PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In a 2020 paper entitled, “Unlikely to be Abuse: Lean In, Pediatric Neurosurgeon!”, Dr. Ghatan called on his colleagues not to shy away from reviewing cases of suspected abuse. “In the vast majority of cases, child protective service agencies had little to no medical evidence to support their claims of abuse,” he wrote in the paper published on the Journal of Neurosurgery’s website. “We’re the experts in the brain, not the child abuse pediatricians,” Dr. Ghatan wrote. “We’re the ones who can look at the films and say, ‘I’ve got years of training in trauma.’ ” During Dr. Ghatan’s testimony, prosecutors played a video of the doctor accepting an award, where he acknowledged his work with the public defenders office in Brooklyn, New York, to help reunite children with parents wrongfully accused of abuse. In court filings, the Gwinnett County district attorney’s office claims Dr. Ghatan isn’t qualified to provide his opinion because he “presents dangerous medical misinformation.”
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Last year, the district attorney’s office offered Smith a plea deal that would have set him free, but he declined the offer. “This plea offer was a ticket out of jail, a ticket out of prison, a ticket home and he said, ‘No, I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do. I didn’t kill my child’ ” said Mark Loudon-Brown, Danyel Smith’s attorney. Next week, the district attorney’s office is expected call its own expert witnesses to attempt to discount the doctors who testified on Danyel Smith’s behalf. The judge is expected to decide whether to grant a new trial afterward, but he is under no timeline to make that decision."
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SUB-HEADING: "He says, ‘I didn’t kill my child’: Will he get a new trial?"
GIST: "A debate over science could soon determine whether a Georgia man behind bars for life will get a new trial.
A weeks-long court hearing is underway in Gwinnett County examining a doctor’s medical diagnosis that helped find Danyel Smith guilty of killing his infant child more than 20 years ago.
The proceedings put shaken baby syndrome diagnoses, also known as abusive head trauma, under the microscope. The hearing’s purpose is to persuade Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor that testimony from medical experts today constitutes new evidence, and Smith should be given a new trial to show the original diagnosis used to convict him was wrong.
Eight experts from across the country have testified on Smith’s behalf so far.
“They are truly a godsend,” said LaTasha Pyatt, Smith’s fiancé. “Just to advocate for someone who they don’t know ... sitting there looking at the medical records and just saying, ‘No, this is something I have to do.’ ”
In 2003, a Gwinnett County jury convicted Smith of murdering his two-month-old son, Chandler. The state’s medical examiner ruled the boy’s death a homicide, caused by blunt force trauma. Prosecutors told the jury it was a “shaken baby” case. Smith was 28 at the time and until then, had no prior criminal record.
One of the experts who testified this week was Ken Monson, an expert in biomechanical engineering from the University of Utah who has conducted research in traumatic brain injuries.
“I cannot say that shaking couldn’t cause these injuries,” Monson, who took the stand Wednesday after evaluating the case, said. “It’s inappropriate for someone to conclude, they can,” said Monson.
Dr. Saadi Ghatan, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, also testified. After reviewing the child’s medical records, he told the judge Chandler Smith didn’t die from shaking but from brain trauma that occurred during birth.
Chandler Smith was born premature at 36 weeks. Doctors delivered him with the help of vacuum-assisted emergency cesarean section.
“This looks nothing like someone who was abused,” Dr. Ghatan, who said he was not receiving any compensation for his testimony, said. “It looks like somebody who had hypoxic espeic brain damage.”
The brain surgeon said he doesn’t fault the doctors who evaluated Chandler Smith in 2002, because they didn’t have the luxury of knowing what neurosurgeons understand today about traumatic brain injuries.
In a 2020 paper entitled, “Unlikely to be Abuse: Lean In, Pediatric Neurosurgeon!”, Dr. Ghatan called on his colleagues not to shy away from reviewing cases of suspected abuse. “In the vast majority of cases, child protective service agencies had little to no medical evidence to support their claims of abuse,” he wrote in the paper published on the Journal of Neurosurgery’s website.
“We’re the experts in the brain, not the child abuse pediatricians,” Dr. Ghatan wrote. “We’re the ones who can look at the films and say, ‘I’ve got years of training in trauma.’ ”
During Dr. Ghatan’s testimony, prosecutors played a video of the doctor accepting an award, where he acknowledged his work with the public defenders office in Brooklyn, New York, to help reunite children with parents wrongfully accused of abuse.
In court filings, the Gwinnett County district attorney’s office claims Dr. Ghatan isn’t qualified to provide his opinion because he “presents dangerous medical misinformation.
Dispatch records show two weeks before Chandler Smith’s death, his mother, Marsha Brandon, called 911 after she thought the child “was coming in and out of a seizure.”
Paramedics dismissed Brandon’s concerns, saying the “baby was just having hiccups.” Dr. Ghatan said hiccups can be a common symptom after having a seizure.
In an interview with investigators shortly after her son’s death, Brandon praised Smith, calling him “Mr. Mom” who “takes good care of the baby.” A few months later, her opinion changed. After going through the 2003 trial, she left believing Smith killed their child.
More than 20 years later, she maintains the same belief. “I definitely know that he is guilty,” Brandon said in a text to Atlanta News First Investigates. “They are trying to paint a picture as if Chandler [was] not a health baby, and he was.”
Last year, the district attorney’s office offered Smith a plea deal that would have set him free, but he declined the offer.
“This plea offer was a ticket out of jail, a ticket out of prison, a ticket home and he said, ‘No, I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do. I didn’t kill my child’ ” said Mark Loudon-Brown, Danyel Smith’s attorney.
Next week, the district attorney’s office is expected call its own expert witnesses to attempt to discount the doctors who testified on Danyel Smith’s behalf. The judge is expected to decide whether to grant a new trial afterward, but he is under no timeline to make that decision."
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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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-12348801
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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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
---------------------------------------------------------------
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;
—————————————————————————————————
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-12348801
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