PHOTO CAPTION: "A hearing last week revealed that a former medical examiner would make a different determination in an autopsy today, based on new evidence."
Evidence is mounting that Carmen Mejia, who has already served 20 years of a life sentence for murder, is actually innocent of that charge.
On Feb. 13, the medical examiner who autopsied the infant Mejia is accused of murdering testified that if she had known during Mejia’s 2005 trial what she knows today, she would have concluded the infant’s death was an accident, not a homicide.
Mejia, a Honduran immigrant who spoke no English, was accused in 2003 of submerging a child she was babysitting in scalding bathwater as she babysat him and her own children.
Mejia claimed the scalding was an accident, that one of her young daughters had placed the infant in the tub and turned on the hot water while she was out of the room.
She was found guilty, but two years ago retired bailiff Art Guerrero succeeded in getting the New York-based Innocence Project and the Travis County D.A.’s Office to begin reexamining the case, an office spokesperson told us. The two groups are coordinating to try to free Mejia or get her a new trial.
“I said, ‘Don’t expect me to change my opinion.’ And before I had finished that meeting, I was convinced.”
–Elizabeth Peacock, Travis County assistant medical examiner from 1995 to 2005
Elizabeth Peacock, who worked as an assistant medical examiner at Travis County from 1995 to 2005, was the sole witness at the Feb. 13 hearing.
She testified that she ruled the infant’s death a homicide after performing his autopsy on July 29, 2003, but based her determination in part on information provided by Austin police, rather than just the child’s injuries.
Specifically, Peacock said, police told her that Mejia claimed the infant had pulled a pot of boiling water onto himself, which was inconsistent with the pattern of burns that Peacock saw on the child.
In the courtroom last Thursday, prosecutor Dexter Gilford asked Peacock how she came to reassess the cause of death.
Peacock described how the D.A.’s Office asked her to come in last October and look at new evidence it had assembled.
She said she doubted the new evidence would be significant but agreed to come in.
“I said, 'Don’t expect me to change my opinion,’” Peacock remembered. “And before I had finished that meeting, I was convinced.”
Gilford asked her what, in particular, had changed her mind. Peacock replied that it was an affidavit, which has still not been made public, submitted by one of Mejia’s daughters last year, stating that it was she who had placed the child in the bath and turned on the water.
Peacock said it was not only the admission itself, but the entire affidavit, which changed her mind.
“It was the fact that this now-young woman, who was only about 3 or 4 years old when this happened, that this was traumatic enough for her to remember and to carry that guilt for all those years – that she had turned on the hot water. And the incredible burden that this young woman has been carrying all these years. And that it would be unusual for someone that age to remember something that was not traumatic. So this had to have been terribly traumatic for her.”
Peacock added that after meeting with the D.A.’s team she contacted the current Travis County medical examiner to ask about the possibility of getting the manner of death on the child’s death certificate changed from homicide to accident.
“That’s allowable, and he said that they don’t routinely do that, but to send him a copy of the affidavit and that he would put it in the file,” Peacock testified.
“You did that independently?” Gilford asked. Peacock said yes. Gilford asked why.
Peacock leaned into the microphone and said in a clear, firm voice, “Because it’s the right thing to do.”
The entire story can be read at:https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2025-02-21/22-years-later-medical-examiner-says-babys-death-was-actually-an-accident/
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;
