Baumer
said. “I was so sure that somebody would realize that there was a
serious error and a miscarriage of justice and that I’d fallen victim to
it.” Baumer continued to fight during
her time in prison, but after her second appeal was denied in September
2007, she and her family had started to lose hope. In December of that
year, the University of Michigan’s Innocence Clinic, a group run through
the University’s law school that fights to exonerate individuals who
may have been wrongfully convicted without the use of biological
evidence, contacted Baumer and told her that they wanted to pick up her
case. With their help, Baumer was able
to get her case retried and several expert witnesses were brought in to
testify on her behalf. They filed for a 6500 motion which would
introduce new evidence that Baumer’s nephew had not suffered from shaken
baby syndrome, as originally believed, but rather Cerebral Sinovenous
Thrombosis, a form of childhood stroke which had caused the brain
hemorage. This process took three years to go through the court system
and it wasn’t until Oct. 2010 that the jury finally came to a verdict. “Jail is so cold,” Baumer said.
“The day the jury came back and I was called in for their verdict, I
went to that courtroom in a sports bra, sports socks [and] thermals
because I wasn’t going to freeze like I did the first time. I did not
know that within three hours I was gonna have my freedom back. I thought
they would say ‘guilty’ and I would go back to a cold jail cell, so I
was gonna make sure I was warm. I was wearing a suit with sports socks,
it was crazy.” On Oct. 15, 2010 Baumer was found
not guilty and released at the age of 33. She never received a formal
apology from the state, but after her trial ended the judge came out and
apologized to her. “The judge came out and shook my
hand and said ‘I’m sorry that you had to go through this, and I’m
grateful I can now start sleeping,’ because ironically he was the same
judge from my first trial, and he hadn’t been comfortable with my case
from the beginning,” Baumer said.
Her case demonstrates what can go
wrong in the American legal system when pride and ego get in the way of
what is right and just. In her second trial, Baumer’s defense lawyer
testified that he hadn’t been knowledgeable enough about the medical
aspects of her case to provide her with an adequate defense, just one of
the many factors that led to her wrongful conviction and imprisonment. When it was all said and done,
Baumer served almost five years of her 10-15 year sentence."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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/c
