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Speaker 1: I've spent the last five years of my journalism career

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Speaker 1: interviewing people who say they've been wrongfully convicted, and among

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Speaker 1: the women I've spoken to, one of the most common

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Speaker 1: charges against them is shaking their babies to death. I

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Speaker 1: see these cases so often that I can't include them

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Speaker 1: all on this show. The accusation of shaking a baby

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Speaker 1: to death evokes a visceral reaction from many people. You

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Speaker 1: might be feeling it right now, Horror, followed by sadness

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Speaker 1: for the defenseless child, and maybe even discussed for the

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Speaker 1: person accused of such a crime. Many jurors at trial

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Speaker 1: certainly feel this way, and the prosecutors count on it.

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Speaker 1: But the thing is, the medical diagnosis used to prosecute

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Speaker 1: this type of crime has been contested time and time again.

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Speaker 1: Last year, the New Jersey Court of Appeals even ruled

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Speaker 1: that in many instances it was junk science. And let

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Speaker 1: me be clear, people do abuse children. They get jailed

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Speaker 1: for it all the time. But often when an infant

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Speaker 1: ends up in an emergency room with what seems like

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Speaker 1: inexplicable internal injuries and no other obvious signs of abuse,

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Speaker 1: doctors and then prosecutors quickly determine. It's what's known as

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Speaker 1: shaken baby syndrome, a scientifically disputed cause of death with

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Speaker 1: often devastating consequences for the people charged. Today we hear

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Speaker 1: from one of them.

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Speaker 2: My name is Tania Miller, and I was incarcerated in

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Speaker 2: Michigan Women's Aran Valley Correctional Facility for eighteen years for

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Speaker 2: a crime I didn't commit.

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Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Tanya Miller.

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Speaker 1: Tanya Miller was born May nineteen eighty three and grew

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Speaker 1: up in Fulton, Michigan.

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Speaker 2: Growing up, we lived in the country and my mother

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Speaker 2: worked at a plastics company at the time, and then

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Speaker 2: later on she started working for manufacturing company for car parts,

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Speaker 2: and my father worked at General Motors.

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Speaker 3: But we grew up, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, not very financially secure. We struggled a lot financially,

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Speaker 2: but we were like a really close family, all of

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Speaker 2: the siblings.

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Speaker 1: Tanya has a huge family.

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Speaker 2: My father had been married and divorced a couple of times,

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Speaker 2: and so I have siblings you know, from him from

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Speaker 2: prior marriages.

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Speaker 1: How many of you.

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Speaker 2: My parents have five together, and then my mother had

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Speaker 2: us sixth one later. But my father has four prior

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Speaker 2: to yeah.

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Speaker 1: Ten siblings. Okay, and where do you in the lineup

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Speaker 1: of every in the middle?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Wow?

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Speaker 1: So what was that like?

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Speaker 2: Maah and my older brother, my mom's oldest were like,

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Speaker 2: we're two peas in a pod.

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Speaker 3: So we were always together.

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Speaker 2: So I was a little tomboy running around doing whatever

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Speaker 2: my brother did. I admired him so much, and we

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Speaker 2: just he would take something apart and I'd put it together.

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Speaker 2: He'd want to climb a tree. I want to climb

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Speaker 2: the tree if he broke a bone that year. I

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Speaker 2: broke a bone that year.

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Speaker 3: It was like we literally followed suit with each other.

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Speaker 1: What were some of your interests.

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Speaker 2: I love having my hands in the dirt. I just

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Speaker 2: love I love gardening. I loved anything that had anything

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Speaker 2: to do with nature. So we were always on four wheelers,

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Speaker 2: on horses. We were doing four h raising chickens and

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Speaker 2: turkeys and cornish tens and you know those kinds of things.

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Speaker 2: So anything that had something to do with nature.

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Speaker 1: Then when she was eleven, Tanya's parents separated.

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Speaker 4: When Tanya moved in she was twelve, I was six.

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Speaker 1: This is Whitney Wesner. She goes by wit.

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Speaker 4: Tanya is considered well, I consider her my best friend

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Speaker 4: and my older sister.

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Speaker 1: When Tanya's parents split, her mom moved to the family

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Speaker 1: to Battle Creek in the house next door to six

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Speaker 1: year old Wit.

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Speaker 4: We even had a shared driveway. I mean I literally

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Speaker 4: could jump out my bedroom window and go up their

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Speaker 4: backsteps right into their house. And I just automatically took

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Speaker 4: a liking to her as like I looked up to her.

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Speaker 4: I actually hung out with her more than I did

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Speaker 4: her siblings.

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Speaker 1: I just so, what was it about Tanya? Because I'm

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Speaker 1: sure some of her siblings were closer in age to

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Speaker 1: you as well.

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Speaker 4: I was just drawn to her as a person, as

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Speaker 4: like her energy, and I was like, I want to

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Speaker 4: hang out with her. You know, she was the older

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Speaker 4: cool kid to me.

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Speaker 1: And she kept Wit around even if it annoyed Tanya's

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Speaker 1: older friends or boyfriends.

