GIST: "A Calhoun County judge will decide in a couple of months if a Battle Creek man convicted in connection with his son's death will receive a new trial. Shawn Brown, 33, is serving a sentence of eight to 30 years in prison after he was convicted of manslaughter and child abuse in the death Jan. 24, 2010 of his five-month old son, Shawn Brown Jr. Prosecutors alleged the child was shaken by his father two days before he died. But attorneys and student attorneys from the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan have argued Brown did not receive a fair trial because his defense attorney did not present a medical expert to refute prosecution testimony. The case is similar to the Calhoun County case of Leo Ackley who was convicted in 2011 in the death of his girlfriend's three-year old daughter. He was convicted of murder but the Michigan Supreme Court overturned that conviction because the defense did not present its own expert. Ackley was tried and convicted a second time in 2016 and is serving a life sentence. But judges across the state have concluded from several appellate decisions that defense attorneys should present experts. At a hearing Thursday lawyers for Brown presented a medical expert and Brown's trial attorney to convince Calhoun County Circuit Judge Sarah Lincoln that Brown should have a new trial. Attorney James Goulooze of Hastings told the judge he was hired by friends of Brown, who is indigent, and had no other money to hire an expert. The presiding judge at the trial in 2011 declined to provide county funds for a doctor to consult with Goulooze and testify for Brown. "I knew we needed an expert," Goulooze told Imran Syed, an attorney from the Innocence Clinic. "I knew there was controversy brewing in the medical community about Shaken Baby Syndrome. I knew I needed someone." Goulooze said he talked with a long-time friend who was a physician but not an expert in head trauma and did some of his own research. "I felt we could present a decent case," he said. "I would have preferred an expert. I was baffled by some of the medical testimony." He told Syed it was not a trial strategy to go without an expert. "There were no finances available." Dr. Joseph Scheller, a Baltimore doctor of pediatrics and neurology, testified there were more explanations for the baby's death than that he was shaken or struck in the head. He called shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma  "an idea that is still in flux." Scheller told student attorney Lauren Flamang that if called to testify at trial he could say the child suffered some trauma but that it might have been two weeks or two months before his death. The doctor, who studied the medical records, said he would have expected to find signs of external injury to the child's neck or skull or perhaps other broken bones. Instead the bleeding in the brain can be explained in other ways. "It could have been complications from a prior condition," the doctor said. He did acknowledge when questioned by Assistant Prosecutor Karen Palowski that the child could have been injured without outward signs of trauma if thrown against something soft or while wearing heavy clothes. Goulooze also testified he attempted to introduce an audio tape of an interview of Brown by police after he was told his son was dead and that he was being charged with murder. In the the recording, Brown is heard crying and telling the officer, "I didn't do anything. All I tried to do was save my son." Goulooze said the recording shows Brown was not indifferent to his son's death, as some prosecution witnesses had testified. Goulooze said the recording had been admitted but was then was stricken after a motion by prosecutors. "I felt the tape should have come in after the prosecutor showed apathy and lack of compassion. The tape  would have made a difference," he said. "I think the jury would have come back with a not guilty." Lincoln said both sides can submit briefs and rebuttals in the next six weeks and she will then issue a written opinion on the motion for a new trial."

The entire story can be read at: