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Questions relating to the Wrongful Conviction of Maria Shepherd.

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Assignment 2 - Maria Shepherd (Willow Ersil and Christos Kappos) (GNED-1307-AA1)

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Photo #2 - Disgraced Pathologist Charles Smith - Professional Misconduct

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Photo #2 - Disgraced Pathologist Charles Smith - Professional Misconduct

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This photo displays Dr. Charles Smith, a disgraced Revered Pediatric Forensic Pathologist that was responsible for numerous wrongful convictions. Repeatedly, Dr. Charles Smith has provided flawed and bias work to the police regarding numerous cases. This in turn, has resulted in thirteen wrongful criminal charges, one of which, resulted in the wrongful conviction of Maria Shepherd.

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Photo #3 - Maria Shepherd's three-and-a-half year-old step-daughter, Kasandra - False Guilty Plea

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Photo #3 - Maria Shepherd's three-and-a-half year-old step-daughter, Kasandra - False Guilty Plea

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Dr. Charles Smith concluded that Maria Shepherd's step-daughter, Kasandra, died as a result of abuse, involving several blows to the head (Innocence Canada, n.d.). Years later, forensic experts decided that the conclusions Smith made about the case contained numerous errors. The now believed cause of death is a seizure from a previous brain injury, or the sudden development of a seizure disorder (The Canadian Press, 2016).

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Article #1 - Maria Shepherd discusses the influence Dr. Charles Smith had over the case.

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Article #1 - Maria Shepherd discusses the influence Dr. Charles Smith had over the case.

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Forensic expert Dr. Charles Smith was responsible for numerous errors on several autopsies, 13 of which resulted in criminal charges. One of these errors resulted in the wrongful conviction of Maria Shepherd. At one point, Smith was in high regard, and his opinions on the causes of death were unquestioned. Due to this, there was not much Maria Shepherd could do against the conclusion Charles Smith made about her case.

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TORONTO -- The trail of devastation left by a once acclaimed forensic pathologist wound its way yet again through Ontario's top court Monday with the exoneration of a mother wrongly convicted of manslaughter on the basis of his evidence.

The brief hearing, which set aside Maria Shepherd's guilty plea in the death of her three-year-old stepdaughter in 1991, came after Crown and defence said Dr. Charles Smith had made numerous errors in the case.

"Charles Smith was like a god," Shepherd said in explaining her plea. "Who am I? I'm just a little person."

Smith was once Ontario's highly regarded chief forensic pathologist. His opinions on the causes of death, considered unassailable, were frequently the underpinning of convictions that, like Shepherd's, were ultimately found to have been a miscarriage of justice.

His stellar reputation, however, began unravelling about a decade ago amid questions over the case of William Mullins-Johnson, convicted of sodomizing and suffocating his four-year-old niece. Independent forensic experts would later conclude Smith was wrong to have implicated Mullins-Johnson, who spent 12 years in prison, or even to have decided a crime had occurred.

An initial review uncovered evidence of errors in 20 of 45 autopsies Smith had done over a 10-year period starting in the early 1990s. Thirteen resulted in criminal charges. The review prompted the Ontario government to call a public inquiry, which unravelled a depressing history of Smith's serious errors, including his catastrophic misinterpretation of findings.

In one notorious case, Smith concluded a mother had stabbed her seven-year-old girl to death when it turned out to have been a dog mauling. In another case, Tammy Marquardt spent 14 years behind bars after she was convicted in 1995 of killing her two-year-old son.

"Try having your heart ripped out and someone squeezing it right in front of your face," Marquardt said at the time.

Critics said Smith, who started working at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1979, had been on a crusade.

At the inquiry, the doctor argued he had been poorly trained and woefully ignorant of the workings of the justice system despite his star status.

In his report in 2008, Justice Stephen Goudge concluded that an arrogant Smith had deliberately dodged attempts to call him to account and "actively misled" the courts and his superiors.

"He achieved the status of a leading expert in the field in large part because there was no one who had the training, experience and expertise to take him on," Goudge said.

