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This video takes place after Maria Shepard is found not guilty of the manslaughter on her step daughter.
this video takes place after leaving the courthouse and meeting with her family and friends.

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Maria Shepherd's 1992 manslaughter conviction quashed

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(Minute 4:17 to 6:40)
maria tells her wrongfully conviction story.
Maria was interviewed as well and the doctor you examined the victim.

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Wronged: 2 people share their stories of wrongful conviction

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The video chosen was focused on Dr Charles Smith
they also talk to Shepard about her feelings about her being found not guilty after 25 years.

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A woman who pleaded guilty to killing her stepdaughter 25 years ago was formally acquitted on Monday. Austin Delaney reports.

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Maria and her husband after court hearing after found not guilty.

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This is Dr Charles smith who examined the victim after her death and concluded that Maria Shepherd was guilty of killing her step daughter.

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Maria reunited with her family to celebrate her court hearing findings, not guilty.

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CTV new directed interview of Maria Shepherd. the interview consistent of Maria telling interviewers about her and her stepdaughter relationship, her feeling on her wrongful conviction as well as the impact the conviction had on how she was viewed.

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A woman who pleaded guilty to killing her stepdaughter 25 years ago was formally acquitted by an Ontario appeal court on Monday.

Maria Shepherd pleaded guilty in 1991 to manslaughter after the death of her three-year-old stepdaughter Kasandra Shepherd. She took the plea based on evidence from Dr. Charles Smith - a now-disgraced pathologist.

At the time, Smith was considered to be an unassailable expert. However, a later review and public inquiry of his work found that he had made numerous errors in several cases, with some leading to wrongful convictions. He was stripped of his medical licence in 2011.

"I have raised my children being known as a baby killer, killing their sister," Shepherd told CTV Toronto on Monday.

After she was accused in her stepdaughter's death, the authorities "made it very clear that there was nobody else out there that was willing to challenge Smith because he was right," she said.

"He wasn't wrong. He was infallible."

After she was formally acquitted on Monday, Shepherd told reporters she was relieved to finally have a chance to live with some degree of normalcy.

"As a family we are elated, but this didn't come without 25 years of a lot of quiet tears and anguish at home," she said from the steps of the courthouse.

"We get an opportunity now to have a life together," she added, noting she will now be able to spend time with her children and forthcoming grandchildren without restrictions or supervision.

At the time of her guilty plea, Shepherd was sentenced to two years less a day in prison. She gave birth to her fourth child in prison.

Court documents show that Kasandra had been vomiting and became unresponsive in April 1991 after a period of ill health. She died two days after being admitted to hospital. Smith concluded that Kasandra had died from trauma due to at least one blow of "significant force" to her head.

Shepherd, who was 21 at the time, told police she had pushed the girl once, with her wrist and watch hitting the girl on the head. However, she didn't believe the blow could have killed her.

Shepherd told reporters on Monday that she pleaded guilty because everyone involved in the trial viewed Smith as a type of "god," whose opinion was unquestionable.

She said even her own defence lawyer at the time consulted an outside expert, who agreed with Smith's opinion. As a result, she agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter rather than risk conviction at a later trial.

However, Shepherd said she always knew she was innocent.

"I never did anything but care for Kasandra," she said, with her husband and children standing in support behind her.

Forensic experts now believe that Kasandra may have had a previous brain injury, which may have caused seizures. They also believe that she may have suddenly developed a seizure disorder that could have killed her.

Shepherd described how the guilty plea had devastating consequences for her and her family. She said she was labelled as a "baby-killer" and couldn't look for employment due to her criminal record.

"You hide yourself, you try and operate and hope that people don't recognize you," she said, describing how she coped with the ordeal.

Shepherd said despite everything she and her family have been through over the past 25 years, she has come to forgive Smith.

"I'm not sure what was going on in Mr. Smith's head. There must be something extremely troubling for somebody not to do it once or twice - we're talking a least a dozen people that he has done this to," she said.

"I forgive Charles Smith, because it's going to be less of a weight, and my family and I can carry on."

'The system tends to fight you all the way'

Shepherd's defence lawyer James Lockyer, with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, said he was pleased that justice was finally served. However, he warned that these types of errors can still happen because the justice system often relies on expert opinions.

