PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Clarence is one of more than 20 exonerees across the country whose convictions were based on the controversial Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) hypothesis. Like so many of these cases, the State alleged that because Collin had bleeding on the eyes and brain, as well as brain swelling, he must have been shaken by the last person to have been with him. Research over the past two decades has shown that many things can cause these symptoms to occur, which is exactly what happened in this case."
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RELEASE: "Victory for Clarence Jones," published by The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project on July 8, 2021.
GIST: "Almost 23 years after losing his infant son and being wrongfully convicted of his death, MAIP client Clarence Jones’s name has finally been cleared.
Tuesday, a Baltimore County Circuit Judge, who had been ordered by an appellate court to grant Clarence’s Writ of Actual Innocence, set aside the guilty verdict in his case and found that the State could not retry him, stating “Granting a new trial in this case would not serve the interests of justice.”
This victory comes after more than four years of litigation with our co-counsel at Skadden and Buckley, including an eight-day hearing. At the hearing, we presented the testimony of five medical doctors who testified to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Clarence’s nine-week-old son, Collin Jones, had died because of a viral infection and aspiration of infant formula that triggered a several clotting disorder and the loss of oxygen and blood flow to his brain – not intentional trauma.
Clarence is one of more than 20 exonerees across the country whose convictions were based on the controversial Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) hypothesis. Like so many of these cases, the State alleged that because Collin had bleeding on the eyes and brain, as well as brain swelling, he must have been shaken by the last person to have been with him. Research over the past two decades has shown that many things can cause these symptoms to occur, which is exactly what happened in this case.
Although the trial court initially denied Clarence’s Writ of Actual Innocence claim because it found that the evidence was not newly discovered, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed that decision last December and denied the State’s motion to reconsider that reversal in February.
Despite that, the State had announced its intent to retry Clarence, even though he served more than 18 years in prison without a single infraction and has been a model citizen since his release on parole almost four years ago. Although nothing can ever give Clarence back his son or the time he lost, he is thrilled to have his legal odyssey come to an end and to have his name finally cleared.
Founded in 2000, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project corrects and prevents the conviction of innocent people in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We are one of the most successful of the 54 innocence organizations in the country. We have helped to secure the release and/or exoneration of 39 innocent men who spent a total of 763 years in prison for crimes they did not do. We have also helped pass 19 laws that help improve the criminal justice system.
Read the entire release at:
https://exonerate.org/victory-for-clarence-jones/
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Read 'order' at 'Centre for Integrity in Forensic Science' (CIFS) site at the link below:
CIFS description: "Clarence Jones was wrongfully convicted of Shaken Baby Syndrome in 1999. Doctors stated that Clarence killed his infant son by shaking him, causing internal brain trauma. Underlying health conditions and birth complications were what truly caused his death. In 2020, the courts overturned his conviction and remanded for proceedings. In early 2021, CIFS filed an amicus brief on his behalf. In July 2021, the Circuit Court for Baltimore County’s order set aside the guilty verdicts and granted the Petition for Writ of Actual Innocence. Clarence is now free after serving 18 years in prison.
https://cifsjustice.org/2021/07/09/clarence-jones-free-after-18-years/
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Having read this ultimate exoneration of Clarence Jones - a declaration of 'actual innocence' based on expert evidence that he tragically died of underlying health conditions - I invite the reader to read the following report of Jone's sentencing hearing, which appeared in the Baltimore Sun (Reporter Joan Jacobson) on May 11, 1999, under the glaring headline: "Man sentenced to 30 years for shaking infant son to death; 9-week-old boy suffered brain injuries." Imagine what it was like for Jones to hear the judge sentence him for 30 years for murder plus 15 years for child abuse, saying, " Jones "has to pay for the death" of his son."
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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"A Baltimore County judge sentenced a 35-year-old security guard to 30 years in prison for murder yesterday in the "shaken baby" death of his son in August Assistant State's Attorney Susan Hazlett told Baltimore County Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II that 9-week-old Collin Jones died of brain injuries so massive that his eyes were destroyed at the time of his death at Sinai Hospital on Aug. 31, six days after he was injured. Turnbull convicted the baby's father, Clarence Jones, a security guard at the Owings Mills mall, on March 4 of second-degree murder and child abuse. The judge sentenced Jones to 30 years for the murder, plus a concurrent sentence of 15 years for child abuse, saying Jones "has to pay for the death" of his son. Evidence at the trial showed Jones was alone with the baby at his Woodlawn home at the time the infant was injured. The prosecutor had said the injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Jones denied to police that he shook the baby and told the judge yesterday, "I loved my son so much I would never, ever [put] my hands on my baby." Before the judge announced the sentence, Jones' lawyer, Donald Daneman, brought several co-workers, friends and relatives to speak on his client's behalf, including the baby's grandmother, who described him as a kind and gentle man. Jones wept and moaned when his 14-year-old daughter told the judge her father "never hurt me." While Jones' friends and relatives described him as a nonviolent man who loved his infant son, Hazlett noted that he had previously been physically abusive to two former girlfriends, one of whom had her ribs broken. "Most days of his life he was a decent human being. He had a tendency to be violent against people who were weaker than him," said Hazlett. The baby's mother, Jennifer Jones, did not speak in court yesterday but sat in the back of the courtroom and wept as her husband was sentenced."
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