Amicus Brief: Tasha Shelby
Tasha Shelby v. State of Mississippi
Filing Date
July 19, 2019
Charge
Capital Murder (rec'd LWOP)
Jurisdiction
Mississippi Court of Appeals
Partners
Innocence Network
Summary
CIFS and the Innocence Network filed this brief in the Mississippi Court of Appeals in Tasha Shelby’s case to argue that the shift in scientific understanding of SBS and a change in the medical examiner's opinion about cause of death (from homicide to accidental) satisfies the newly discovered evidence standard.
Introduction
Tasha Mercedez Shelby has been incarcerated for over nineteen years for a homicide she did not commit, a crime that the medical examiner in this case now believes did not occur at all. The State’s trial expert, medical examiner Dr. LeRoy Riddick, was compelled to recant his testimony supporting Ms. Shelby’s homicide conviction because that testimony has been discredited by new medical knowledge since the time of trial.
Medical experts, including the State’s trial expert, Dr. Riddick, now recognize thatShaken Baby Syndrome (“SBS”), also known as Abusive Head Trauma, is often not the actual cause of death in cases like Ms. Shelby’s. At Ms. Shelby’s 2000 trial, there was consensus that Ms. Shelby’s toddler stepson died from SBS because he exhibited injuries consistent with two of the three hallmarks of SBS (subdural hematoma, retinal hemorrhage, and encephalopathy or cerebral edema, collectively known as the “triad”). Although the toddler had a seizure causing him to fall out of bed just prior to being hospitalized, the State’s experts insisted such a fall could not have caused the toddler’s injuries. As is common in SBS cases, the triad was the only evidence supporting Ms. Shelby’s conviction. Dr. Riddick, the medical examiner who testified at her trial has since testified that his former opinion is not supported by current medical science and that his prior opinion was wrong.
Since Ms. Shelby’s trial, there have been multiple scientific developments that have shifted the medical community’s understanding of SBS. New medical research has discredited the presumption that a child must have suffered from SBS if the child’s injuries align with the triad. And a new trial is appropriate here because the only evidence of Ms. Shelby’s guilt has been discredited.
