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GIST: "The testimony of doctors will be crucial in the case of a Jones County baby’s death. But days before the trial is set to begin, there are questions about doc-producers following one of the defendants.
Jones County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Martin filed a motion to compel attorneys for Brooke Stringer to disclose if there has been and will be special media coverage before and during the capital murder trial, which is set to begin next month in Neshoba County.
The motion was filed Tuesday amid rumors that a documentary film crew associated with the A&E network was following Stringer and co-defendant Brandon Gardner as they are on trial for the October 2019 death of her 6-month-old daughter Rosalee.
“The State has recently been made aware that there is or may be the potential for the involvement of television and/or other media coverage of Defendant Stringer at trial and/or preparations for trial,” the motion began, and continued with a formal request for “details of any and all coverage, media or otherwise, in any way related to a trial of this cause and/or death and investigation of the death.”
The motion specifically asks for the name of a contact person and description of the involvement of that person or company that will follow the trial plus “any agreements, contracts ... between either co-defendant, or his or her representatives, and any media provider, documentary maker, production company, television or news company or show or any other such entity or group.”
The motion concluded by asking the court to compel the defendant to disclose any agreement for “payment in any manner related to or in exchange for permission to film, document, interview or otherwise memorialize any information related to this trial or the death of the infant victim.”
Martin noted that she attempted to get the information from Stringer’s attorney Tangi Carter “without the necessity of the Court’s intervention, but has not yet received a response.”
Gardner is being represented by attorney Marcus Evans.
The concern is that a mother could “profit from her baby’s death,” sources with knowledge of the case said.
Several sources say that has already occurred, noting that Stringer received upwards of $11,000 in a GoFundMe account even though a family friend paid the baby’s funeral expenses.
Stringer’s “strange behavior” on social media while her baby was fighting for her life in the hospital and in the immediate aftermath of her death has also been a recurring topic on social media and among people close to the case.
Gardner and Stringer were arrested in December 2021 and charged with capital murder in the death of Rosalee. Both posted $500,000 bond and were released from the Jones County Adult Detention Center.
They were believed to be the first local capital-murder suspects to bond out of jail while awaiting trial, then-District Attorney Tony Buckley said at the time.
The infant’s father was a foreign-exchange student from Germany. Gardner and Stringer now have a child together.
The arrest took more than two years because investigators had to wait on medical evidence from the crime lab, they explained at the time.
The manner of death was “homicide,” according to the medical examiner’s autopsy results, and the cause of death was “blunt-force trauma” and what was described as “nonaccidental traumatic head injury.”
Gardner and Stringer were the only people in the home with the baby at the time of her death, and their explanation of what happened “was not possible,” Martin said at the time of the arrest.
More than two dozen motions have been filed by the defense attorneys leading up to the trial, which was originally set for June 23 but reset for June 5 after Neshoba officials said there was a conflict with the later date.
Their most recent motion calls for Dr. Scott Benton of University of Mississippi Medical Center to be struck down as an expert witness, noting that he is “not a pathologist, nor is he a forensic pathologist” and he did not examine Rosalee or conduct a firsthand review of evidence in the case. “Dr. Benton is merely a paid advocate for suspected victims of child abuse,” Carter’s motion alleges, adding that his expected testimony will be “nothing more that unsupported speculation.”
Martin responded that Benton is “more than qualified by his knowledge, experience and skill to provide expert testimony,” noting that his opinions are “based in sound, peer-reviewed, published scientific knowledge.”
Judge Dal Williamson has yet to rule on the latest motions.
Defense attorneys’ motion for a change of venue because of pretrial publicity was granted, which is why the case will be in Neshoba County.
They also called for Williamson to recuse himself and for a special prosecutor to try the case since DA Brad Thompson was contacted as a possible defense attorney prior to becoming Jones County District Attorney.
Both of those motions were denied.
Thompson testified that he is not involved in the case, as ADAs Katie Sumrall and Martin are handling it.
The defendants were charged with capital murder because there was an underlying felony — child abuse.
The Jones County DA’s is not pursuing the death penalty, so the maximum penalty the defendants face is life in prison.
The trial is expected to take two weeks.
No notice of photo or electronic coverage had been filed with the court as of Wednesday morning, but outlets can file a notice up to 48 hours before a trial begins."
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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