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Speaker 4: Why is this ten twelve year old just constantly wround you?

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Speaker 4: You know what I mean? Like tell her to go

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Speaker 4: away and she's like.

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Speaker 3: No, Why do you think?

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Speaker 1: Because I think if I was when I was her age,

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Speaker 1: I wanted nothing to do with kids, Like I'd be like,

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Speaker 1: why is this ten year old around me? Why do

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Speaker 1: you think she'll let you around.

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Speaker 4: I don't know her, and I just there's just this

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Speaker 4: connection there.

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Speaker 1: Wit says Tanya and her did everything together from baseball.

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Speaker 4: So she's pitching me and she's kind of probably underestimating

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Speaker 4: the whole ten year old with the vat And she

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Speaker 4: pitched me one and turned to talk to somebody, and

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Speaker 4: I clocked it, and oh, she had the biggest black eye.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god.

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Speaker 4: We had to run into my mom's house and put

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Speaker 4: peas on her face like she's like your daughter actually

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Speaker 4: hit the ball.

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Speaker 1: To soccer.

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Speaker 4: She was a great soccer player. So she would take

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Speaker 4: me rollerblading, roora skating around the neighborhood. She did. She

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Speaker 4: taught me a lot of things. She taught me a

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Speaker 4: lot of things that she doesn't even know that she

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Speaker 4: taught me. And you know, to this day, she is

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Speaker 4: my best friend and that has never changed.

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Speaker 1: Tanya, by all accounts family and friends, was great with kids.

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Speaker 4: It was natural. It was natural for her. I never

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Speaker 4: once saw her lose her patience.

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Speaker 1: As often happens with big families. Tanya stepped up to

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Speaker 1: help her mom with all the kids.

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Speaker 2: That was really difficult because then I became like the

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Speaker 2: living babysitter I was the one making sure all the kids,

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Speaker 2: you know, had their dinner, had their baths, had their

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Speaker 2: homework done and stuff. When mom was working, and she

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Speaker 2: had to work a lot to support all of us,

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Speaker 2: so she was hardly there.

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Speaker 1: Tanya played mom and then she became one.

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Speaker 2: At fifteen, I got into a relationship with somebody that

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Speaker 2: was significantly older, not significantly he was twenty four and

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Speaker 2: I didn't know it.

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Speaker 3: He said he was nineteen. So but I ended up.

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Speaker 2: Pregnant, and so I had a daughter at sixteen.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Yes, Tanya gave birth to a baby girl named Kayla.

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Speaker 4: But she had with all her siblings, had already been

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Speaker 4: mothering at that point in her life, so having her

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Speaker 4: own it wasn't like a typical teenager having a baby,

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Speaker 4: Like what do I do?

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Speaker 1: But Tanya was still just sixteen.

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Speaker 2: I ended up not completing the high school scene. I

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Speaker 2: went to like a night school, and so I was

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Speaker 2: able to take my daughter with me.

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Speaker 1: And the relationship with Kayla's dad didn't last.

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Speaker 2: It was not a very good relationship, and I ended

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Speaker 2: up getting back into a relationship with a boy that

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Speaker 2: I had been with before.

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Speaker 1: A boy named Alan, and at eighteen, they had her

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Speaker 1: second daughter, Alicia, you were going to school, were you working?

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Speaker 1: How are you guys surviving?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we were working.

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Speaker 2: I was a hostess and he I can't remember if

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Speaker 2: he was a cooker, if he was doing dishes at

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Speaker 2: the time, but he stepped up and really helped, like

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Speaker 2: he get you know, he got jobs here and there

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Speaker 2: when he could the teenagers. You don't always keep a

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Speaker 2: job for long. But it was a struggle.

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Speaker 1: But as always there was wit. Now in her teens,

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Speaker 1: she was ready to help.

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Speaker 4: So I would sit with the kids, you know, while

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Speaker 4: she'd take a shower or you know. I was more

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Speaker 4: involved than the child's father. Yeah, like I was there.

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Speaker 4: It's not that she needed somebody else to help her,

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Speaker 4: because Tanya was a great mother.

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Speaker 1: And she still had plans for herself and her future.

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Speaker 1: She earned herself a scholarship to community college.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to go to be a pediatrician, ironically, but

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Speaker 2: that unfortunately all fell through.

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Speaker 1: Alicia was a very sick baby from birth.

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Speaker 2: They during labor and delivery, they did lose her heartbeat

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Speaker 2: at one point and had to do an internal monitor

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Speaker 2: on her. So then they were very quickly trying to

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Speaker 2: get her born. Wow, And so they were kind of

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Speaker 2: worried about her being low birthway. She was six pounds,

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Speaker 2: you know, she was small, but she wasn't you know,

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Speaker 2: premi or anything like that. Immediately, everything seemed to be okay,

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Speaker 2: But then after a couple of weeks at bringing her home,

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Speaker 2: things just were not the same. You expect it to

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Speaker 2: kind of be like your first one where you don't

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Speaker 2: really have any issues or anything, and so I knew

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Speaker 2: something wasn't right, but I didn't know how to communicate

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Speaker 2: it or what it was.

