Australian court ruling in shaken baby case was ‘ignorant and embarrassing’: Swedish Professor Anders Eriksson
The review found that many of the studies purporting to support the shaken baby theory were based on circular reasoning; The cases examined were only there because they had been identified as victims of abuse. This makes the findings “a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Eriksson said.
He said that in Sweden, investigations into the syndrome, which is now often referred to as abusive or sustained head trauma, have almost stopped.
Robert Roberson, whose execution in Texas was recently postponed due to questions about shake-baby science. Credit: access point
“ [Swedish] “The Supreme Court said medical findings were not sufficient, not reliable enough, to convict someone of shaking a baby. They would need other evidence, such as witnesses, to prove abuse,” he said.
Questions have also constantly been raised in courts in the United States. Last week, a Texas appeals court stayed the execution of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of stabbing his daughter to death in 2002. The court ruled that this conviction could conflict with the state’s “junk science” law.
But data compiled and reviewed by the podcast in Australia shows that hundreds of parents have lost their children or been imprisoned over the past three decades, based on diagnosis.
The 2021 Victorian Court of Appeal case is the first time the diagnosis itself has been challenged, as opposed to an individual case. Court of appeal decisions Help resolve legal precedents.
Pediatric neurosurgeon Norman Guthkelch, who first described shaken baby syndrome but later reversed his view.
Murder Diagnosis It also tells the present-day story of how Norman Guthkelch, the British neurosurgeon who first theorized the link between tremors and brain damage, later reversed his opinion.
Arizona Innocence Project attorney Carrie Sperling described on the podcast how she brought Guthkelch to the case of a young father convicted of murder in 2011. After examining the case, the British doctor wrote in his expert report: “Based on the evidence of tremors presented, I would not even hang the cat.”
His return did not change the minds of the syndrome’s advocates. Instead, says Sperling, they dismissed him as “senile…a lonely old man who took advantage of lying defense attorneys.”
The podcast interviews Sydney doctor Mark Donohoe, who was one of the first to question the basis of shaken baby syndrome research worldwide. He first described the problem of circular reasoning in a paper in 2003.
Donohoe told Murder Diagnosis He himself had been shot to death, and added that medicine was often based on the voice of authority, not scientific research.
“We know it takes 50 years to come up with a good idea. [to medicine] and we have 100 years to come up with a bad idea,” Donohoe said. “That’s the nature of us being a conservative medical community.”
When Eriksson and his Scandinavian co-authors published their findings, they were immediately rejected.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the United Kingdom published a “consensus statement” accusing them of “excluded almost all existing learning,” asked a clinically irrelevant question, conducted inadequate literature searches, and poorly designed their research. The majority judges in the Vinaccia case quoted this statement.
In this case, 16-week-old baby Kaleb Baylis-Clarke was born small and unhealthy. According to one doctor, his head had swollen at an “alarming rate” in the lead-up to his death, from the third percentile to the 85th percentile. It was not a claim that this situation was the result of abuse.
Kaleb was hospitalized for three days for vomiting, lethargy and a swollen head before being sent home. Three days later, Vinaccia says he found Kaleb limp and unresponsive in his cot one morning. Kaleb had no bruises or fractures, and his head was even larger.
Vinaccia told police that he picked up Kaleb “with some force” the night before his death and put him to bed “pretty roughly.” The prosecution expert on appeal agreed that these actions could not have caused injuries, so he could have been violently shaken.
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Vinaccia’s attorneys argued that Kaleb’s existing medical problems were a more likely cause of his death.
The majority judges found the prosecution “persuasive and credible.” A third, the minority judge, former Victorian attorney general Kristen Walker, also disagreed. It found that Vinaccia was the victim of a “miscarriage of justice” and should be released immediately.
Vinaccia will be released from prison later this month after serving his full sentence.
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