"Absolutely, no question," Lockyer said on Monday after the acquittal. "There are plenty of forensic scientists out there, including pathologists, who can and will make errors.

"They can all get it wrong. Even the best can get it wrong."

He also noted that the process of overturning a wrongful conviction is often long and expensive, meaning many people do not end up seeking them.

"If there's anything to learn from this, it's that it's very difficult to establish that someone has been wrongly convicted," he said. "The system tends to fight you all the way."

With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney

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Maria Shepherd stands outside a Toronto court after it quashed her conviction of manslaughter on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. Ontario's top court has formally acquitted a woman who pleaded guilty 25 years ago to killing her three-year-old stepdaughter. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)

Maria Shepherd speaks to the media after being acquitted in Toronto on Feb. 29, 2016.

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Mom exonerated in child's death after 25 years

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A woman who pleaded guilty to killing her stepdaughter 25 years ago was formally acquitted by an Ontario appeal court on Monday. Maria Shepherd pleaded guilty in 1991 to manslaughter after the death of her three-year-old stepdaughter Kasandra Shepherd. She took the plea based on evidence from Dr. Charles Smith - a now-disgraced pathologist.

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Global News report on how Maria was convicted how Shepherd pealed guilty as well as how the evidence was incorrect as well as how evidence was reviewed for a second time.

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TORONTO - A woman implicated by disgraced pathologist Dr. Charles Smith in the death of her three-year-old stepdaughter is set for exoneration more than two decades after pleading guilty to manslaughter, The Canadian Press has learned.

Documents filed ahead of a court hearing next week show the attorney general agrees Maria Shepherd's guilty plea and conviction should be struck and an acquittal entered.

"Had the appellant and her lawyer known then what they know now, the plea would not have been entered," the Crown says in its factum.

"More importantly, the fresh medical evidence shows that Dr. Smith's evidence, which formed the foundation of the guilty plea, was fundamentally flawed."

The Shepherd case was one of many suspicious child deaths in which Smith, a renowned and highly regarded Toronto-based forensic pathologist, had done the autopsy. However, a review of his work starting in November 2005 and subsequent public inquiry uncovered numerous examples in which he had made egregious errors.

After an initial review turned up problems with Smith's findings in the Shepherd case, the Ontario Court of Appeal in May 2009 allowed her to appeal her conviction.
READ MORE: Wrongful conviction took fatal toll on family of B.C. man
Kasandra Shepherd, of Brampton, Ont., who had been through a period of health problems, began vomiting and became unresponsive on a day in April 1991. She died two days later in hospital.

Smith, who was stripped of his medical licence in 2011, identified an injury on the back of the child's head and concluded she had died from trauma due to at least one blow of "substantial or major or significant force." He also said Shepherd's watch likely caused bleeding on the inside of the girl's scalp.

Shepherd, then 21, told police she had pushed the child once, her wrist and watch making contact with the back of the girl's head. However, she also insisted she didn't believe the blow could have killed the girl.

"He was the Crown's star witness and his reputation preceded him," her trial lawyer Thomas Wiley says of Smith's opinion in a 2013 affidavit.

"I found his opinion to be compelling, and seemingly unassailable."

However, after Wiley consulted an outside expert, who agreed Smith's theory was reasonable, Shepherd pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October 1992.

"I remember the first day of the preliminary hearing when Dr. Smith walked into court," Shepherd says in an affidavit in December 2015. "It was like a superhero entered the room."
READ MORE: Ontario man acquitted after 45-year quest for exoneration in wife's death
She was sentenced to two years less a day and gave birth to her fourth child in custody.

While the guilty plea was valid at the time, the Crown now says the conviction should be set aside based on new forensic evidence. Experts have now concluded Smith's testimony at Shepherd's preliminary hearing contained a "number of significant errors." The best guessing is that Kasandra may have had a previous brain injury that caused seizures or that she suddenly developed a seizure disorder that led to her death.

Either way, they agree, her death should have been classified as "undetermined."

"All the experts (now) agree that Dr. Smith's watch theory was wrong," the Crown now admits.

"It is in the interests of justice that the conviction be set aside and, in the circumstances of this case, an acquittal be entered."

The case also led to an obstruction-of-justice prosecution of Shepherd's family doctor, who had said bruises on the girl could have been the result of a blood disorder. That case was thrown out before trial.