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Speaker 3: Exactly.

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Speaker 4: My first experience with Alicia that scared me was she

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Speaker 4: would she would you'd be holding her and she would

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Speaker 4: just like gus for air out of nowhere. I would

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Speaker 4: get nervous and just hand her back. I had never

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Speaker 4: seen that in a child. She would space off at

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Speaker 4: the bright lights and not even like blink.

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Speaker 2: She didn't want to eat very much. She would almost

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Speaker 2: chew on the nipple as if she was teething, but

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Speaker 2: she wasn't teething. Her diapers weren't she wasn't, you know,

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Speaker 2: urinating like she was supposed to. It was just a

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Speaker 2: lot of little things, and then eventually it was she

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Speaker 2: looked like she was staring right through you she would

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Speaker 2: just go limp.

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Speaker 1: Did you take her to the doctor multiple times? And

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Speaker 1: what did they say?

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Speaker 2: That I was a paranoid mom and yeah, So when

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Speaker 2: she had quit breathing, they basically told me that she

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Speaker 2: was angry and learn how to.

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Speaker 3: Hold her breath.

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Speaker 1: That's what they said.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so they didn't take me serious at all. I

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Speaker 2: don't know if it was because I was a young,

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Speaker 2: unwed mother of two children on Medicaid, and so that

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Speaker 2: was why they didn't take me serious, but they put

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Speaker 2: that in my file. So whenever I would call, I

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Speaker 2: wouldn't even get the appointments.

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Speaker 1: She says. Her family and friends also knew something was wrong.

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Speaker 3: But we didn't.

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Speaker 2: We couldn't pinpoint anything.

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Speaker 3: We didn't know what.

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Speaker 2: To call it, what it was, what to research, so

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Speaker 2: I had no idea.

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Speaker 1: October nineteenth, two thousand and one, started off normal for

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Speaker 1: Tanya and her family.

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Speaker 2: Alan had gone fishing really early in the morning, and

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Speaker 2: so I was up with the baby trying to get

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Speaker 2: her to eat a bottle.

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Speaker 3: She absolutely refused to.

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Speaker 1: Eat, so she laid her back down.

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Speaker 2: Cayla got up a little bit later and had her

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Speaker 2: cereal and was watching her movie and then eventually Alicia

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Speaker 2: decided to wake up, and she was just as happy

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Speaker 2: as could be.

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Speaker 1: They played until Alicia got fussy, and then called Wit

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Speaker 1: to come and help while she got ready, Can.

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Speaker 4: You head over in about twenty minutes so that you

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Speaker 4: can watch the girls while I jump in the shower.

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Speaker 4: So I said, of course absolutely.

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Speaker 1: While she waited for Wit, Tanya tried to feed Alicia again.

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Speaker 3: So I'm holding her.

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Speaker 2: I'm feeding her, and she coughs, and formula is like

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Speaker 2: pouring out of her eyeballs, out of her nose, out

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Speaker 2: of her mouth, and so I hold her upright, and

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Speaker 2: her one eye like went to the back, and like

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Speaker 2: it just rolled to the back, and then she went limp,

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Speaker 2: and it was so unexpected.

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Speaker 3: I had almost.

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Speaker 2: Dropped her, and so I laid her on the floor.

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Speaker 3: And I called nine to one one.

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Speaker 1: Tanya also called Wit.

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Speaker 4: All I hears frantically, is I Alicia's on the way

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Speaker 4: to the hospital. She stopped breathing.

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Speaker 1: Alicia was raced to the hospital, transferred to a pediatric unit,

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Speaker 1: and qut on life support. Then doctors ordered act scan

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Speaker 1: that showed mild swelling in Alicia's brain as well as bleeding.

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Speaker 1: An eye examination also found retinal hemorrhaging. By this time,

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Speaker 1: Alan and the whole family had gathered in the hospital

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Speaker 1: waiting room, anxious for any information about what was going on.

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Speaker 1: Then the doctor came in with news. He said, based

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Speaker 1: on the symptoms, Alicia was showing she had quote abusive

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Speaker 1: head trop or shaken baby syndrome.

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Speaker 2: When the originally when the doctor walked in and said it,

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Speaker 2: Alan kind of went after him, like the nerve of you,

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Speaker 2: like this is not no, this didn't happen. And then

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Speaker 2: they separated us and they started questioning him and started

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Speaker 2: questioning me. But when they asked me to do like

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Speaker 2: I just did with you and go through the entire

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Speaker 2: day and tell them what happened throughout the day, they

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Speaker 2: kept stopping me and leaving the room talking to whoever

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Speaker 2: and coming back in and saying, well, that couldn't have

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Speaker 2: possibly happened. You must have dropped her, or you must.

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Speaker 3: Have this, or you know.

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Speaker 2: It was always it was just like what I was

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Speaker 2: saying was not what they wanted to hear, and so

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Speaker 2: they kept making it seemed like I was changing my

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Speaker 2: story when I'm simply just trying to tell you what

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Speaker 2: happened from the beginning to the end.

