PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "After giving his qualifications, certifications and a rundown of his experience, he discussed in detail his concerns about this case and Gardner and Stringer being criminally charged. He said there were a “couple of Innocence Project” cases with similar circumstances. “Wrongful convictions are taking place,” Godfrey said, adding, “I’m not suggesting that’s what’s happening here.” He said it was unfortunate that there was no report from a microscopic exam of tissue from Rosalee’s forehead and cheek, which could have determined the age of bruises. “Micro-exam is a long-lost art, but it was once a pillar of the sub-specialty of pathology,” Godfrey said. The state’s reports contain a “lot of conjecture,” Godfrey testified."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Gardner’s attorney Chris Collins asked if a baby “picking herself up” and falling back on the nightstand could have caused the injuries Rosalee suffered.
“Yes, it could,” Godfrey said. He testified that the defendants’ stories were “remarkably consistent,” and the fact that Stringer rushed Rosalee to the pediatrician soon after she bumped her head at daycare on Oct. 2 was “over and beyond” a level of care that isn’t typical for parents who abuse children. “I don’t believe those significant injuries occurred on Oct. 2,” he said. Asked for his conclusion about the state’s experts’ reports, Godfrey said, “I’m not saying they’re right or wrong. I say indeterminate."
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GIST: "A $500-an-hour medical expert offered a new theory for how 6-month-old Rosalee Stringer may have suffered a fatal head injury on the night of Oct. 26, 2019.
Perhaps the dog did it, pathologist Dr. Stephen Godfrey of Missouri suggested while testifying on behalf of Brooke Stringer, 24, in her capital murder trial with co-defendant and boyfriend Brandon Gardner on Wednesday.
“There was a large dog that was fond of the child, I understand, that was bounding about,” Godfrey said. “That creates uncertainty. I can’t tell. I’m on the fence with this one. That makes this (manner of death) indeterminate.
That was the point that the longtime pathologist — who owns and operates a private autopsy and legal consultation service — emphasized in his testimony, which lasted from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.
Godfrey agreed with the findings of state expert witnesses Dr. David Arboe and Dr. Scott Benton that Rosalee’s cause of death was blunt-force trauma, but he took issue with their conclusions that her injuries had to have been caused by abuse.
“I used to believe what Dr. Benton and Dr. Arboe still believe, but I don’t now, because I’ve been enlightened by a new body of evidence,” Godfrey said, referring to reports that showed brain injuries in infants were “frequently” not the result of abuse, but “short falls.”
Death certificates have five options for manner of death — homicide, suicide, accidental, natural causes and indeterminate (or “undetermined” in Mississippi).
Rosalee’s manner of death was listed as “Homicide” by Arboe, then the medical examiner for the state crime lab.
Godfrey took exception with Arboe’s explanation for that from testimony earlier in the trial.
“His opinion that you err on the side of homicide amazed me,” Godfrey said, adding that blunt-force trauma can be accidental.
A floor-level fall could be fatal in a baby Rosalee’s age, Godfrey testified, especially if there are “precipitating factors ... that could be easily overlooked,” he said. “She could have been knocked over by the dog.”
The doctor was referring to Gardner’s yellow Labrador retriever Dallas, which was mentioned by the defendant in an interview with investigators, but there has been no evidence presented that the dog was in the bedroom when Gardner heard the “thud” that led to Rosalee “going limp” then being rushed to South Central Regional Medical Center and airlifted to University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she died two days later.
Prosecutor Katie Sumrall pointed out that there was never any determination that the dog was in the room or that Rosalee fell off the bed, as referenced in Godfrey’s report. But he was undeterred, saying those facts don’t change his findings.
There’s a “substantial possibility” that Rosalee’s death was an accident, and because of the lack of certainty, the manner of death should be “indeterminate,” he said.
Godfrey testified that his fee is $450 per hour to review documents and reports and $500 an hour during trial.
“So, I need to speed this up,” said Stringer’s attorney Tangi Carter, whose law firm hired Godfrey.
After giving his qualifications, certifications and a rundown of his experience, he discussed in detail his concerns about this case and Gardner and Stringer being criminally charged.
He said there were a “couple of Innocence Project” cases with similar circumstances.
“Wrongful convictions are taking place,” Godfrey said, adding, “I’m not suggesting that’s what’s happening here.”
He said it was unfortunate that there was no report from a microscopic exam of tissue from Rosalee’s forehead and cheek, which could have determined the age of bruises.
“Micro-exam is a long-lost art, but it was once a pillar of the sub-specialty of pathology,” Godfrey said.
The state’s reports contain a “lot of conjecture,” Godfrey testified.
Sumrall said, “You brought up conjecture ... at no point did anyone remotely involved with the state suggest (Rosalee) fell from anywhere other than the floor.”
Godfrey corrected himself, noting that the baby was reportedly on a pallet beside the bed.
“I’m not concerned about the height,” he said. “I’m more concerned about what was around the pallet — a hard floor, a nightstand, a bed frame.”
If an infant got “an accelerated start, pushed by a dog or an adult,” from the floor into an object like one of those, it could cause intracranial hemorrhaging.
But that’s not the only injury Rosalee suffered, Sumrall said, noting Benton’s report of retinal damage that was even more indicative of abuse.
“You can’t say whether it was an accident or homicide,” Godfrey said.
The doctor testified that he had a recent “revelation” after reading reports from other forensic pathologists suggesting that low-level falls have caused injuries that led to the conviction of “innocent people,” he said.
Those “new” reports that were referenced, Sumrall said, were from 2003, 2005, 2013, 2014 and 2017. She showed a 2018 report of a “consensus statement” from leaders in the field from almost every developed country across the world.
“So, you agree that something from 2018 is more recent?” she asked.
He did, and then Sumrall noted that the report concluded intracranial injuries were caused by “short falls” in .48-per-1 million cases in children under 5 years old.
“That’s less than 1 out of every 2 million,” she said.
Godfrey said, “A lot of authors of various papers have reached very different conclusions.”
Pediatric associations are “old-school ... less likely to have their opinions swayed by new research,” Godfrey said.
Pediatrics is not Godfrey’s primary work, he said after being questioned by Sumrall, saying this is his seventh such case.
He said that he had been paid “over $10,000” so far and the meter was still running on his court fees.
Sumrall asked if he had seen investigators interviews with the defendants about their version of events from that night to help reach his conclusions. Godfrey said he was not provided with that. He only reviewed reports and photos that were provided by defense attorneys.
“Wouldn’t you want to look at that?” she asked. “All you were provided was perused by defense counsel?”
Gardner’s attorney Chris Collins asked if a baby “picking herself up” and falling back on the nightstand could have caused the injuries Rosalee suffered.
“Yes, it could,” Godfrey said.
He testified that the defendants’ stories were “remarkably consistent,” and the fact that Stringer rushed Rosalee to the pediatrician soon after she bumped her head at daycare on Oct. 2 was “over and beyond” a level of care that isn’t typical for parents who abuse children.
“I don’t believe those significant injuries occurred on Oct. 2,” he said.
Asked for his conclusion about the state’s experts’ reports, Godfrey said, “I’m not saying they’re right or wrong. I say indeterminate.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
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.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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