Shepherd, who is still married to Kasandra's father, did not return calls seeking comment.

"I did not cause Kasandra's death, and my conviction for doing so has haunted me ever since," she says in her affidavit.

Her lawyer, James Lockyer, refused to discuss the case pending next week's hearing before the Court of Appeal.

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Stepmother who pleaded guilty to 3-year-old's death 25 years ago set for exoneration

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TORONTO - A woman implicated by disgraced pathologist Dr. Charles Smith in the death of her three-year-old stepdaughter is set for exoneration more than two decades after pleading guilty to manslaughter, The Canadian Press has learned. Documents filed ahead of a court hearing next week show the attorney general agrees Maria Shepherd's guilty plea and conviction should be struck and an acquittal entered.

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this report is highlighting on how Maria's stepdaughters died as well and medical prove of Maria innocents as well as life before the death of her stepdaughter, And explains why doctors thought the child was murdered.

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Even after a cigarette, she seems anxious - smoothing her pink suit jacket, glancing over at her son, taking deep breaths.

Maria Shepherd still finds it hard to talk about, a quarter century later: the day in 1991 when her 3-year-old stepdaughter Kasandra died after a series of brutal seizures. And the days that followed, when she was accused of killing the girl, interrogated and charged. And then the two-year sentence, after she pleaded guilty - a plea she feels she was coerced to make based on sham evidence.

The ordeal has left a "lifetime of damage," she says.

But the subject may begin to lose some of its sting on Monday, when a court is expected to overturn the manslaughter conviction that sent her to prison and branded her a "baby killer."

If the appeal is successful - and the Crown also wants the verdict set aside - it will be the latest vindication for a victim of disgraced forensic pathologist Charles Smith. Before a review discredited his methods in 2007, Mr. Smith helped secure more than a dozen criminal convictions with medical opinions on the deaths of children, including Kasandra's.

Ms. Shepherd will be at the courthouse on Monday, hoping - if not for redemption, or restitution - at least for some long-awaited relief.

"I'm tired mentally; I'm tired physically," she said during a tearful conversation in her lawyer's office last week. "I would like to not have to carry this any more."

Ms. Shepherd was not yet 20 when she moved in with Ashley Shepherd, Kasandra's father. She had a two-year-old son of her own from a previous relationship, and had dropped out of high school after Grade 9. With Mr. Shepherd and her new stepdaughter, she gained stability.

Ms. Shepherd remembers those as happy times: Kasandra was a fun-loving girl, fond of playing superheroes with blankets for capes, running around their Brampton, Ont., home with her stepbrother Jordan.

But she was also a source of contention. Her father and biological mother could not agree on custody, and began accusing each other of child abuse. Investigations by police and the local Children's Aid Society failed to determine what the truth was.

In early 1991, Kasandra's health took a disturbing turn. She was vomiting frequently - in a short stretch, she dropped from 36 to 24 pounds. And the usually lively 3-year-old became lethargic and withdrawn. After a month-long stay at Peel Memorial Hospital, her condition worsened. The vomiting continued, and she began to lose her balance and fall while running, according to a defence factum filed in Ms. Shepherd's appeal.

On the evening of April 9, after her father had shaken her two or three times to get her attention, Kasandra suddenly "made a squealing wheezing noise," Ms. Shepherd recalled in court submissions. "She clenched her fists and her arms were bent and stiff. She was shaking and her eyes were rolling into the back of her head. Her breathing seemed like she was gasping for air."

"It was one of the most horrific things I've ever seen," Ms. Shepherd said in the interview.

The seizures continued at Peel Memorial, and Kasandra was sent by ambulance to the Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto. She was declared brain dead at 6:46 a.m. the next day.

According to court documents, at least three doctors at Sick Kids suspected non-accidental trauma contributed to Kasandra's death based on a CT scan done hours before she died; two of them suggested child abuse. Mr. Smith was called in to perform the autopsy.

Based on a doughnut-shaped bruise on the back of Kasandra's head, Mr. Smith determined that she had suffered a fatal blow from a circular object, and asked police to find an implement in the Shepherd home that matched its dimensions. Ms. Shepherd's watch seemed to fit.