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Speaker 1: It was harrowing and it was about to get worse.

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Speaker 1: Alicia was taken off life support on October twentieth and

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Speaker 1: died at seven twenty seven pm. She was eleven weeks old.

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Speaker 1: Two days later, Tanya was brought to the station for

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Speaker 1: questioning by Detective Tim Hurt of the Battle Creek Police Department,

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Speaker 1: but they didn't get far. Tanya asked for an attorney

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Speaker 1: and was released the next day.

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Speaker 2: I guess they didn't have enough to even arraign me

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Speaker 2: at the time, so they just let me go.

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Speaker 1: But Tanya's life was falling apart. The state eventually took

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Speaker 1: away her two year old and placed her in foster care.

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Speaker 2: It was very difficult being home and looking over and

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Speaker 2: seeing a toddler bed with no toddler in it, you know,

283
00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:39,880
Speaker 2: a bass in that with no baby in it, and

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Speaker 2: just to know like it's never going to be the

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Speaker 2: same again.

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Speaker 1: And at eighteen she was being investigated in her newborn

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Speaker 1: baby's death.

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Speaker 2: It was so traumatic and having no help, not getting

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Speaker 2: any kind of help therapy wise, having no way to

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Speaker 2: really truly grieve, and just knowing every move was being watched,

291
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Speaker 2: every conversation I was having, you know, anything I'm just

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Speaker 2: all over the newspapers. I didn't want to have a TV.

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Speaker 2: I didn't want to see the news. I just didn't

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Speaker 2: want the trauma of all of it anymore. I seriously

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Speaker 2: had contemplated suicide. Just life was meaningless at that point.

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Speaker 1: Were you even able to grieve Alicia?

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Speaker 3: Not like I should have.

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Speaker 2: No, I would find myself at the cemetery a lot,

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Speaker 2: just you know, laying there with her basically, but to

300
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Speaker 2: actually grieve. Looking back, No, I never did have that opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Even though she wanted out of life, Tanya knew she

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Speaker 1: had to stick around.

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Speaker 2: I couldn't follow through it that I had Kayla, and

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Speaker 2: I truly believed that I was going to be found innocent.

305
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Speaker 1: Of that, but she wasn't. Tanya was arrested, charged, and

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Speaker 1: tried for the death of her baby Alicia on April eighth,

307
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:09,760
Speaker 1: two thousand and three. Trial prosecutor Daniel Buscher called multiple

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00:16:09,800 --> 00:16:13,480
Speaker 1: experts to prove his case that Tanya had shaken Alicia

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Speaker 1: to death. The star was the man who performed the autopsy,

310
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Speaker 1: doctor Brian Hunter.

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Speaker 5: His testimony was that she had retinal hemorrhages and bleeding

312
00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:29,080
Speaker 5: on the outer layers as a brain and swelling of

313
00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,640
Speaker 5: the brain, and those was the classic tryad of symptoms

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Speaker 5: for shaking baby syndrome.

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Speaker 1: This is Dave Moran.

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Speaker 5: I am the co director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic

317
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Speaker 5: at University of Michigan Law School.

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Speaker 1: Dave says, this tryaud of symptoms is the gold standard

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Speaker 1: for shaking baby syndrome. Brain injury, bleeding around the brain,

320
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Speaker 1: and bleeding around the eyes. That's what every doctor at

321
00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:55,280
Speaker 1: the time was taught, including pathologist doctor Hunter.

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Speaker 5: So to him, this was a slam dunk case of

323
00:16:58,040 --> 00:16:58,960
Speaker 5: shaking baby syndrome.

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00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:05,840
Speaker 1: Wit was thirteen during Tanya's trial, and she remembers every

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Speaker 1: moment of it.

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Speaker 4: Honestly. To sit there and listen to how they portrayed

327
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Speaker 4: this person that I've known for so long on a

328
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Speaker 4: daily basis, it broke my heart.

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Speaker 1: What were some of those things that they were saying

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Speaker 1: about her that you knew not to be true.

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Speaker 4: Oh, she's a young mother and she just.

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Speaker 1: Snapped, got headaches. You're strussing out living at the Dolls house.

333
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Speaker 2: You have no money, no job, you're not getting along

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Speaker 2: as your boyfriend.

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Speaker 4: You take care of your child ninety nine point.

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Speaker 2: Nine percent the night, and you snapped that particular day,

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Speaker 2: That's when happened, isn't it.

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Speaker 4: And it's like, no, I never once saw her loser

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Speaker 4: patience with children like that, never once saw her even

340
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Speaker 4: get frustrated in that type of way. So to hear

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00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:02,760
Speaker 4: them portray ray somebody you love and know so deeply

342
00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:06,800
Speaker 4: on the news and in the papers and in a

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Speaker 4: courtroom where you can't say anything, it was just it

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Speaker 4: was awful. It was awful.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what did she look like during all that?

