QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Ester Clark has been living a nightmare for the past 22 years, ever since her grandson Danyel Smith was sentenced to life behind bars for the death of his infant son — a tragedy they both say he did not cause. “They never tried to find out what really happened,” Clark, 81, told Capital B Atlanta of Smith’s prosecution. “I can’t really explain the hurt and the tears and the heartaches and pain that I’ve been through over the years. … It’s just horrible.”
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Ester Clark has been living a nightmare for the past 22 years, ever since her grandson Danyel Smith was sentenced to life behind bars for the death of his infant son — a tragedy they both say he did not cause.
“They never tried to find out what really happened,” Clark, 81, told Capital B Atlanta of Smith’s prosecution. “I can’t really explain the hurt and the tears and the heartaches and pain that I’ve been through over the years. … It’s just horrible.”
Smith was convicted of murder by a Gwinnett County jury in 2003 based on the theory that his 2-month-old son Chandler’s death the year prior was caused by abusive head trauma, more commonly known as shaken baby syndrome.
The Supreme Court of Georgia is now deciding if Smith, who rejected a 2022 plea deal that would’ve sent him home, will get a new trial based in part on an updated scientific understanding of shaken baby syndrome that largely undercuts the theory presented by the prosecution at trial.
Dr. Steven Dunton, the prosecution’s medical examiner who testified in 2003 that Chandler’s skull fracture occurred on the day he became non-responsive, reversed his previous testimony last year, claiming he now believes it is likely that the fatal injury was sustained earlier because it was already showing signs of healing.
“They owe Danyel a whole lot,” said Latasha Pyatt, Smith’s fiancée. “They will never be able to repay him for the time that he’s lived away from his children and away from his family and what he’s seen in that place and [what] he has endured.”
Compared to children of other races, Black children are disproportionately identified as victims of abuse, according to a 2022 Stanford University study.
Marsha Brandon, Chandler’s mother, could not be reached for comment. She told Atlanta News First in 2023 that despite her previous praise of Smith’s attentive parenting, her stance changed to a belief that Smith killed their son and should remain in prison.
Mark Loudon-Brown, an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights, became Smith’s lawyer in 2021 and has since been focused on getting Smith a new trial.
A Gwinnett County Superior Court judge dismissed their first motion for a new trial without a hearing, but the Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously ruled in 2022 that Smith be given a hearing.
Smith, who has denied abusing his son in any manner, received a time served plea deal from the Gwinnett County district attorney’s office shortly after the supreme court’s ruling, but he rejected it as he refused to plead guilty.
Loudon-Brown argued during the April 2024 oral arguments that if presented with evidence of the current scientific understanding of shaken baby syndrome, a reasonable juror would have cause for reasonable doubt.
The attorney bolstered his argument via testimony from five doctors, who each explained how the medical understanding of infant skull fractures has evolved.
Dr. Saadi Ghatan, director of pediatric neurosurgery with the Mount Sinai Health System, testified in 2021 via a sworn affidavit that he would not conclude that Chandler Smith was abused, based on improved imaging technology and studies performed on non-abused babies that showed symptoms formerly used to diagnose shaken baby syndrome. He opined that the infant’s death was caused by pre-existing conditions due to birth injury and other events that don’t include being shaken.
Despite the new expert testimony, Smith was denied a new trial by now-retired Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor in October 2024. The ruling was later upheld by the Georgia Court of Appeals before the Supreme Court of Georgia granted him a review.
Loudon-Brown argued last month that Judge Batchelor did not properly apply Federal Rule of Evidence 702, a law related to how a judge determines whether an expert witness is qualified and their testimony is credible enough to be presented at trial. Loudon-Brown said the court improperly dismissed the new evidence and expert testimony he presented, resulting in Smith being denied a new trial.
“There are two options: The Supreme Court could send the case back and tell the trial court to apply the correct law, or the Supreme Court could apply the correct law itself and reverse [the lower court’s decision],” Loudon-Brown told Capital B Atlanta. “We’re asking them for the second, but it’s possible they could do either one of them.”
A spokesperson for the Gwinnett County district attorney’s office declined to comment to Capital B Atlanta about the case while it is actively under the Supreme Court of Georgia’s consi
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;
