Friday, March 8, 2013

Medill Justice Project; Jennifer Del Prete; Pamela Jacobazzi; Students "make strides" on shaken baby syndrome cases.


STORY: "Medill Justice Project makes strides in shaken baby cases," by Cat Zakrzewski, published by the Project on February 19, 2013.

GIST:  "The Justice Project published last week that they recently won a six-month federal court battle to gain brain scans of an infant whose death is at the center of one of the cases the organization is investigating. Jennifer Del Prete, a Chicago-area daycare worker, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2005 after being convicted of shaking a 3-and-a-half month-old infant, causing fatal head injuries. She has maintained her innocence, and Klein said the documents and advances in medical science since her original conviction will play an important role in her case. “That was a big breakthrough,” Klein said. During Fall Quarter, the Justice Project published a report about its findings in the case of Pamela Jacobazzi, a babysitter who was convicted of first-degree murder charges in a shaken-baby case, receiving a 32-year prison sentence in May 1999. Klein said the Medill Justice Project contacted an eye doctor who testified at the time of the case the deceased infant’s injuries could only have been sustained through shaken baby syndrome. However, the eye doctor told Medill students that, based on new research, it is possible that those types of injuries resulted from other causes, ranging from disease to a fall. “That’s huge because the determination of the eye doctor at that time … was a central reason why she ended up being convicted,” Klein said. “The fact that (the students) were able to get the expert to revisit this issue and eventually change her position is really remarkable.”"

The entire post can be found at:

http://dailynorthwestern.com/2013/02/19/campus/medill-justice-project-makes-strides-in-shaken-baby-syndrome-cases/

FOX 32 story on Jennifer Del Prete case: "Ex-sitter fights to get conviction in infant death overturned."

 http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/21290233/shaken-baby

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

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.