On April 24, only days after Kasandra's funeral, Peel Regional police interrogated Ms. Shepherd. "[The officer] said, 'Maria, can you imagine what the papers are going to read in the morning? Stepmother kills stepdaughter - your kids are gone,'" she recalled in the interview.

Ms. Shepherd said she was certain police would not let her leave the station until she gave a confession. She said she was exhausted, having slept little since Kasandra's death, and intimidated by the officers' tone. Although she later recanted the story, she told police she struck Kasandra in anger with the back of her left hand after the girl refused to help her baby sister, who had fallen off the bed. Asked if Ms. Shepherd's watch hit Kasandra in the head, and she replied, "It might have."

Ms. Shepherd was charged with manslaughter. To her husband and her lawyer, she began backtracking immediately, saying that she merely pushed Kasandra out of the way to get to the baby.

But Ms. Shepherd said her sense of intimidation grew when Mr. Smith arrived to testify at her preliminary hearing.

"I stress the word 'godlike' for Charles Smith because that's actually how he conducted himself," she said. "He walked in and everyone was just, like, stargazing at him. Like he was some superstar."

Ms. Shepherd's lawyer has said that, at the time, even he found the doctor's evidence "compelling."

In court, Mr. Smith said Ms. Shepherd's watch and the contusion on Kasandra's head were "a very nice fit."

Soon after the trial began, Ms. Shepherd decided to plead guilty.

"It was getting more and more clear that I had no hope," she said. "I was one little person against this gentleman that was, at the time, deemed as being infallible, unassailable."

She also reasoned that a guilty plea would reduce her time behind bars, and showing remorse would increase her chances of regaining custody of her children.

"The purpose of my plea was to save my family," she said.

Her first days in jail were terrifying. Pregnant with her fourth child, she was advised to tell other inmates she murdered her husband, because a person who pleaded guilty to killing a child would be attacked.

Ms. Shepherd spent about eight months of the two-year sentence in prison, then a few months in a halfway house. When she got out, she set about slowly rebuilding her life. A temporary job answering phones at her trial lawyer's office grew into a five-year stint as a paralegal.

Depression stalked her for years. Ms. Shepherd doubted that her case would be revisited, and nursed deep misgivings about her treatment by the criminal justice system.

That began to change in November, 2005, when Ontario's Chief Coroner announced a review of cases in which Mr. Smith had performed the autopsy or given a consulting opinion. In 2007, the review concluded he made "serious and fundamental errors" in 20 cases, including Kasandra's. (He has since been stripped of his medical licence.)

Soon after, defence lawyer James Lockyer and the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted took up Ms. Shepherd's case.

"One of the best days of my life is when I heard that Charles Smith had been caught," she said. "Then I hear that, 'Maria, you're one of the cases.'... I couldn't stop crying. One of the days of elation for sure."

Alternative medical opinions eventually established the weakness of Mr. Smith's testimony in the Shepherd case. Simon Avis, chief medical examiner for Newfoundland and Labrador, wrote in a 2010 report prepared for the defence that the pathologist's theory that Ms. Shepherd's watch caused the internal bruise beneath Kasandra's scalp had "no scientific basis." The Crown and two other medical experts agree. Remarkably, Ms. Shepherd says she would like a chance to forgive Mr. Smith.

Above all, she said, she craves normality. She and Mr. Shepherd are still married, and work together at his legal services company in Brampton. The family, four children and a granddaughter, is closer than ever, she says.

But even Ms. Shepherd is still haunted by a sense of loss. She thinks of Kasandra often: Would she be in university now? Would she be married? What would she look like?

Flipping through her phone, she finds a photo of the girl standing on white kitchen tiles with her brother Jordan, grinning at the camera so that her eyes squint.

"God, I miss her so much," Ms. Shepherd said.
Editor's note: An earlier digital version of this story incorrectly spelled Kasandra's name in the photo caption. This version has been corrected.

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Stepmother's manslaughter conviction expected to be overturned

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Even after a cigarette, she seems anxious - smoothing her pink suit jacket, glancing over at her son, taking deep breaths. Maria Shepherd still finds it hard to talk about, a quarter century later: the day in 1991 when her 3-year-old stepdaughter Kasandra died after a series of brutal seizures.

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Wrongfully Convicted
Case Study Questions

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Case Study Work Cited