WEBVTT - #478 Maggie Freleng with Tonia Miller 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.720 I've spent the last five years of my journalism career 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:12.440 interviewing people who say they've been wrongfully convicted, and among 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.000 the women I've spoken to, one of the most common 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:20.720 charges against them is shaking their babies to death. I 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.400 see these cases so often that I can't include them 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.920 all on this show. The accusation of shaking a baby 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.600 to death evokes a visceral reaction from many people. You 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.800 might be feeling it right now, Horror, followed by sadness 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.760 for the defenseless child, and maybe even discussed for the 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:45.000 person accused of such a crime. Many jurors at trial 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.559 certainly feel this way, and the prosecutors count on it. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:55.040 But the thing is, the medical diagnosis used to prosecute 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:59.640 this type of crime has been contested time and time again. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.360 Last year, the New Jersey Court of Appeals even ruled 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:08.320 that in many instances it was junk science. And let 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:13.040 me be clear, people do abuse children. They get jailed 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.080 for it all the time. But often when an infant 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.840 ends up in an emergency room with what seems like 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:24.080 inexplicable internal injuries and no other obvious signs of abuse, 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:29.320 doctors and then prosecutors quickly determine. It's what's known as 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:34.320 shaken baby syndrome, a scientifically disputed cause of death with 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:40.280 often devastating consequences for the people charged. Today we hear 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:41.040 from one of them. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.280 My name is Tania Miller, and I was incarcerated in 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.560 Michigan Women's Aran Valley Correctional Facility for eighteen years for 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:49.600 a crime I didn't commit. 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:54.840 This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Tanya Miller. 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.880 Tanya Miller was born May nineteen eighty three and grew 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:09.640 up in Fulton, Michigan. 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.560 Growing up, we lived in the country and my mother 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.400 worked at a plastics company at the time, and then 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:23.280 later on she started working for manufacturing company for car parts, 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:25.880 and my father worked at General Motors. 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:28.560 But we grew up, you. 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:33.160 Know, not very financially secure. We struggled a lot financially, 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.920 but we were like a really close family, all of 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:37.640 the siblings. 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.600 Tanya has a huge family. 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.400 My father had been married and divorced a couple of times, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.919 and so I have siblings you know, from him from 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:46.760 prior marriages. 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:47.840 How many of you. 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.919 My parents have five together, and then my mother had 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:56.320 us sixth one later. But my father has four prior 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.160 to yeah. 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.560 Ten siblings. Okay, and where do you in the lineup 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:03.799 of every in the middle? 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:04.840 Yeah? 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:05.120 Wow? 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:05.799 So what was that like? 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.080 Maah and my older brother, my mom's oldest were like, 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:12.280 we're two peas in a pod. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:13.919 So we were always together. 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:16.680 So I was a little tomboy running around doing whatever 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.680 my brother did. I admired him so much, and we 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.120 just he would take something apart and I'd put it together. 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:24.080 He'd want to climb a tree. I want to climb 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:25.720 the tree if he broke a bone that year. I 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:26.639 broke a bone that year. 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.079 It was like we literally followed suit with each other. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:30.639 What were some of your interests. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.400 I love having my hands in the dirt. I just 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.920 love I love gardening. I loved anything that had anything 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.240 to do with nature. So we were always on four wheelers, 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.880 on horses. We were doing four h raising chickens and 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:45.800 turkeys and cornish tens and you know those kinds of things. 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.600 So anything that had something to do with nature. 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.480 Then when she was eleven, Tanya's parents separated. 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.880 When Tanya moved in she was twelve, I was six. 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.000 This is Whitney Wesner. She goes by wit. 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.400 Tanya is considered well, I consider her my best friend 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:03.440 and my older sister. 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.520 When Tanya's parents split, her mom moved to the family 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.520 to Battle Creek in the house next door to six 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:10.240 year old Wit. 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.120 We even had a shared driveway. I mean I literally 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.920 could jump out my bedroom window and go up their 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:24.880 backsteps right into their house. And I just automatically took 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.160 a liking to her as like I looked up to her. 