CLICK HERE for more information on COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS!
CLICK HERE for more information on MBA DEGREE PROGRAM!
CLICK HERE for more information on READING BOOKS!
Louise Woodward Innocent? Recent Research Raises Reasonable Doubt
Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a medical theory that explains a form of child abuse when an infant is shaken violently by their caretaker, creating a whip-lash motion that results in severe brain injury, lifelong disability or death. The concept of SBS was described in the early 1970′s by a neurosurgeon, Dr. Guthkelch. His medical theory has sent dozens of women to jail and was used in the trial of the now infamous au pair, Louise Woodward. She was prosecuted and found guilty of manslaughter for shaking an infant in her care while she was an au pair for Cultural Care.
New scientific research published in the Paediatric Development Pathology Journal (United Kingdom, 2009) sheds new light on SBS. Recent scientific findings may lend evidence to exonerate jailed “abusers” (who continue to protest their innocence) and could have a dramatic effect on future SBS and child abuse trials.
Two British pathologists have found that a combination of injuries used to diagnose SBS abuse, known as the “triad” (swelling, bleeding and oxygen deprivation to the brain), can happen naturally.
Dr Irene Scheimberg (London’s Bart’s Hospital) and Dr Marta Cohen (Sheffield Children’s Hospital) found that bleeding, swelling and oxygen deprivation to the brain can occur without violent shaking. The study found that the symptoms of Shaken Baby Syndrome can happen in babies even before they are taken home from hospital.
Dr. Scheimberg warns that when there “is no evidence of physical abuse (apart from the triad of SBS sypmtoms) we may be sending to jail parents who lost their children through no fault of their own.” The doctor went on to state, “As scientists it is our duty to be cautious when we see the triad and to take each case on its merits. We owe it to children and their families.”
The doctors looked at 25 babies who had died shortly before delivery and 30 newborns who had brain hemorrhages and found similar damage to the brains of all the babies. The study concluded that the symptoms are common in infants and could be caused by a traumatic birth or other conditions.
There were two groups of children who presented with symptoms similar to SBS – one group had bleeding in the brain caused by normal vaginal delivery and went on to lead normal lives and the other group who also presented with sign of SBS at birth, but did not get well, and whose bleeding continued and actually got worse. Dr. Scheimberg said, “These are the children who the courts suspect have been harmed by their parents (or caregivers).”
The evidence of their study could now be used in a number of appeals in cases where caregivers or parents were prosecuted and jailed for killing infants by shaking them (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews).
The “triad” of symptoms known as Shaken Baby Syndrome was used by the prosecution in the 1998 U.S. trial of British au pair Louise Woodward, who was found guilty of the second-degree murder of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen in October 1997. She was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years to life in prison but the judge overruled that decision and reduced her conviction to involuntary manslaughter. Her sentence was then reduced to time served (279 days) and she was released as a free woman.
In 2007, Dr Patrick Barnes, the prosecution’s star medical witness, reversed his medical opinion that convicted Woodward: he concluded that death (of Matthew Eappen) could have been caused by an old injury, as argued by the defense. In a scientific paper he states: “The science we have today could, in fact, have exonerated Louise. There is certainly, in retrospect, reasonable doubt.”
There are about 200 cases of Shaken Baby Syndrome diagnosed in Britain every year and an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 cases diagnosed every year in the United States (data from the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome). Many of the childcare givers and mothers who are accused in these cases protest their innocence and deny they did anything harmful to the babies left in their care.
A U.S. physician, Harold E Buttram, notes that many cases of brain hemorrhages are dependent on the strength of the smallest blood vessels at birth, which can be affected by different conditions. He also warns, “Among the many adversities and difficulties facing the American family today, there is a relatively new and growing hazard in which a parent or caretaker may be falsely accused of murdering or injuring an infant by the shaken baby syndrome, when the true cause of death or injury arises from other sources. Very tragically, child abuse does occur and deserves appropriate punishment. However, it is equally tragic when a family, already grieving from the death of their infant, finds a father or mother unjustly accused, convicted, and imprisoned for murder of the infant, a murder of which he or she is innocent.”
