WEBVTT - #384 Jason Flom with Stephanie Spurgeon 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:03.280 In January of twenty twenty two, we brought you the 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.880 story of Stephanie Spurgeon. It's a shaken Baby syndrome story, 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:09.360 and she was joined by her attorneys, Seth Miller of 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.040 the Innison's Project of Florida as well as Alison Miller 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.520 no relation, who recently ran for Florida's state attorney. But 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.959 before we share her story again, we first wanted to 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.759 share a recording of when we caught up with Stephanie 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.919 at the twenty twenty three Innocence Network Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.800 For those who are not familiar with this event, it's 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.800 an annual gathering of the innocence community from all over 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.320 the country ex houonnaies, attorneys, advocates, and folks like us 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.559 from Lava for Good Podcasts. So Stephanie sat down with 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:41.839 us for a chat and I'm going to let her 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.560 fill you in on what she's been up to here 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.880 at the Innocence Network Conference with one of my favorite humans, 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.279 Stephanie Spurgeon. And I'm sure everybody's wondering that what are 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.440 you up to now? Besides smiling and walking around making 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:57.920 everybody happier. 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.200 I'm absolutely enjoying freedom We've spent a lot of time 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.880 trying to just reconnect with everybody. It's been a lot 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.759 of years that were lost, so it's been really good 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.520 to kind of really make up family time. Also, I 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.280 advocated for Alison Miller, who was running for state attorney. 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.840 I've done some public speaking, which I absolutely love to do. 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.280 Recently I did Miami Andison's clinic in Boston College down 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.200 in Jupiter, Florida, and my daughter and I started our 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:26.080 own little podcast. 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:26.800 Huh. 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:31.000 It's called freedom Fighters, So you know it's we film 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:32.240 right there at our car. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.080 I have a funny feeling we might be linking that 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.840 at our bio. So freedom fighter is a great name 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.959 for a podcast and I'm looking forward to hearing it myself. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:42.600 It's gonna give me something good to listen to on 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.000 the plane. Very good. 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:45.480 It's very uncensored. 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.440 And do you I mean, I know you're a freedom 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.800 fighter and I know you get joy from helping other people, 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:53.480 both what do you do for yourself? 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.080 You know? Actually my main focus is I'm advocating for 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.240 Michael Giovo, who's wrongfully convicted in Florida as much like mine. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.200 He was convicted in Florida and Penellas County. Doctor Sally 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.280 Smith was his expert, and he was convicted two months 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:08.840 after mine, and he has a life sentence. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.360 That's the same quote unquote expert that helped to wrongfully 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:12.840 convict you. 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.920 That is correct. I was lucky enough. I work for 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.280 Keith Law Firm now, so I am working in the 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.000 legal industry. We primarily do civil law. But it gives 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.679 me a little bit more knowledge, more power to try 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:26.840 to be able to fight for him. So I'm hoping 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.480 maybe to develop some bills that won't maybe allow him 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.760 to get a second chance to her to have his 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:33.480 case hurt again. 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.639 Well, it's fantastic, and listen, you are a beacon of 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.960 light and you inspire me and all the rest of 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.560 us to work harder as s Marter. So just keep 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:44.720 on being you, you. 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.000 Know, thank you. It's a pleasure being here. Thank you. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.880 As we wrapped up the interview, a kind of only 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.560 at the Innocence Network conference, moment happened. A woman named 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.480 Michelle Lopez approached us when she had heard Stephanie's story 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.360 back in jail twenty twenty two on this podcast. She 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:07.120 reached out to Stephanie over social media. Michelle's son, Trey Clay, 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.280 is currently enduring a similar nightmare in California, and Stephanie's 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.679 story brought some comfort to this grieving mother. And although 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.679 they had been in contact before, the conference was their 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.280 first chance to meet in person and kind of a 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.600 serendipitous encounter for all of us. We'll have the Justice 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.480 for Trey Clay Instagram account LinkedIn the bio, along with 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.840 some info about Michael Giovo's case and Stephanie's podcast Freedom Fighters, 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.200 and now, without any further ado, the incredible story of 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:45.040 Stephanie Spurgeon. Stephanie Spurgeon was a married mother of two 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.360 and a licensed childcare provider who had been running a 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:50.520 daycare facility from her home in Florida for fifteen years. 