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.440 I actually hung out with her more than I did 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:33.360 her siblings. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.560 I just so, what was it about Tanya? Because I'm 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:38.359 sure some of her siblings were closer in age to 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:38.880 you as well. 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.600 I was just drawn to her as a person, as 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.440 like her energy, and I was like, I want to 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.160 hang out with her. You know, she was the older 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:47.880 cool kid to me. 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.040 And she kept Wit around even if it annoyed Tanya's 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.120 older friends or boyfriends. 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.440 Why is this ten twelve year old just constantly wround you? 0:04:57.440 --> 0:04:59.599 You know what I mean? Like tell her to go 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:00.560 away and she's like. 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.520 No, Why do you think? 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.520 Because I think if I was when I was her age, 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:07.600 I wanted nothing to do with kids, Like I'd be like, 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:09.760 why is this ten year old around me? Why do 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:11.039 you think she'll let you around. 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.840 I don't know her, and I just there's just this 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:16.040 connection there. 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.320 Wit says Tanya and her did everything together from baseball. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.440 So she's pitching me and she's kind of probably underestimating 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.200 the whole ten year old with the vat And she 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.680 pitched me one and turned to talk to somebody, and 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.760 I clocked it, and oh, she had the biggest black eye. 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:32.880 Oh my god. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.000 We had to run into my mom's house and put 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.279 peas on her face like she's like your daughter actually 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:39.120 hit the ball. 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:41.600 To soccer. 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.520 She was a great soccer player. So she would take 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.200 me rollerblading, roora skating around the neighborhood. She did. She 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:48.640 taught me a lot of things. She taught me a 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.359 lot of things that she doesn't even know that she 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.599 taught me. And you know, to this day, she is 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:55.920 my best friend and that has never changed. 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:03.400 Tanya, by all accounts family and friends, was great with kids. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.920 It was natural. It was natural for her. I never 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:08.880 once saw her lose her patience. 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.480 As often happens with big families. Tanya stepped up to 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.440 help her mom with all the kids. 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.960 That was really difficult because then I became like the 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.600 living babysitter I was the one making sure all the kids, 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.920 you know, had their dinner, had their baths, had their 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.560 homework done and stuff. When mom was working, and she 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.520 had to work a lot to support all of us, 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:29.680 so she was hardly there. 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.320 Tanya played mom and then she became one. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.159 At fifteen, I got into a relationship with somebody that 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.680 was significantly older, not significantly he was twenty four and 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:41.359 I didn't know it. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.720 He said he was nineteen. So but I ended up. 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.360 Pregnant, and so I had a daughter at sixteen. 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.960 Wow. Yes, Tanya gave birth to a baby girl named Kayla. 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:56.280 But she had with all her siblings, had already been 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:02.800 mothering at that point in her life, so having her 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:07.520 own it wasn't like a typical teenager having a baby, 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:09.360 Like what do I do? 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.840 But Tanya was still just sixteen. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:16.120 I ended up not completing the high school scene. I 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.680 went to like a night school, and so I was 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:19.960 able to take my daughter with me. 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.480 And the relationship with Kayla's dad didn't last. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.360 It was not a very good relationship, and I ended 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.760 up getting back into a relationship with a boy that 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:31.800 I had been with before. 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.320 A boy named Alan, and at eighteen, they had her 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.800 second daughter, Alicia, you were going to school, were you working? 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:40.360 How are you guys surviving? 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:42.240 Yeah, we were working. 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.080 I was a hostess and he I can't remember if 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:48.720 he was a cooker, if he was doing dishes at 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.000 the time, but he stepped up and really helped, like 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:52.840 he get you know, he got jobs here and there 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.000 when he could the teenagers. You don't always keep a 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.280 job for long. But it was a struggle. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.560 But as always there was wit. Now in her teens, 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:02.760 she was ready to help. 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:04.320 So I would sit with the kids, you know, while 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.800 she'd take a shower or you know. I was more 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:12.040 involved than the child's father. Yeah, like I was there. 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:16.960 It's not that she needed somebody else to help her, 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.120 because Tanya was a great mother. 