Still, the inquiry also slammed the province's former chief coroner James Young and his deputy Jim Cairns for failing to respond properly to a decade of complaints about the doctor.

All three apologized or shed tears over their roles in the forensics fiasco.

"I don't expect that you would forgive me," Smith said at one point to Mullins-Johnson. "I do want to make it very clear to you that I am profoundly sorry for the role that I played."

The Ontario government later announced compensation for families affected by Smith's mistakes. Others, like Mullins-Johnson, won hefty lawsuit settlements.

Smith resigned from Sick Kids in 2005 and worked for a while in pathology in Saskatoon. He stopped practising in 2008 and was finally stripped of his medical licence in 2011.

Outside Appeal Court on Monday, Shepherd said she did forgive Smith while defence lawyer James Lockyer said flawed forensic pathology has frequently led to wrongful convictions.

"Not always Dr. Smith, but certainly he has been a primary culprit," Lockyer said.

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Court acquits Brampton mom who admitted killing stepchild based on faulty forensics

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TORONTO -- The trail of devastation left by a once acclaimed forensic pathologist wound its way yet again through Ontario's top court Monday with the exoneration of a mother wrongly convicted of manslaughter on the basis of his evidence.

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Article #2 - The Story of Maria Shepherd and her Wrongful Conviction - False Guilty Plea

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Article #2 - The Story of Maria Shepherd and her Wrongful Conviction - False Guilty Plea

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Due to other medical experts agreeing with Dr. Charles Smith's conclusion of Maria Shepherd's step-daughter dying from physical abuse, Maria Shepherd felt there was not much she could do to prove her innocence. To reduce her sentence, Maria made a guilty plea, but continued to maintain her innocence. After a public inquiry was opened to examine the legitimacy of Dr. Charles Smith's work, Maria asked Innocence Canada to investigate and re-open her case.

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The Ontario Court of Appeal on February 29, 2016 quashed Maria Shepherd's manslaughter conviction and entered an acquittal in its place. Maria, her family, friends, and members of Innocence Canada were there to support her on this momentous day that unfortunately took 25 stressful years to come to fruition.

Maria was 21-years-old, with two young children and pregnant with her third child when she was charged with causing the death of her three-and-a-half-year-old step-daughter, Kasandra, on April 24, 1991. The linchpin of Maria's case was the flawed evidence of Dr. Charles Smith who was at the time revered as a paediatric forensic pathologist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

According to Smith, who conducted Kasandra's autopsy, she died as a result of abuse, involving a blow or blows to the head, leaving a watch-shaped mark under her scalp.

In October 1992, Maria was under extreme pressure and concern that the Children's Aid Society would take her children if she continued to claim innocence. She desperately wanted to keep her family together and when her lawyer, Tom Wiley consulted with a pathologist who felt Smith's opinion was valid, Maria felt she had no choice but to plead guilty to manslaughter.

On October 22, 1992 Maria, now pregnant with her fourth child, was sentenced to two years less a day.

Maria gave birth to a little girl on March 31st, 1993, five months into her prison sentence. She was released on parole on June 21, 1993, eight months after being imprisoned and reunited with her children, Jordan, Natasha, Chelsea, Chanel and her husband Ashley, who steadfastly remained by her side.

Maria, despite her guilty plea continued to maintain her innocence and never gave up hope of one day being able to clear her name. In 2005, Kasandra's case, amongst others, were re-examined when complaints about Smith's work led to a review of his cases by the Ontario Coroner's Office. The review found that Smith had made questionable findings in 12 cases that had led to criminal convictions by mishandling autopsies and misdiagnosing causes of death. In 2007 a public inquiry was led by Ontario Court of Appeal judge Stephen Goudge. The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), now Innocence Canada, contacted Maria and told her about these developments which suggested that in all probability Kasandra had died of natural causes. Maria asked Innocence Canada to investigate and if possible re-open Kasandra's case.