He explains, “In fact, an infant can die with extensive retinal hemorrhages, a blood clot under the capsule of the brain, extensive bruises, broken bones and sores that will not heal, due to Barlow’s disease, without having been subjected to anything but the tenderest of loving care.” (Shaken Baby Syndrome – A Medical Dictionary, Bibliography, and Annotated Research Guide to Internet References, Icon Health Publications).
About the Author
Deadly Silence- Innocent Man On Death Row. (May 9RIP)
|
|
Batman Comic Lot 20 Graphic Novels TPB death, innocents, nightwing, NM more $119.99 |
|
|
LOVE & DEATH FIRST PRINTING 1949 GERSHON LEGMAN SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT $99.95 |
|
|
JESSE STONE 7 DVD Innocents Lost No Remorse Thin Ice Sea Change Death Paradise $80.90 |
|
|
J. D. ROBB 35 BOOK LOT! Nora Roberts Innocent Seduction Strangers in Death $59.95 |
|
|
1937 Photogravure Pieter Brueghel Art Detail Murder Holy Innocent Religion Death $62.95 |
|
|
Massacre Innocents DEATH ANGEL by KOTARBINSKY Vintage $59.99 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by Nora Roberts (2007, Unabridged, Compact Disc) $52.26 |
|
|
THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS-DEAD MAN WALKING AUTHOR SISTER HELEN PREJEAN SIGNED 1ST $39.99 |
|
|
NORA ROBERTS-Signed 1st Ed INNOCENT IN DEATH Mint Cond. $36.00 |
|
|
NEW Cathedra Petri Book 14, from the Death of Innocent $38.68 |
|
|
Cathedra Petri Book 14, from the Death of Innocent III $37.14 |
|
|
Innocent in Death NEW by J.D. Robb $37.02 |
|
|
Stolen Time: innocent woman condemned to death $9.86 |
|
|
1st, signed, Innocent in Death by J D Robb/Nora Roberts $30.00 |
|
|
Nora Roberts – Innocent in Death large sc 0811 $5.89 |
|
|
Nora Roberts J.D. Robb Innocent In Death SIGNED 1st/1st 2007 HCDJ $31.99 |
|
|
J.D. ROBB audio CD COLLECTION # 8 (MEMORY IN DEATH … BORN … INNOCENT) $27.98 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by J D Robb Susan Ericksen Unabridged CD Audio Book 1423316002 $27.95 |
|
|
J D Robb INNOCENT IN DEATH Unabridged CD NEW $38.95 Value $25.79 |
|
|
Massacre Innocents DEATH by Bonifacio PITATI vintage PC $24.00 |
|
|
NEW Cathedra Petri Book 14, from the Death of Innocent $29.00 |
|
|
1981 Brennan Raymund innocent of death King County jail inmate Press Photo $28.88 |
|
|
J. D. ROBB – Innocent in Death eve Dallas #1 new pb $17.71 |
|
|
INNOCENT IN DEATH J. D. Robb Unab Audiobook ~NEW~ CD $25.32 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by J. D. Robb (2005) SIGNED 1st/1st $25.49 |
|
|
Innocent in Death NEW by J.D. Robb $25.10 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by J D Robb and Susan Ericksen Unabridged MP3 Audio Book $20.95 |
|
|
INNOCENT in DEATH JD J D ROBB HC/DJ FIRST EDITION NEW SIGNED COPY* $19.99 |
|
|
INNOCENT IN DEATH*ROBB,ROBERTS!NEW HC/DJ!OVERSEAS SHIP $19.95 |
|
|
INNOCENT IN DEATH Eve Dallas – Unabr. 10 CD J.D. ROBB $19.47 |
|
|
Innocent in Death NEW by J.D. Robb $15.39 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by Nora Roberts (2007, Unabridged,… $17.95 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb UNABRIDGED MP3 CD $21.00 |
|
|
J D Robb INNOCENT IN DEATH Unabridged MP3-CD NEW 1st Cl $16.87 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by J. D. Robb (2007) NEW MP3 CD $16.50 |
|
|
11 pb lot P.D. JAMES DEVICES INNOCENT SKULL MURDER TOWER DEATH TASTE JUSTICE $20.39 |
|
|
INNOCENT IN DEATH J. D. Robb Unab Audiobook ~NEW~ MP3 $16.62 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by Nora Roberts (2007, Unabridged, Compact Disc) $19.99 |
