BACKGROUND: (THEN): Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg: Published by 'The Appeal', on September 27, 2004, under the heading: "Georgia Judge Refuses to Overturn ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ Conviction."…"Medical experts testified that Danyel Smith’s child likely died of natural causes, but Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Ronnie K. Batchelor rejected a motion to overturn his 2003 murder conviction. Yesterday, Danyel Smith’s fight to prove he did not kill his two-month-old son suffered a devastating blow when a Georgia state court denied his request for a new trial. In 2003, Smith was convicted of shaking to death his son, Chandler, based on the largely discredited theory of shaken baby syndrome (SBS). In April, the Superior Court of Gwinnett County held an evidentiary hearing on Smith’s motion for a new trial. Prior to the hearing, the Gwinnett County prosecutor’s office offered Smith a plea deal for time served, which would mean he would be released from prison, according to his legal filings. Smith, who has always maintained his innocence, rejected it. “Imagine watching your baby boy die of natural causes after frantically trying to save his life, and then being asked to say, untruthfully, that you killed him,” Smith’s attorney, Mark Loudon-Brown, told The Appeal in an email. “That is something Mr. Smith would not do, even at the price of freedom.” For years, the courts have refused to believe Smith’s protestations of innocence. At trial, Smith testified that Chandler suddenly stopped breathing while they were driving to see the baby’s mother. Smith said he performed CPR on the side of the road, then got back in the car, and drove to his partner’s location. Once he arrived at the office building where his partner was waiting, he carried Chandler out of the car. His partner called 911, and two bystanders attempted to perform CPR. Paramedics arrived and took Chandler to the hospital. The police quickly assumed that Smith had abused Chandler. They arrested him at the hospital, five days before his son was taken off life support. At trial, Smith told the jury he was innocent. “I did not beat my son,” he testified. “I did not shake my son.” The jury convicted Smith, and the judge sentenced him to life.
SUB-HEADING: "In a unanimous opinion, the state Supreme Court said the lower court failed to apply the proper legal framework when denying Danyel Smith a new trial.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Danyel Smith, seen in 2001, has spent more than 20 years fighting to clear his name in the death of his infant son."
GIST: "After spending over 20 years incarcerated for a crime he says he didn’t commit, Danyel Smith had hoped to celebrate his first Thanksgiving at home this November. However, despite a recent victory at the Supreme Court of Georgia, it is likely he will remain incarcerated for the rest of the year.
“I jokingly told him last night that we have five white [lottery] balls, but we just didn’t get the Mega Ball,” Smith’s fiancée, Latasha Pyatt, told Capital B Atlanta. “We won a little bit, but we just didn’t get the Mega Ball this time. But it’s coming.”
In 2003, Smith was convicted of murdering his infant son based on a medical examiner’s diagnosis that the 2-month-old boy had sustained abusive head trauma, labeled at the time as shaken baby syndrome. He was sentenced to life.
Last week, in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a ruling by a Gwinnett County judge denying Smith a new trial and sent the case back to the lower court with an order to apply the appropriate legal framework in their decision.
“It’s somewhat bittersweet because we, for the last five years, have been litigating this case with what we believe is evidence that Mr. Smith is innocent, and while we won today, he’s still in prison,” Mark Loudon-Brown, Smith’s attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights Capital Litigation Unit told Capital B Atlanta on Oct. 15.
Even though they had been warned by the attorneys that this was a possible outcome, Pyatt said her fiancé had been optimistic that the Supreme Court would grant him a new trial because of how long he had been incarcerated.
“He was extremely disappointed. … I would even go as far as saying he was devastated with the news,” she said.
About a week before the court’s decision was announced, Smith was transferred from Dooly State Prison in Unadilla to Riverbend Correctional Facility, a privately run prison in Milledgeville, which Pyatt believes is contributing to his distress.
“Another delay is just very, very disheartening and heartbreaking for the both of us and the whole family, to be honest,” Pyatt added.
Loudon-Brown doesn’t expect to have to present the evidence again but said they anticipate a hearing to argue why a correct application of the law means Smith should be granted a new trial.
“While this is a pending case, the Georgia Supreme Court has sent it back for consideration by the trial judge. We will continue to advocate on behalf of the victims and the people of the state of GA,” a spokesperson for Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson wrote in a statement to Capital B Atlanta.
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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
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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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