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Speaker 4: In shock? And Matt was portrayed badly too. Oh look

347
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:26,280
Speaker 4: she has no emotion. Oh she's sitting there speechless. She's

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Speaker 4: a teenager who lost her daughters, and you people, you know,

349
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Speaker 4: you know she's being charged with these horrendous crimes.

350
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Speaker 1: Tanya needed a great defense to beat the quote slam

351
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Speaker 1: dunk case. The prosecution claimed they had.

352
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Speaker 2: My mom, bless her heart, you know, went through the

353
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Speaker 2: yellow pages trying to find an attorney who would agreed

354
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Speaker 2: to take a murder case. She found Headinger and Headinger

355
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Speaker 2: out of Kalamazoo. Her and my grandmother had to go

356
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Speaker 2: through there fork just to get the funds to retain him.

357
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Speaker 1: Tanya's family paid Edwin Hedinger for what they thought was

358
00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:11,280
Speaker 1: going to be the best defense, but the defense actually

359
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:14,000
Speaker 1: agreed that it was shaking baby party. It wasn't.

360
00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:17,439
Speaker 5: Yes, the original defense at trial did not contest to

361
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:18,440
Speaker 5: shaking baby syndrome.

362
00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,399
Speaker 1: Dave says, in those days, there weren't many people disputing

363
00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:26,200
Speaker 1: these science behind shaking baby syndrome, at least not locally.

364
00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:29,280
Speaker 5: I really don't think that there was anybody in Michigan

365
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,879
Speaker 5: who was questioning any part of the shaking baby syndrome

366
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:33,560
Speaker 5: dogma at that point.

367
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,960
Speaker 1: So Tanya's attorney worked with the knowledge and resources he had.

368
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Speaker 2: He believed that a crime had been committed, but didn't

369
00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:43,679
Speaker 2: believe that it was me that did it, So his

370
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:46,400
Speaker 2: focus was on somebody else.

371
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,080
Speaker 1: Doing it, someone else like Alan.

372
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Speaker 2: I didn't want to believe it, and I still to

373
00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:54,719
Speaker 2: this day don't believe it. But it was just, you know,

374
00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:58,400
Speaker 2: when they're saying that this is absolutely positively what happened,

375
00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,080
Speaker 2: and I know I didn't do it, my mind is like,

376
00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:04,960
Speaker 2: you know, maybe he did, but I don't believe he

377
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,720
Speaker 2: ever would have harmed her.

378
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:08,560
Speaker 1: Especially now that you know.

379
00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:10,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean I knew him back then and

380
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:12,560
Speaker 2: I knew that's not something that he would have done.

381
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 1: But at the time that's the only defense she had

382
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:19,679
Speaker 1: casting reasonable doubt as to who may have shaken Alicia.

383
00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:23,240
Speaker 5: Maybe the baby could have been shaken when she was

384
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 5: in the custody of her paternal grandparents the day before,

385
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 5: and then the symptoms only showed up the next day.

386
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Speaker 1: Tanya also testified in her own defense.

387
00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 5: She tried to testify about Alicia's sickliness, her troubles breathing before,

388
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,040
Speaker 5: but that didn't really lead anywhere because again, that wasn't

389
00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,360
Speaker 5: the defense theory. There was no expert to back that up.

390
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,359
Speaker 5: Maybe there was something else going on here.

391
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:51,480
Speaker 1: Is there any explanation why that wasn't Was it tried

392
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,200
Speaker 1: to be presented and then it was barred, or why

393
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,240
Speaker 1: wasn't any of this previous medical history entered?

394
00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:01,920
Speaker 5: Well, I think the defense layer correctly recognized that it

395
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 5: would have been treated as a red herring. The prosecution

396
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:07,080
Speaker 5: would have criticized him for creating a red herring because

397
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:10,000
Speaker 5: you've heard from all the experts that none of what

398
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,320
Speaker 5: happened before matters. All that matters now is this baby

399
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,399
Speaker 5: was shaken just before she died, so none of that

400
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:17,040
Speaker 5: would have worked.

401
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:20,200
Speaker 1: Tanya felt like there was no winning.

402
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,000
Speaker 2: At that point, I kind of felt like I'm going

403
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:23,479
Speaker 2: to prison.

404
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,320
Speaker 1: During jury deliberations, she remembers her lawyer saying.

405
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:32,400
Speaker 2: If the jury comes out and they refuse to look

406
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,160
Speaker 2: you in the eye, you're pretty much guaranteed that they're

407
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:36,159
Speaker 2: going to find you guilty.

408
00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:39,760
Speaker 3: And that's exactly what happened. My heart just.

409
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,400
Speaker 2: Dropped watching them walk out of there, and only one

410
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,080
Speaker 2: of them looked me in the eye. The rest of

411
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,680
Speaker 2: them just looked at the floor and made their way

412
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,240
Speaker 2: back to their seats before they handed over their verdict.

413
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:55,640
Speaker 4: I was not actually prepared for them to find her guilty,

414
00:21:55,800 --> 00:22:00,600
Speaker 4: because I knew she was innocent, so that and I mean,

415
00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:01,800
Speaker 4: who can prepare you for that?

