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Leo Ackley: Michigan; Shaken baby syndrome: Bulletin: Once convicted of killing a 3-year-old girl, he has been convicted again after being granted a retrial..."The University of Michigan Law School received a federal grant to challenge so-called “shaken baby convictions,” including Ackley’s case."

Next: Rodricus Crawford: Louisiana; Aftermath (2); A story on the remarkable Supreme Court of Louisiana decision by reporter John Simerman, who has distinguished himself by his consistant, perceptive reporting on The Crawford case..."The decision marks the latest reversal of a death sentence from Caddo Parish, the state's leader in sending people to death row. Including Crawford, Caddo Parish juries have sentenced five people to death since 2010, accounting for 38 percent of the state's total death sentences in that time. Critics of that record place much of the blame on former Acting District Attorney Dale Cox, a prosecutor who once wrote a memo saying that Crawford "deserves as much physical suffering as it is humanly possible to endure before he dies."..." A forensic pathologist diagnosed his cause of death as smothering, then stood by that account even after test results came back showing that the boy had pneumonia and that his blood was positive for streptococcus bacterial. Crawford's attorneys argued that the jury relied on bad forensic science and skipped over strong indications that the boy died of sepsis, rather than at his father's hands. They cited the forensic pathologist's testimony that Crawford "more likely than not" smothered his son — an assessment they claimed wasn't nearly enough to convict him. Crawford's attorneys also noted that Cox, the prosecutor, had urged the jury to sentence Crawford to death because it's what he said Jesus would do."..." Justice Jeannette Knoll agreed with the decision to overturn Crawford's conviction (on the basis of a flawed jury selection process.. HL) but, in a separate written opinion, said she would have acquitted Crawford based on a lack of evidence that he killed the boy. Chief Justice Bernette Johnson also endorsed Knoll's view."
Previous: Rene bailey: New York: Shaken baby syndrome; For the first time, a New York appellate court has ruled that evidence once used to convict people in shaken-baby cases may no longer be scientifically valid. The Democrat and Chronicle reports..."The appeals court decision, released Thursday, changes the legal landscape in New York for alleged shaken baby cases, said Brian Shiffrin, a local appellate lawyer who was not involved in the case. “It makes it both easier for defense attorneys to argue the science and it puts the burden back on prosecutors to show there is evidence to support the theory of shaken baby syndrome,” said Shiffrin, who has handled appeals of shaken-baby convictions."..."Bailey, now 56, had been in state prison about nine years when a volunteer lawyer offered to take up her case. The lawyer, Adele Bernhard, was director of a law clinic for indigent defendants at Pace University in Westchester County. Bernhard argued that over the previous decade, research had revealed other explanations for the sort of internal injuries once ascribed solely to shaking a baby. An accidental fall or an illness could instead cause the injuries, a growing number of scientists and physicians had come to believe. Bailey had insisted to police and prosecutors that the child at her home day care, Brittney Sheets, had jumped or fallen from an 18-inch-high chair and struck her head while Bailey was out of the room. At her trial, Bailey's assertion was overridden by medical testimony that the caregiver must have violently shaken the child. Bernhard argued that there now were scientific findings that a fall could have caused Brittney's injuries. This latest science, she said, should be considered newly discovered evidence, which can be grounds to reverse a conviction and order a new trial."...:"Bernhard, who now is at New York Law School in Manhattan, agreed Tuesday that this was the first appeals case in New York that had concluded new scientific findings about shaken-baby injuries constituted the type of newly discovered evidence that could overturn a conviction."
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"A man once convicted of killing a 3-year-old girl met was convicted again after being granted a retrial. Leo Ackley was initially convicted of shaking his girlfriend’s daughter Baylee Stenman, but the Michigan Supreme Court ordered a new trial for him on the grounds that he wasn’t properly defended in the first trial. Baylee died from a brain injury in 2011 while in Ackley’s care. Prosecutors say she died from physical abuse. Ackley said she died after falling out of bed. October 20, Ackley was found guilty again by a jury in Calhoun County. The University of Michigan Law School received a federal grant to challenge so-called “shaken baby convictions,” including Ackley’s case.
http://fox17online.com/2016/11/16/leo-ackley-convicted-again-for-killing-toddler/

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