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.920 And she still had plans for herself and her future. 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.400 She earned herself a scholarship to community college. 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:30.160 I wanted to go to be a pediatrician, ironically, but 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.480 that unfortunately all fell through. 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.680 Alicia was a very sick baby from birth. 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.440 They during labor and delivery, they did lose her heartbeat 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.199 at one point and had to do an internal monitor 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.559 on her. So then they were very quickly trying to 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.280 get her born. Wow, And so they were kind of 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:04.000 worried about her being low birthway. She was six pounds, 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.480 you know, she was small, but she wasn't you know, 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:11.520 premi or anything like that. Immediately, everything seemed to be okay, 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.400 But then after a couple of weeks at bringing her home, 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.280 things just were not the same. You expect it to 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.200 kind of be like your first one where you don't 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.439 really have any issues or anything, and so I knew 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.720 something wasn't right, but I didn't know how to communicate 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:26.960 it or what it was. 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:27.560 Exactly. 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:34.920 My first experience with Alicia that scared me was she 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.800 would she would you'd be holding her and she would 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:42.520 just like gus for air out of nowhere. I would 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.800 get nervous and just hand her back. I had never 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.920 seen that in a child. She would space off at 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.840 the bright lights and not even like blink. 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.720 She didn't want to eat very much. She would almost 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.360 chew on the nipple as if she was teething, but 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:04.000 she wasn't teething. Her diapers weren't she wasn't, you know, 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.160 urinating like she was supposed to. It was just a 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.080 lot of little things, and then eventually it was she 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.520 looked like she was staring right through you she would 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:13.480 just go limp. 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:16.920 Did you take her to the doctor multiple times? And 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:17.720 what did they say? 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.960 That I was a paranoid mom and yeah, So when 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:26.280 she had quit breathing, they basically told me that she 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:27.800 was angry and learn how to. 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:28.559 Hold her breath. 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:29.880 That's what they said. 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.320 Yeah, so they didn't take me serious at all. I 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:33.960 don't know if it was because I was a young, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.680 unwed mother of two children on Medicaid, and so that 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.040 was why they didn't take me serious, but they put 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:45.000 that in my file. So whenever I would call, I 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:46.520 wouldn't even get the appointments. 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.360 She says. Her family and friends also knew something was wrong. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:50.720 But we didn't. 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:52.319 We couldn't pinpoint anything. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:53.319 We didn't know what. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.320 To call it, what it was, what to research, so 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:58.200 I had no idea. 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:06.520 October nineteenth, two thousand and one, started off normal for 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:07.920 Tanya and her family. 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.000 Alan had gone fishing really early in the morning, and 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:13.679 so I was up with the baby trying to get 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:14.400 her to eat a bottle. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.280 She absolutely refused to. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.080 Eat, so she laid her back down. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.199 Cayla got up a little bit later and had her 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.679 cereal and was watching her movie and then eventually Alicia 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.480 decided to wake up, and she was just as happy 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:28.000 as could be. 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.640 They played until Alicia got fussy, and then called Wit 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:33.800 to come and help while she got ready, Can. 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.120 You head over in about twenty minutes so that you 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.080 can watch the girls while I jump in the shower. 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:40.960 So I said, of course absolutely. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.439 While she waited for Wit, Tanya tried to feed Alicia again. 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:47.400 So I'm holding her. 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.840 I'm feeding her, and she coughs, and formula is like 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.920 pouring out of her eyeballs, out of her nose, out 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.679 of her mouth, and so I hold her upright, and 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.200 her one eye like went to the back, and like 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:03.960 it just rolled to the back, and then she went limp, 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:05.840 and it was so unexpected. 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.120 I had almost. 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.319 Dropped her, and so I laid her on the floor. 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:10.240 And I called nine to one one. 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:11.959 Tanya also called Wit. 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.120 All I hears frantically, is I Alicia's on the way 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:16.680 to the hospital. She stopped breathing. 