416
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 2: My niece was in the background, and if you ever

417
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,399
Speaker 2: pull up the court documents, you will hear her like

418
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:16,000
Speaker 2: scream when they read the verdict teeth.

419
00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:24,119
Speaker 4: And it was not even a second after that that

420
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:27,040
Speaker 4: they were dragging her out, and I'm trying to reach

421
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:30,080
Speaker 4: over the banister and grab her hands, and you know,

422
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:34,639
Speaker 4: everybody's crying. Everybody's screaming, and we're all trying to grab

423
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 4: at her. You know, they wouldn't even let her say anything,

424
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,919
Speaker 4: you know, they just drug her out like this. Horrendous criminal.

425
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:43,800
Speaker 4: They wouldn't even let her say about.

426
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 1: It her family.

427
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 4: So for me, you know, thirteen, seeing them my best

428
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,560
Speaker 4: friend away and my bigger sister to me like that,

429
00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 4: and it was heartbreaking.

430
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 1: On April fourteenth, two thousand and three, then twenty year

431
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 1: old Tanya Miller was convicted of second screen murder and

432
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:15,520
Speaker 1: was later sentenced to almost three decades behind bars. What

433
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:17,879
Speaker 1: were your first years in prison?

434
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 2: Like, it's a very it's a huge culture shock to

435
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,880
Speaker 2: just have everything taken away and just be told what

436
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:31,199
Speaker 2: you can have or what you can do. And so

437
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,439
Speaker 2: they asked you a bunch of questions about, you know,

438
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 2: your mental health, about your.

439
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 3: Past and whatnot.

440
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,639
Speaker 2: And this man literally looked me in my face and

441
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,640
Speaker 2: was like, you can't tell me that you're twenty years

442
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 2: old with a twenty year sentence and you've never done

443
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 2: drugs or alcohol. Like he did not believe that you

444
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,280
Speaker 2: had never done drugs at aol, never never had an

445
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:55,440
Speaker 2: inclination to attempt anything, still don't. So it just blew

446
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,159
Speaker 2: me away that, like my attorney didn't believe in me.

447
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 2: And now I'm sitting here and I'm telling you that

448
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 2: I've never done this and you're like, I don't believe you.

449
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 1: What and you had doctors not believing.

450
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:06,960
Speaker 2: You and doctors not believing me.

451
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:13,639
Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine feeling so small when nobody believes what

452
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: you're saying. Yeah, But Tanya's family believed her, and for

453
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:22,640
Speaker 1: as long as they could, they tried to support her.

454
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 2: My family, you know, they're not financially secure really, so

455
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 2: that drive and you know, having to buy like photo

456
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 2: tickets or you know, a meal card or whatever to

457
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 2: be able to sit comfortably and just chat and you know,

458
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:37,919
Speaker 2: eat with them and whatnot.

459
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 3: It was a lot on them.

460
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 2: And my mom had a really hard time leaving me there,

461
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,919
Speaker 2: and my baby's sister had a really hard time leaving

462
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 2: me there, and so my mom kind of felt like

463
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 2: it wasn't worth bringing her or coming when it was,

464
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 2: it took so long for her to recover afterward.

465
00:24:57,119 --> 00:24:58,680
Speaker 1: So they stopped visiting as much.

466
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 2: I'm like, I have so many so if they just come,

467
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:02,840
Speaker 2: you know, once a month, I'll have somebody come, you know,

468
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,479
Speaker 2: every every month for a year. And it just didn't

469
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:09,240
Speaker 2: work out that way at all. So the longer you do,

470
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 2: the less you'll see them, the less you'll hear from them.

471
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 2: The less a lands of the phone, and that is

472
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 2: one hundred percent the truth.

473
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: That as always there was Wit writing and calling and

474
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: checking in.

475
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:25,000
Speaker 4: I feared for her life in prison, you know, all

476
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 4: the time, because of what they say she did and

477
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 4: what people can do to people in prison at her children,

478
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,159
Speaker 4: even though she didn't so like. I constantly feared for her.

479
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,959
Speaker 1: But Tanya says she kept out of trouble by keeping busy.

480
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 2: I worked the entire time, and I worked as much

481
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 2: as they would let me, and I took as many

482
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 2: classes as I could, whatever I could get into. I

483
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,639
Speaker 2: even applied for like AA and NA, just to be

484
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:57,760
Speaker 2: a part of something.

485
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:02,120
Speaker 1: And between work and classes, Tanya's life was passing her by.

486
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: No twenty first birthday celebration, no college commencement ceremony.

487
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 4: So many missed Christmases, birthdays, holidays. Life's not fair. Life's

488
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:15,639
Speaker 4: not fair.

489
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,440
Speaker 1: And Tanya was missing out on her daughter, Kayla's life

490
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,360
Speaker 1: as well. At first, Kayla staved with family, and Wit

491
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: tried to remain a constant in Kayla's life too.

