Full Description
The emergence of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) presents an object lesson in the dangers that lie at the intersection of science and criminal law. As often occurs in the context of scientific knowledge, understandings of SBS have evolved. We now know that the diagnostic triad alone does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an infant was abused, or that the last person with the baby was responsible for the baby's condition. Nevertheless, our legal system has failed to absorb this new consensus. As a result, innocent parents and caregivers remain incarcerated and, perhaps more perplexingly, triad-only prosecutions continue even to this day.
Flawed Convictions: "Shaken Baby Syndrome" and the Inertia of Injustice is the first book to survey the scientific, cultural, and legal history of Shaken Baby Syndrome from inception to formal dissolution. It exposes extraordinary failings in the criminal justice system's treatment of what is, in essence, a medical diagnosis of murder. The story of SBS highlights fundamental inadequacies in the legal response to "science dependent prosecution." A proposed restructuring of the law contends with the uncertainty of scientific knowledge.
Contents
Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; Chapter One: A Medical Diagnosis of Crime ; The Prosecution Paradigm ; The Lure of Blame ; Chapter Two: Complications ; Scrutiny ; The New SBS ; Doubtful Convictions ; Chapter Three: The Triad Endures ; Today's SBS ; Child Abuse Specialization ; Prosecutorial Certainty ; Staying Power ; Chapter Four: Trials ; Deciding Guilt ; Case on Trial ; Chapter Five: Missed Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Error ; A Legal Perspective on Differential Diagnosis ; Anatomy of a Missed Diagnosis ; Chapter Six: Confessions ; Non-Confession Confessions ; Unreliable Confessions ; Inside the Interrogation Room ; Chapter Seven: Fluky Justice ; Acquittals ; Dismissals ; No-Arrest Cases ; Chapter Eight: Guilty Pleas ; A System in Flux ; When Innocents Plead Guilty ; The Meaning of Lopsided Pleas ; Chapter Nine: The Limits of Judicial Review ; Sufficiency Challenges ; Collateral Attack ; Chapter Ten: Reform ; Improving Medical Outcomes ; Upstream Innocence Protection ; Downstream Innocence Protection ; AFTERWORD ; INDEX