Innocence Canada led by its lead counsel James Lockyer had Maria's case reviewed by three experts: Dr. Simon Avis, a forensic neuropathologist from St. John's Newfoundland; Dr. David Ramsay, a forensic neuropathologist from London; and Dr. Patrick Barnes, a forensic radiologist from Stanford University, California. All the experts agreed that Smith had misattributed Kasandra's death to homicide, referring to his opinions as "unreliable in the extreme" and "pseudo-scientific."

In May 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed Maria to appeal her conviction, but it took another seven years of waiting and hoping before her case was heard by Justices David Watt, Gladys Pardu and Peter Lauwers who found that Smith's opinion had now been "thoroughly discredited", which rendered Maria's plea void.

Maria Shepherd has the distinction of being the 21st person that Innocence Canada has helped clear their name. We are humbled to have had a significant role in lifting the cloud that has for far too long hovered over the heads of her and her dedicated and loving family.

We extend our sincere congratulations to Maria who fulfilled one of her dreams by becoming a licensed paralegal on October 28, 2016.

Maria and her son Jordan, since her acquittal when their busy schedules allow, have taken the opportunity to share their story and expose the tragic consequences of a wrongful conviction.

Maria is a shining light!

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The Ontario Court of Appeal on February 29, 2016 quashed Maria Shepherd's manslaughter conviction and entered an acquittal in its place. Maria, her family, friends, and members of Innocence Canada were there to support her on this momentous day that unfortunately took 25 stressful years to come to fruition.

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Article #3 - Maria Shepherd's 1992 manslaughter conviction quashed - Professional Misconduct 

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Article #3 - Maria Shepherd's 1992 manslaughter conviction quashed - Professional Misconduct 

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Crown attorney Howard Leibovach urged Shepherd's conviction to be overturned in favor of an acquittal. Leibovich said that what happened with Shepherd's case was a 'miscarriage of justice' and that Shepherd would not have plead guilty if she (and everyone else) knew of the many errors Smith had made with the evidence against Shepherd. Justice David Watt had exonerated Shepherd, saying that Smith's evidence was the most important factor in Maria's wrongful conviction. Unfortunately, the respect that the justice system had for Smith's work was enough to lead to her guilty plea.

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Ontario's top court has formally acquitted a woman who pleaded guilty 25 years ago to killing her three-year-old
stepdaughter.

The decision in favour of Maria Shepherd, of Brampton, Ont., came after a short hearing at the urging of both Crown and defence.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario took just a few minutes to render its decision.

Shepherd pleaded guilty in 1992 to manslaughter in the death of Kasandra Shepherd following evidence presented by now-disgraced pathologist Charles Smith.

Defence lawyer, James Lockyer, with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, told the justices that other experts have now concluded Smith's opinion was seriously flawed.

'Miscarriage of justice'

Crown attorney Howard Leibovich agreed, and urged Shepherd's conviction be quashed in favour of an acquittal.

He said a "miscarriage of justice" had occurred, and Shepherd would not have pleaded guilty had she known what she knows now.

"This is a tragic case," Leibovich said. "Kasandra deserved better. Her family deserved better. [Shepherd] deserved better."

Speaking for the court, Justice David Watt exonerated Shepherd, saying Smith's evidence had been the "linchpin" for the Crown's case against her.

The justice system, he said, held out a "powerful inducement" for her to plead guilty given that she faced a possible lengthy prison sentence had she been convicted after a trial, Watt said.

"The appeal is allowed," Watt said. "The plea of guilty and conviction is set aside and an acquittal entered."

Smith's autopsy on the girl was one of many suspicious child deaths he had done, several leading to wrongful convictions.

Speaking to reporters outside the court shortly after her conviction was quashed, Shepherd said she was "elated" by the decision after wearing the label of "baby killer" for more than two decades.

"This didn't come without a lot of quiet tears and anguish at home," she said. "I am innoc ent. I didn't do anything but care for Kasandra . I loved her as if she was born to me."

Shepherd said she forgives Smith, who she said was treated "like a God" by those in the court system.