492
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,239
Speaker 4: I went out there every weekend. I bought we had

493
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 4: matching pajamas. That was my little buddy, blues Clues. I

494
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:37,880
Speaker 4: took off his pictures as many pictures as I could

495
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 4: every weekend that I went. I went out there every weekend,

496
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 4: and I made this giant photo album for her and

497
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:45,920
Speaker 4: just added through it throughout the years of like the

498
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 4: letters she would send me or the drawing she would

499
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 4: send me. I just tried to keep her in the

500
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,160
Speaker 4: loop with the other child until I couldn't anymore.

501
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: Eventually, Kayla was adopted and denied contact with Tanya and

502
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: her loved ones, and the years kept passing by until

503
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: one day, out of the blue, a man reached out

504
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 1: to Tanya by the name of Jeremy Perry.

505
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 2: He was just a layman on the street. He had

506
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:17,320
Speaker 2: no interest in the whole system or anything. He was

507
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,479
Speaker 2: a I believe in a computer engineer. Maybe I might

508
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 2: have that wrong, but he's seen my picture and he

509
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 2: was like, your picture just stood in my mind because

510
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 2: you were so young, with such a long time, and

511
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,359
Speaker 2: so he said it was probably a year later, like

512
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 2: my name kind of fell back into his mind and

513
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 2: he looked me up and he said he immediately believed

514
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 2: that I didn't do that, And so he wrote to

515
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 2: me and he asked me if I had heard of

516
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:44,479
Speaker 2: the Michigan Innocence Clinic.

517
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 5: I'm thinking it was about twenty fifteen when we first

518
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:53,919
Speaker 5: reviewed the case. We by that point had litigated several

519
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:57,159
Speaker 5: other shaking baby syndrome cases. We had our first case

520
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 5: in twenty ten out of Julie Bomber, and we had

521
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 5: taken on several other cases.

522
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 1: Dave says that in the decade since Tanya had been convicted,

523
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 1: there had been a sea change in shake and baby

524
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 1: syndrome science.

525
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 5: What we've learned about shake baby syndrome really as twofold is,

526
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 5: first of all, it may not exist at all because

527
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 5: of the biomechanical difficulties.

528
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:26,880
Speaker 1: Dave says, it's virtually impossible to shake a baby hard

529
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: enough to cause the triad of symptoms without breaking its neck.

530
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 5: If you could shake a baby hard enough to cause

531
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 5: these particular symptoms, you would almost certainly fracture the neck

532
00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 5: and that would be the cause of death. And there

533
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:41,640
Speaker 5: was no neck injury to Alicia.

534
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 1: And then there was Alicia's medical history.

535
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 5: One of the important things is is there a prior

536
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:52,960
Speaker 5: history and have there been prior instances of the baby

537
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 5: not being well which can lead us and especially of

538
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 5: course our experts to see are any of the alternative

539
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 5: causes for the symptoms present, and we had all of

540
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:05,720
Speaker 5: that in spades.

541
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 4: Here.

542
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 5: We had medical records showing that Alicia had had a

543
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 5: series of collapses before our student attorneys went out and

544
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 5: interviewed the people who had seen Alicia have these problems.

545
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 1: And there was a smoking gun that came from the

546
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 1: prosecution's own expert in.

547
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,440
Speaker 5: One line on page seven of the autopsy report, which

548
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 5: was the very last page of the report. The forensic

549
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 5: pathologist who did the autopsy on Alicia after she died,

550
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 5: and he actually noted that Alicia had a cute bronchial

551
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 5: pneumonia pneumonia.

552
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: The slides from Alicia's lungs during autopsy showed a cute

553
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:58,479
Speaker 1: bronchial pneumonia. Tanya had been right all along. Alicia was

554
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: really sick. In so many of these cases, women are

555
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:22,120
Speaker 1: just not believed. Is this a pattern, you see? And

556
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,680
Speaker 1: how is the pneumonia not caught? It's just kind of

557
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: mind blowing.

558
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 5: It is it is. It's amazing that you could have slides.

559
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 5: I mean, it's so obvious that there's something terribly terribly wrong,

560
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 5: but it's this dogma that it still exists today.

561
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 1: A dogma that leads doctors to almost instinctively diagnosed shaken

562
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: baby syndrome, ignoring the pleading mothers in front of them.

563
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 5: This was somebody who is doing her level best to

564
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 5: try and get the appropriate help for her infant and

565
00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 5: was getting blown off. Shaking baby syndrome results in lots

566
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,959
Speaker 5: and lots of wrongful conviction of women, probably more than

567
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 5: anything else, because women are usually the primary caregivers for

568
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:11,080
Speaker 5: young infants.

569
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: Dave hired four of the leading experts in shaking baby

570
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 1: syndrome to look at Tanya's case.

571
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 5: They all came to very similar, overlapping conclusions about what

572
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 5: had actually happened to Alicia. Doctor Francis Green, who is

573
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 5: one of the world's leading experts in pediatric lung pathology,

574
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:34,120
Speaker 5: who looked at the slides and he said, those slides

575
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 5: are inconsistent with life because Alicia had a case of

576
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 5: acute pneumonia that was so serious that she could not

577
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 5: have survived it. So we filed the case.

