---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
GIST: "Rosa Jimenez was exonerated today after the Travis County District Attorney moved to dismiss a 2003 murder charge against her, based on testimony from leading pediatric airway experts that affirmed the death at the center of the case was a tragic accident and not murder.
Ms. Jimenez, who has always maintained her innocence, was convicted of murder after a 21-month-old child she was babysitting choked on paper towels and suffered a severe brain injury due to oxygen deprivation.
He passed away three months later.
Prior to today’s dismissal, Ms. Jimenez was released from prison in 2021 after Judge Karen Sage of the 299th Criminal District Court in Austin, Texas recommended that Ms. Jimenez’s habeas petition be granted, finding that, “There was no crime committed here … Ms. Jimenez is innocent.”
The decision came after the Travis County District Attorney’s Office conducted an in-depth review of the evidence through its trial division, special victims unit, and conviction integrity unit.
The evidence included reports and testimony of numerous pediatric airway experts who unanimously concluded that the choking incident was the result of a tragic accident.
At Ms. Jimenez’s original trial, the State presented faulty testimony stating it would have been physically impossible for the child to have accidentally choked.
In May 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned her 2005 conviction, ruling that the State had used false and misleading testimony to obtain her conviction.
Support for Ms. Jimenez’s innocence has been widespread, particularly among Travis County state legislators.
Over the years, four Texas judges who have reviewed her case in federal and state courts have all concluded that Ms. Jimenez is likely innocent and the child’s death was an accident.
>Try watching this video on www.youtube.com</a>, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.</div></div>
“Rosa was the mom to a one-year-old girl and seven months pregnant when this ordeal began. She was forced to give birth to her son in jail, shackled, while awaiting trial.
For the past 20 years, she has fought for this day, her freedom, and to be reunited with her children.” said Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation and Ms. Jimenez’s attorney.
“Her wrongful conviction was not grounded in medical science, but faulty medical assumptions that turned a tragedy into a crime — with her own attorney doing virtually nothing to defend her. I wish we could say that what happened to Rosa was an isolated occurrence, but we have a real, pervasive problem in our country when it comes to how the criminal legal system treats the caregivers of children who are hurt or die. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent caregivers and parents in prison today based on faulty, unscientific medical testimony misclassifying accidents or illness as abuse.”
Ms. Jimenez’s case has garnered attention from local and national leaders, including San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich. “I’ve been following Rosa’s case since she was released two years ago and moved to San Antonio,” Coach Popovich said.
“It’s heartbreaking — a tragic miscarriage of justice. DA Garza and his team deserve great credit for helping the Innocence Project establish Rosa’s innocence with new scientific evidence. Rosa is just 41, endured nearly 20 years wrongly incarcerated, and desperately needs a live donor so she can get a kidney transplant. Please check out the micro site Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York has established for kidney donors Kidney4Rosa.com. Help save her life.”
Director of Special Litigation and Ms. Jimenez’s attorney
A Crime That Never Occurred
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 40% of female exoneres were wrongly convicted of harming children or other loved ones in their care.
“I wish we could say that what happened to Rosa was an isolated occurrence, but we have a real, pervasive problem in our country when it comes to how the criminal legal system treats the caregivers of children who are hurt or die.”
Vanessa Potkin
Director of Special Litigation and Ms. Jimenez’s attorney
The Danger of Faulty Medical Evidence
At trial, the State relied on faulty medical testimony contending that it was impossible for the toddler to have accidentally choked on the paper towels, which he’d put in his own mouth, and that Ms. Jimenez must have forced them into his mouth.
Ms. Jimenez’s appointed attorney never presented any credible expert witnesses to rebut the State’s faulty claims, and she was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison.
After the Innocence Project took on Ms. Jimenez as a client, her lawyers sought out top medical airway experts to evaluate the case evidence.
Four top pediatric airways specialists from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Stanford University Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital independently reviewed the case and issued a consensus report concluding that all the medical evidence indicated that the child accidentally choked, and that Ms. Jimenez had been wrongly convicted of a crime that never occurred.
Nearly 71% of female exonerees were convicted of crimes that never took place. As with Ms. Jimenez, such “crimes” include incidents later determined to be accidents according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
A Woefully Inadequate Defense
At her 2005 trial, Ms. Jimenez’s court-appointed attorney failed to present a meaningful defense in response to the State’s unfounded medical testimony.
The principal issue addressed at trial was whether this was an accidental choking. Ms. Jimenez’s trial counsel failed to present qualified experts to counter the State’s false testimony that it was impossible for this to have been an accident.
Ms. Jimenez’s attorney called only one expert who was fully discredited on cross-examination, who went on an explosive and harmful rant, and, at one point, yelled expletives at the prosecution.
A state court habeas judge in 2010 who first recommended that Ms. Jimenez receive a new trial noted that in his “30 years as a licensed attorney, [and] 20 years in the judiciary, [he had] never seen such unprofessional and biased conduct from any witness, much less a purported expert,” adding that the expert had left Ms. Jimenez’s case in greater jeopardy than before he testified.
In September 2018, a federal district court also ruled that Ms. Jimenez’s conviction should be vacated because she was denied her constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel.
That ruling was under appeal by the Texas Attorney General’s office, and, at that time, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office initiated a review of the new medical evidence.
“As prosecutors, we have an obligation to ensure the integrity of convictions and to seek justice,“ said Travis County District Attorney José Garza.
“In the case against Rosa Jimenez, it is clear that false medical testimony was used to obtain her conviction, and without that testimony under the law, she would not have been convicted.
Dismissing Ms. Jimenez’s case is the right thing to do.”Our hearts also continue to break for the Gutierrez family. In this case, our criminal justice system failed them, and it also failed Rosa Jimenez.
Our hope is that by our actions today, by exposing the truth that Ms. Jimenez did not commit the crime for which she was accused, we can give some sense of closure and peace to both families.”
40%
of female exoneres were wrongly convicted of harming children or other loved ones in their care.
71%
of female exonerees were convicted of crimes that never took place.
A Family Reunites
Ms. Jimenez was seven months pregnant at the time of her arrest. She gave birth to her son Emmanuel in jail while awaiting trial.
She held him for a total of five hours before he was taken from her and placed in foster care along with her daughter.
During Ms. Jimenez’s incarceration, her children grew into young adults.
Although they visited her over the years in prison, Ms. Jimenez was never allowed to hold or make physical contact with them because she had been convicted of harming a child.
Upon her release in 2021, Ms. Jimenez reconnected with both Emmanuel (who now goes by Aiden) and Brenda, whose wedding Ms. Jimenez was able to attend shortly thereafter. She now looks forward to becoming a grandparent in August.
Ms. Jimenez now faces another fight: to find a kidney donor and receive a life saving transplant. “The past 20 years, I have been fighting for my freedom, my innocence, and my children. Now I have a second fight,” said Ms. Jimenez. ”I want to have a long, healthy life with my family, who I waited so long to be with again. I want to see my grandchildren grow up. I have come so far, and I will keep fighting for as long as it takes.”
Ms. Jimenez is represented by Vanessa Potkin at the Innocence Project; current and former Foley & Lardner LLP trial lawyers Rachel O’Neil, Sara Brown, Sadie Butler, and Joanne Early and Kirkland & Ellis LLP."
The entire story can be read at:
https://innocenceproject.org/news/rosa-jimenez-is-exonerated-of-a-crime-that-never-took-place-after-20-years/
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;
—————————————————————————————————
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;
------------------------------------------------------------------
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/
------------------------------------------------------------
