Spring 2018, by Eza Bella Zakirova, Gale Academic OneFile
Shaken Baby Syndrome (“SBS”) is a controversial medical diagnosis that has led to wrongful convictions. Since 2001, there have been about 2,000 cases where defendants were charged with SBS (1) and out of those, in 213 cases “charges were dropped or dismissed or convictions were overturned” when secondary analysis showed that the victim has suffered from something other than SBS. (2) One of the primary causes for misdiagnosis of SBS, which potentially leads to a wrongful conviction, is the misconception of signs and symptoms which, when present all at once, are considered to fall under the umbrella of SBS. (3) Often, when a defendant is suspected of shaking the infant to death, the medical expert checks whether the victim has the following three symptoms, also known as the “classic `triad’: retinal hemorrhages (bleeding of the inside surface of the back of the eye); subdural hemorrhages (bleeding between the hard outer layer and the spongy membranes that surround the brain); and cerebral edema (brain swelling).”
Justice for Jeffrey Havard 