|
|
“NEW” LARGE PRINT Innocent in Death by Nora Roberts (2007) LARGE PRINT new $14.99 |
|
|
STRANGERS and INNOCENT in DEATH Audio Books MP3 CD JD J.D. ROBB Nora Roberts $14.99 |
|
|
INNOCENT in DEATH JD J D ROBB HC/DJ FIRST EDITION NEW $14.99 |
|
|
INNOCENT IN DEATH – J.D. Robb – Unabridged on CD $14.95 |
|
|
1997 Book Death of Innocents by Firstman & Talan w/ DJ $15.30 |
|
|
Innocent in Death -J. D. Robb-NEW MP3 Audiobook $15.49 |
|
|
INNOCENT IN DEATH bestselling audio book on CD by NORA ROBERTS / J.D. ROBB $13.88 |
|
|
Trilogy of Death: Innocent Blood/An Unsuitable Job for $13.50 |
|
|
INNOCENT in DEATH JD J D ROBB HC/DJ FIRST EDITION LIKE NEW $12.99 |
|
|
Innocent in Death NEW by J.D. Robb $16.95 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by Nora Roberts (2007, Hardcover) $12.99 |
|
|
Nora Roberts/ J. D. Robb 8 Hardcover Booklot: Visions in Death, Innocent in Deat $8.00 |
|
|
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongf $16.04 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by J D Robb MP3-CD Unabridged $15.99 |
|
|
Innocent in Death (In Death Series), J.D. Robb, Acceptable Book $5.99 |
|
|
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongf $15.75 |
|
|
NORA ROBERTS FOURSOME/Innocent In Death~Memory In Death $11.04 |
|
|
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongf $11.50 |
|
|
J D ROBB Nora Roberts Lot 3HCDJ 1st Editions MEMORY BORN INNOCENT IN DEATH $9.95 |
|
|
Innocent in Death by Nora Roberts (2007, Unabridged, Compact Disc)10 cd $12.00 |
|
|
THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS RICHARD FIRSTMAN & JAMIE TALAN $10.00 |
|
|
The Death of Innocents: A True Story of Murder, Medicin $10.50 |
|
|
Massacre of the Innocents, 1565-66 (oil on.. – 3×2 inch Fridge Magnet – large magnetic button – Magnet $4.99 Rectangular wrap-around refrigerator magnet and a glossy mylar cover.Large 2×3 inch rectangle fridge magnet or ‘buttons’ as they are sometimes known in the USA.Crop shown is automated for display purposes only. All magnets are hand finished and the best most appropriate crop will always be selected to best show the full image. Therefore, actual product may vary slightly from crop shown – this can … |
|
|
Massacre of the Innocents, 1565-66 (oil on.. – Mug – Standard Size $14.50 This mug is created using the finest dye sublimation techniques and creates a stunning dishwasher safe finish. Great as a gift, or for promotional items. Each of our mugs come individually boxed for protection in transit…. |
|
|
Massacre of the Innocents, 1565-66 (oil on.. – Tea Towel 100% Cotton – Art247 – Tea Towel – 46x70cm $20.49 100% Cotton. Made in UK. Size 70cms X 46cmsThis is an automated preview only. Actual Tea Towel design may vary. All products are hand finished by our expert manufacturers and the best crop available will always be selected…. |
|
|
Innocence & Instinct (CD/DVD) $8.98 No Description Available.Genre: Popular MusicMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 10-FEB-2009… |
|
|
Purcell: Theatre Music $26.23 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed…. |
|
|
Complete Secular Songs (3cd) $18.47 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed…. |
|
|
Twice Shy $1.99 … |
|
|
La Terra Trema … |
Tags: crime, death, innocent death penalty cases, innocent death penalty executions, innocent death penalty victims, innocent death row inmates executed, innocent death row statistics, law, politics, texas