A 'long and terrible ordeal'

A review of Smith's work and subsequent public inquiry uncovered numerous examples where he made serious mistakes. He was stripped of his medical licence in 2011.

Court documents show Kasandra began vomiting and became unresponsive in April 1991 after a long period of ill health. She died two days after being admitted to hospital.

Smith concluded she died from trauma due to at least one blow of "significant force."

Shepherd had told police she pushed the child once, with her wrist and watch hitting the girl on the back of the head, but said she didn't believe the blow could have killed the girl.

'I did not cause Kasandra's death'

Her lawyer at the time consulted an outside expert who agreed Smith's theory was reasonable, prompting her to plead guilty to manslaughter. She was sentenced to two years less a day.

"I did not cause Kasandra's death, and my conviction for doing so has haunted me ever since," Shepherd said in a recent affidavit.

Forensic experts have now concluded Smith's testimony at Shepherd's court hearing contained a "number of significant
errors."

The theory now is that Kasandra may have had a previous brain injury that caused seizures or that she suddenly developed a seizure disorder that killed her.

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Maria Shepherd 'elated' after 1992 conviction in stepdaughter's death quashed | CBC News

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An Ontario judge has set aside a guilty plea in a 25-year-old manslaughter case involving a woman who pleaded guilty in the death of her stepdaughter following evidence presented by a now-disgraced pathologist.

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Video #3 - Maria Shepherd's 1992 manslaughter conviction quashed - False Guilty Plea

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Video #3 - Maria Shepherd's 1992 manslaughter conviction quashed - False Guilty Plea

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Within this video, Maria Shepherd ponders upon the adversities that the Shepherd’s faced throughout the 25 years of her wrongful conviction. To correlate, Maria Shepherd explains that her guilty plea led to 25 years of a lot of quiet tears and anguish. To be specific, Maria Shepherd changed her plea to guilty after another pathologist agreed with the conclusions Dr. Charles Smith made about the case. A major factor in doing this was to avoid losing custody of her children.

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Maria Shepherd's 1992 manslaughter conviction quashed

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Photo #1 - Maria Shepherd, Wrongfully Convicted of Manslaughter - False Guilty Plea

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Photo #1 - Maria Shepherd, Wrongfully Convicted of Manslaughter - False Guilty Plea

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This photo displays Maria Shepherd, a woman that was wrongfully convicted of “the death of her-three-and-a-half-year-old step-daughter, Kasandra” (Innocence Canada, n.d.). To be specific, Maria Shepherd was wrongfully convicted of manslaughter after a Revered Pediatric Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Charles Smith, concluded that Kasandra’s death was caused by Maria Shepherd (Global News, 2019). However, when Maria Shepherd’s lawyer consulted with another pathologist, the pathologist concluded that Dr. Charles Smith's findings were valid; thus, Maria Shepherd felt she had no other choice but to plead guilty to the manslaughter of her stepdaughter, Kasandra (Innocence Canada, n.d.).

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Video #1 - Maria Shepherd forgives disgraced pathologist after being acquitted of manslaughter - Professional Misconduct

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Video #1 - Maria Shepherd forgives disgraced pathologist after being acquitted of manslaughter - Professional Misconduct

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Maria Shepherd says that she forgives Charles Smith for his incorrect conclusions on the case, saying that a person must be deeply troubled to make the same mistake on not one, but twelve separate cases. Additionally, Maria Shepherd states that there needs to be a higher level of accountability with not only Charles Smith, but with his superiors.

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Mom acquitted of manslaughter says she forgives disgraced doctor

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Video #2 - Maria Shepherd talks about the day of her manslaughter conviction in the death of her stepdaughter - False Guilty Plea

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Video #2 - Maria Shepherd talks about the day of her manslaughter conviction in the death of her stepdaughter - False Guilty Plea

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Maria Shepherd discusses the guilty plea bargain she made after weighing what is more important to her; her life and children, or the truth. Maria Shepherd plead guilty in order to reduce her sentence and return to her family more swiftly.

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Maria Shepherd talks about the day of her manslaughter conviction in the death of her stepdaughter