Important research has been done and is continuing to be conducted on the issue of Shaken Baby Syndrome. The Washington Post, in a year-long study, in partnership with journalists from Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project, used court records and news media accounts to track the dispositions of about 1,800 cases nationwide since 2001 that reportedly involved shaking. Information was also obtained from the National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan Law School and from bloggers Sue Luttner and Susan Anthony. Researchers have now made the current research public in a multi-part article--one that should be a candidate for a Pulitzer Prize. In the series, the issue of Shaken Baby Syndrome is examined from every possible angle.
See Cenziper, Debbie, Lauryn Schroeder, Sophia Bollag, and Anna Zambelli. "Shaken Science." Washington Post, March 20, 2015. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/shaken-baby-syndrome/Doctor-What-could-be-right-about-getting-it-wrong.html Or use http://tinyurl.com/kphf84t
About twenty years ago, I was assigned counsel to the mother of a shaken baby. The PA charged her husband of with attempted murder after it was "determined" that he shook the baby while she was at work. He finally took a plea for a lesser included charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. I will always remember this case as the worst case I have ever worked in 29 years of practice. Today I find myself wondering if this young man, a man with limited cognitive abilities, was wrongly accused and imprisoned.
This important information should go into your research files. You can access the reports on the website of the Washington Post. The investigation begins with the link below.
A Tinyurl is here: http://tinyurl.com/kphf84t