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.760 Alicia was raced to the hospital, transferred to a pediatric unit, 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:27.880 and qut on life support. Then doctors ordered act scan 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.880 that showed mild swelling in Alicia's brain as well as bleeding. 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:37.480 An eye examination also found retinal hemorrhaging. By this time, 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.920 Alan and the whole family had gathered in the hospital 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.440 waiting room, anxious for any information about what was going on. 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:55.280 Then the doctor came in with news. He said, based 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.240 on the symptoms, Alicia was showing she had quote abusive 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.760 head trop or shaken baby syndrome. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.880 When the originally when the doctor walked in and said it, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.520 Alan kind of went after him, like the nerve of you, 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.600 like this is not no, this didn't happen. And then 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.240 they separated us and they started questioning him and started 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.360 questioning me. But when they asked me to do like 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.440 I just did with you and go through the entire 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.160 day and tell them what happened throughout the day, they 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:24.880 kept stopping me and leaving the room talking to whoever 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:26.880 and coming back in and saying, well, that couldn't have 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.400 possibly happened. You must have dropped her, or you must. 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:29.880 Have this, or you know. 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:31.720 It was always it was just like what I was 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.120 saying was not what they wanted to hear, and so 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.160 they kept making it seemed like I was changing my 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.760 story when I'm simply just trying to tell you what 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.520 happened from the beginning to the end. 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.120 It was harrowing and it was about to get worse. 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:52.040 Alicia was taken off life support on October twentieth and 0:13:52.080 --> 0:14:00.320 died at seven twenty seven pm. She was eleven weeks old. 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.520 Two days later, Tanya was brought to the station for 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.640 questioning by Detective Tim Hurt of the Battle Creek Police Department, 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.000 but they didn't get far. Tanya asked for an attorney 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:14.840 and was released the next day. 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.760 I guess they didn't have enough to even arraign me 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:19.880 at the time, so they just let me go. 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:25.080 But Tanya's life was falling apart. The state eventually took 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.280 away her two year old and placed her in foster care. 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:34.200 It was very difficult being home and looking over and 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.320 seeing a toddler bed with no toddler in it, you know, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.880 a bass in that with no baby in it, and 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.080 just to know like it's never going to be the 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:43.720 same again. 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.400 And at eighteen she was being investigated in her newborn 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:49.440 baby's death. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:54.200 It was so traumatic and having no help, not getting 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.960 any kind of help therapy wise, having no way to 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.960 really truly grieve, and just knowing every move was being watched, 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.160 every conversation I was having, you know, anything I'm just 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:08.520 all over the newspapers. I didn't want to have a TV. 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:10.560 I didn't want to see the news. I just didn't 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:16.840 want the trauma of all of it anymore. I seriously 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:21.680 had contemplated suicide. Just life was meaningless at that point. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.120 Were you even able to grieve Alicia? 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:26.400 Not like I should have. 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:31.160 No, I would find myself at the cemetery a lot, 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:35.000 just you know, laying there with her basically, but to 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:41.080 actually grieve. Looking back, No, I never did have that opportunity. 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.280 Even though she wanted out of life, Tanya knew she 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:45.840 had to stick around. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.360 I couldn't follow through it that I had Kayla, and 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.040 I truly believed that I was going to be found innocent. 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.960 Of that, but she wasn't. Tanya was arrested, charged, and 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.560 tried for the death of her baby Alicia on April eighth, 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:09.760 two thousand and three. Trial prosecutor Daniel Buscher called multiple 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.480 experts to prove his case that Tanya had shaken Alicia 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.360 to death. The star was the man who performed the autopsy, 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:18.720 doctor Brian Hunter. 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:25.080 His testimony was that she had retinal hemorrhages and bleeding 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:29.080 on the outer layers as a brain and swelling of 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.640 the brain, and those was the classic tryad of symptoms 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:34.120 for shaking baby syndrome. 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:35.440 This is Dave Moran. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.600 I am the co director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.240 at University of Michigan Law School. 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.240 Dave says, this tryaud of symptoms is the gold standard 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.960 for shaking baby syndrome. Brain injury, bleeding around the brain, 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.680 and bleeding around the eyes. That's what every doctor at 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.280 the time was taught, including pathologist doctor Hunter. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.000 So to him, this was a slam dunk case of 0:16:58.040 --> 0:16:58.960 shaking baby syndrome. 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.840 Wit was thirteen during Tanya's trial, and she remembers every 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:06.840 moment of it. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:14.640 Honestly. To sit there and listen to how they portrayed 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.679 this person that I've known for so long on a 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:23.120 daily basis, it broke my heart. 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:25.680 What were some of those things that they were saying 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:27.840 about her that you knew not to be true. 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:30.760 Oh, she's a young mother and she just. 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:35.359 Snapped, got headaches. You're strussing out living at the Dolls house. 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.920 You have no money, no job, you're not getting along 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:39.760 as your boyfriend. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.240 You take care of your child ninety nine point. 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.720 Nine percent the night, and you snapped that particular day, 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:47.280 That's when happened, isn't it. 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.200 And it's like, no, I never once saw her loser 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:56.240 patience with children like that, never once saw her even 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.360 get frustrated in that type of way. So to hear 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.760 them portray ray somebody you love and know so deeply 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.800 on the news and in the papers and in a 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:11.199 courtroom where you can't say anything, it was just it 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:12.879 was awful. It was awful. 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:14.760 Yeah, what did she look like during all that? 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:21.120 In shock? And Matt was portrayed badly too. Oh look 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:26.280 she has no emotion. Oh she's sitting there speechless. She's 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:34.480 a teenager who lost her daughters, and you people, you know, 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:38.120 you know she's being charged with these horrendous crimes. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.200 Tanya needed a great defense to beat the quote slam 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.120 dunk case. The prosecution claimed they had. 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.520 My mom, bless her heart, you know, went through the 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.240 yellow pages trying to find an attorney who would agreed 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.400 to take a murder case. She found Headinger and Headinger 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:59.439 out of Kalamazoo. Her and my grandmother had to go 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.080 through there fork just to get the funds to retain him. 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.719 Tanya's family paid Edwin Hedinger for what they thought was 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:11.280 going to be the best defense, but the defense actually 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:14.000 agreed that it was shaking baby party. It wasn't. 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.439 Yes, the original defense at trial did not contest to 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:18.440 shaking baby syndrome. 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.399 Dave says, in those days, there weren't many people disputing 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.200 these science behind shaking baby syndrome, at least not locally. 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.280 I really don't think that there was anybody in Michigan 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:31.879 who was questioning any part of the shaking baby syndrome 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:33.560 dogma at that point. 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.960 So Tanya's attorney worked with the knowledge and resources he had. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.879 He believed that a crime had been committed, but didn't 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:43.679 believe that it was me that did it, So his 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.400 focus was on somebody else. 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.080 Doing it, someone else like Alan. 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:51.800 I didn't want to believe it, and I still to 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.719 this day don't believe it. But it was just, you know, 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.400 when they're saying that this is absolutely positively what happened, 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.080 and I know I didn't do it, my mind is like, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.960 you know, maybe he did, but I don't believe he 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.720 ever would have harmed her. 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:08.560 Especially now that you know. 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:10.480 Yeah, And I mean I knew him back then and 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:12.560 I knew that's not something that he would have done. 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.600 But at the time that's the only defense she had 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.679 casting reasonable doubt as to who may have shaken Alicia. 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.240 Maybe the baby could have been shaken when she was 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:28.520 in the custody of her paternal grandparents the day before, 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.320 and then the symptoms only showed up the next day. 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:34.320 Tanya also testified in her own defense. 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:40.000 She tried to testify about Alicia's sickliness, her troubles breathing before, 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.040 but that didn't really lead anywhere because again, that wasn't 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.360 the defense theory. There was no expert to back that up. 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.359 Maybe there was something else going on here. 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.480 Is there any explanation why that wasn't Was it tried 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.200 to be presented and then it was barred, or why 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.240 wasn't any of this previous medical history entered? 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.920 Well, I think the defense layer correctly recognized that it 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.639 would have been treated as a red herring. The prosecution 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.080 would have criticized him for creating a red herring because 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.000 you've heard from all the experts that none of what 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.320 happened before matters. All that matters now is this baby 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.399 was shaken just before she died, so none of that 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:17.040 would have worked. 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.200