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.840 On August twenty first, two thousand and eight, one year 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.920 old Maria Harris spent her first day at Stephanie's daycare. 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.920 Maria's grandmother had picked up a sleeping Maria that day, 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.400 but soon after had noticed that Maria was unresponsive and 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.840 in distress. Ignoring other potential root causes and relying on 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.560 the junk science of shaken baby syndrome, doctors opined that 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.039 brain bleed and swelling were signs of child abuse, placing 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.880 blame on the brand new childcare provider, Stephanie Spurgeon, and 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.480 when Maria died seven days later, the charges were upgraded 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.000 to murder, but with the lack of external injuries, the 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:30.880 state changed its shaken baby theory, concocting a new narrative 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.520 in which Maria had been repeatedly struck against the soft surface. 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.000 The defense failed to pivot to this new theory, instead 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.719 presenting a shaken baby syndrome defense, and with the states 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.719 uncontested yet totally dubious soft impact theory, the jury found 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.040 Stephanie guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.160 her to fifteen years in prison. With the help of 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.960 multiple innocence projects and a current candidate for state's attorney, 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.640 Stephanie was able to present the proper expert testimon This 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.360 proved the state's ludicrous soft impact theory, win a new trial, 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.840 and ultimately be set free after nine long years. This 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:27.360 is wrathful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. Today's episode 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.599 is well, I'm going to be honest with you, it's 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.760 terrifying because this is a story that is both unique 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:41.640 and also somehow not uncommon, and it involves an innocent 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.160 woman working at a daycare center who got caught up 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.680 in the criminal legal system for no reason of her 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.400 own making. I'm going to introduce our incredible guest today 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.039 because we have three, including the woman who lived through 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.839 this nightmare herself, Stephanie Spurgeon. First, I'm going to introduce 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.240 are very distinguished group. Seth Miller is here. He's the 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.320 executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida. It does 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.919 incredible work day in and day out, pushing huge boulders 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.240 uphills of justice. So Seth, thanks for being here. 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:16.320 Thanks Jason thrilled to be here. 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.640 And with him and with us. Is Alison Miller no relation. 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.400 She is an attorney with Ripley Wisenhunt and is also 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:29.039 currently running for the State's Attorney Office of Florida, and 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.760 I hope people will support her because we need people 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.440 like you in positions like that. But for the time being, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.240 we're happy to have you right where you are and 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.360 right here on the mic. So Alison Miller, welcome to 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.240 Ronfel Conviction. Thank you so much for having me and Stephanie. 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:45.400 What can I say? I feel like the whole human 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.680 race shows you a debt of gratitude for sharing your 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.719 story and for just being the strong, courageous woman that 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.440 you are. And I appreciate you being here. So Stephanie, 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.240 to you. Also, welcome to Ronfel Conviction. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:00.200 Thank you, Jason. It's my pleasure sure. 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.200 And so Stephanie, this is the story that we've heard 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.320 time and time again where somebody like yourself is doing 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.320 you know, let's call it what it is, essential work. 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.320 Where would we be as a society without daycare centers? 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.240 The working world would grind to a halt. And yet 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.720 people like you too often end up in situations like 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.560 the one we're talking about today. I mean, it really 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.640 makes my heart hurt. But let's please take us back 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.920 before this incident happened in two thousand and eight. Can 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.440 you tell us what your life was like back then. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.200 I was married for nineteen years and I had two 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.120 beautiful children. We had a beautiful life. We were a 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.840 well knit family. We did a lot of family vacations. 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.200 I was a licensing home daycare provider for fifteen years. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.160 The parents that would come into my home, they became 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.560 part of my family, Their kids became part of my family. 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.160 We would celebrate holidays together and different things. It was 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.360 very fulfilling. I was able to work with children, I 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.720 was able to be at home with my own children. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:07.320 I decided at one point to go into special needs children. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.880 So I took lots of children that came in who 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:16.440 had speech issues or different disabilities, and I grew a 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.240 real hart for these kids because not a lot of 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.800 places would accept any special needs children. And then I 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.000 decided to branch off a little bit further and start 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:32.000 taking teenage parent children. So Esther Harris was actually the 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.640 very first teen mom that I took. She was seventeen 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.520 years old when I was introduced to her and Maria. 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.160 And so, not only are you taking care of other 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.680 people's kids, you're doing it in your own home, opening 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.760 your doors and your heart, and taking care of kids 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.319 who have issues with other people. Well might not want 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.000 to open their home too, or their hearts, right, I mean, 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.800 so this case, I'd like to say it happened a 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:58.920 long time ago, but it really didn't, right. I Mean, 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.840 it would feel a little bit better if it was 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:05.080 back before we had science evolved to a place that 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:06.640 it was at in two thousand and eight, which is 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.360 when this tragedy occurred, of course, and I said tragedy, 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.960 not crime. That's deliberate, because that's what it was. And 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.480 so Seth, do you want to set the stage for 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.600 us of what happened on that awful day and how 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:18.880 this became a criminal matter. 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.200 When I think about these cases when a child dies, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.480 a lot of times the folks involved in trying to 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.199 figure out how that happened kind of go nutty. They 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.520 aren't able to take sober views of what might have 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:33.000 happened to that child. And that's what happened here in 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.959 this case. Stephie Spurgeon was running an in home daycare 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.160 at her home. It was better business Bureau rated, had 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.000 generations worth of children who come through the daycare who 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.920 really positive experiences, their families had positive experiences. And the child, 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.280 Maria Harris, was our first day at the daycare. And 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.040 yet on this day, this poor child was suffering from 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.000 what was clearly a distress, a medical situation. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.240 When Maria's grandmother, Patricia came and picked her up that day, 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.040 Maria had been sleeping. So I reached into the pack 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.160 and play and I picked her up, and she kind 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.000 of stirred in my arms, and I passed her to Patricia, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.240 and she stirred in Patricia's arms, and then Patricia took 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.560 her and placed her in the car and drove her home. 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:20.120 Thirty minutes later is when we got the phone call Maria. 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.320 I guess was deteriorating as she was sleeping, and I 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.760 was unaware that there was any issue because I simply 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:27.880 thought she was asleep. 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.079 At the end of the day, the child was growing up. 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.520 The child was crying and was clearly kind of lifeless 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.160 in a lot of ways, and called nine one one. 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.000 It took the child to the hospital and when they 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:40.719 were on the way to the hospital, they tested the 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.440 child's blood sugar and the child had a high four 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.120 hundreds of blood sugar. And I don't know if any 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.160 of y'all have diabetes or test your blood sugar regularly, 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.960 but that is four to five times the normal level. 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.800 So this child is in major distress. What they do 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:55.920 when they get the child to the hospital is they 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.600 realized after doing a number of tests on the child 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.800 that the child's suffering from a brain lead a subdural 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.760 hematoma and the child has brain swelling and that has 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.480 led to the child having retinal hemorrhages and instead of 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.320 treating the child for what looked like a diabetic situation, 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.160 a diabetic distress because the child had the subdual heemo tone, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.360 because the child had this brain swelling and the retinal hemorrhages. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:25.280 The doctors immediately assumed that this was an abusive situation 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.360 because they thought that this was the three ingredients, the 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.280 triad as they call it, cause by taking baby syndrome 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.439 or what is more commonly known now is abusive head trauma. 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:36.120 So that had a chance to try to treat this 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.160 child to maybe ameliorate or even prevent a bigger problem 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:44.160 or death, to treat this metabolic, this diabetic situation, but 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.160 instead they assumed it was abuse, and we were often 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:50.400 running taking a medical situation and elevating it to the crime, 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.920 and unfortunately, this child died seven days later. 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.679 The idea that this might have been prevented if they 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.480 just simply focused on the problem at hand, rather than 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.120 turning this into wild accusations of child abuse makes my 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.440 blood boil. I mean, and I think it's worth mentioning. 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.600 As we've covered extensively on our show Junk Science and 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.920 other episodes of Wrongful Conviction as well, just a general 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.520 overview of the theory of shaking baby syndrome or SBS now. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.280 It was initially introduced as a hypothesis by British pediatric 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.400 neurosurgeon doctor Norman guth Kelch, who was trying to explain 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.240 a cause for inexplicable child deaths in which a child 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:35.280 or baby, toddler whatever had presented subdural hematoma otherwise known 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.040 as bleeding in the brain, retinal hemorrhage, so you know, 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.880 bleeding in the eyes and brain swelling or cerebral edemon Now. 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:46.560 Doctor Cuthkelch hypothesized that perhaps a typical method of scolding 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:48.559 a child in Great Britain at the time, giving the 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.040 child a good shake, maybe that was the cause for 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:55.120 unintended or unexplained child deaths in which this triad of 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.560 medical findings occurred. He never was able to prove this, 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:03.559 He just hypothesized it and caution parents against the practice. Understandably, however, 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.480 since that hypothesis, the criminal legal system just sort of 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:08.920 ran them up with this idea, right leaping to the 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.160 conclusion that any child presenting those symptoms, especially if there 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.920 was any other bruisings, had been fatally abused like sort 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.640 of one size fits all which is ridiculous, and that 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.480 the person less responsible for the child therefore must have 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:22.320 been the culprit. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.600 And I think we as people understanding the inner workings 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.040 of the human mind, when bad things happen, we want 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.640 to be able to say there's someone or something responsible 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.640 for that bad thing happening. And so where there was 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:40.360 a legitimate science maybe at the inception, this idea has 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:46.040 been horribly bastardized to get convictions involving usually the death 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.240 of infants or toddlers, and Stephanie's case is a perfect 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:54.240 example of that, where there is legitimate scientific evidence that 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.120 this child was in medical distress that went ignored by 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.920 medical professionals because it is easier to say, oh, this 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:03.360 child must have been harmed. 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.760 Yeah, And it's worth noting that in recent years, as 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.880 doctors in larger and larger numbers, I've been challenging the 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.920 notion of shaking baby syndrome. They've identified, get this, over 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.880 eighty different preexisting conditions that can cause what they call 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.880 the triad of findings that were historically just attributed to 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.680 shaking baby syndrome almost automatically. Right, So the science is there, 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.360 but I mean, I wish I could say when the 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.080 criminal legal system is going to catch up, it's entirely 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.400 possible that it never will because science, let's face, it 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:38.520 looks forward, while the legal system only looks backward at precedent, 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.160 sort of the opposite. And so Stephanie, if you could 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:43.960 take us back to when you were arrested, what all 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:45.200 happened before the trial. 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:51.080 My first arrest was August twenty first, I was twenty second, 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.760 maybe two thousand and eight. I was arrested on aggravated 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.160 child abuse. I went to Neells County Jail. I was 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.920 housed in a solitaire cell because of course my face 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.760 was on the news, and I was able to bond 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.800 out the next day. I think it's important to say 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.560 my bond was fifty thousand dollars, and my parents got 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.920 an attorney for me, which was fifty thousand dollars, So 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:19.120 right away we're in the hole. I came home and 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.360 was unable to have a daycare. