Shaken baby syndrome has been a recognized diagnosis for several decades, though many medical professionals now prefer the term abusive head trauma. It is defined by a constellation of symptoms known as the triad: brain swelling, bleeding on the surface of the brain and bleeding behind the eyes. For years, those three symptoms by themselves were uniformly accepted as evidence that a crime had been committed, even in the absence of bruises, broken bones or other signs of abuse. While many doctors, maybe most, still swear by the diagnosis, a growing number have lost faith. Not that they doubt that some babies have been abused. But these skeptics assert that factors other than shaking, and having nothing to do with criminal behavior, may sometimes explain the triad. Read more
Willie Jerome Manning was recently exonerated in the murders of two Starkville women in 1992. Now, will the discredited science used to convict him in a separate case, in which he has always maintained his innocence, lead to his freedom? READ MORE
The field of forensics has reached an important moment. In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences published a congressionally commissioned report on the state of forensic science in the courtroom. The report was highly critical of a wide range of forensic specialties, from fingerprints to hair and fiber analysis to blood spatter analysis. It found that many of the claims forensic analysts have been making in courtrooms for decades lacked any scientific foundation to back them up. Yet judges and juries have taken and continue to take those claims as foolproof science, often because the experts themselves frame them that way.
|
SAVE INNOCENTS CAMPAIGN LEARN MORE . Mental illness & innocence . Famous innocence cases . No longer death row . Already exonerated . Executed but innocents? . Pardoned posthumously . Mental illness & innocence . Where to get help . Statistics . Art . World: Innocence news Categories
All
|