578
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, they were granted a hearing and up

579
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: against the experts and the facts, the judge ruled in

580
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 1: favor of Tanya and granted her a new trial.

581
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:01,479
Speaker 5: It was really no contest between the prosecution's one expert

582
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 5: from two thousand and three coming back and our experts,

583
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,200
Speaker 5: and so the prosecution knew they could not win a retrial,

584
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 5: and so in early twenty twenty one, Tanya was released,

585
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 5: and that was a glorious day.

586
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 1: Tanya remembers leaving the prison and the people inside she

587
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 1: had grown up with.

588
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,080
Speaker 2: And so then when I was leaving, there all banging

589
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 2: on the windows and you know, waving their goodbyes and everything.

590
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 2: Eighteen years, eighteen years, Yeah, it becomes a family unit

591
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 2: in there.

592
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:37,320
Speaker 1: But now Tanya was free to be with her family

593
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: on the outside.

594
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 2: So I took some time just to really get to

595
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 2: know all of my siblings' children, how my nieces and nephews,

596
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 2: because they were all married and divorce and having kids

597
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:48,640
Speaker 2: and everything while I was gone. You know, I lost

598
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 2: my father, I lost my grandparents. I have one surviving

599
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 2: grandmother right now, and so it was I took a

600
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 2: lot of time just kind of focusing on family.

601
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 4: I'm surprised I didn't break her bones from houganers so.

602
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 1: Hard, and that family includes wit.

603
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 4: Wait, is this real? Like she's really out, Like Okay,

604
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 4: I'm immediately going to Michigan. I spent the night there

605
00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 4: with her. You know, we had a bonfire and hung out,

606
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 4: and we'd never been able to hang out as adults.

607
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 1: And remember the photo album Whit made while Tanya was

608
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 1: in prison.

609
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 4: She gave it to her, pictures of when we were

610
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 4: kids together. I had all her letters she wrote me

611
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 4: from jail in it, even her newspaper clip things. I

612
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 4: clipped them all out as a kid.

613
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,280
Speaker 1: Wit still admires and looks up to Tanya after all

614
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 1: these years.

615
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 4: You see her and she's always laughing. And you know,

616
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,880
Speaker 4: she's not sitting over there like with a nasty look

617
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 4: on her face or you know what I mean. She's happy.

618
00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 4: She's living her life that she deserved to live. And

619
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,000
Speaker 4: I tell her, live your life than she is.

620
00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:00,800
Speaker 2: I've kind of done a few things I probably never

621
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:01,960
Speaker 2: would have done.

622
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 3: What jumping out of a plane. Oh my gosh, she

623
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 3: went skydiving. I went skydiving. Yeah, how was that? It

624
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 3: was incredible? To be honest, yeah it was.

625
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 2: I can't even describe the free inness that you feel

626
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 2: just doing that.

627
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 1: But there's still one part about her life that's on hold,

628
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:30,000
Speaker 1: her relationship with her first born Kayla, now twenty three

629
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:33,840
Speaker 1: years old. Tanya's reached out a couple of times but

630
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:35,279
Speaker 1: has been shut out.

631
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 2: Trying to put myself in her shoes and just give

632
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 2: her that time, in that space and hope that eventually

633
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,240
Speaker 2: she'll understand that I loved her all of these years,

634
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 2: and I didn't do this to her little sister, and

635
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:48,919
Speaker 2: I would have been in her life if I had

636
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,799
Speaker 2: the opportunity, and you know, just that her family really

637
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 2: truly does love her. Everybody wants to get to know her.

638
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 2: Everybody wants a part of her life. They were all

639
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,920
Speaker 2: kind of tol that they couldn't be a part of

640
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 2: her life, and so nobody abandoned her. She's never been abandoned,

641
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 2: She's never been forgotten. We celebrate her birthday every year,

642
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 2: you know, we talk about her all the time.

643
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 3: We just wish her well.

644
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 1: According to the National Registry of Exonerations, at least thirty

645
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:29,440
Speaker 1: shaken baby syndrome convictions have been overturned in the last

646
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:34,920
Speaker 1: three decades. Prosecutors continue to charge parents and caretakers with

647
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 1: this crime. Thank you for listening to wrongful conviction with

648
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:44,480
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling. Please support your local innocence organizations and go

649
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: to the links in the episode description to see how

650
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:51,080
Speaker 1: you can help. This episode was written by me Maggie Freeling,

651
00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 1: with story editing and mixing by senior producer Rebecca Ibada.

652
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 1: Our producer is Kathleen Fink. Our researcher Shelby Sorels, with

653
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: additional mixing by Josh Allen and additional production help by

654
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 1: Jeff Clyburn and Connor Hall. Thank you to the podcast

655
00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 1: Life of the Law and the Midial Justice Project for

656
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 1: letting us use their audio of Tanya's trial. Executive producers

657
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: are Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis. The music

658
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Make

659
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:23,120
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on all social media platforms at

660
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:26,040
Speaker 1: Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also

661
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 1: follow me on all platforms at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction

662
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,399
Speaker 1: with Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava for Good

663
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 1: Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One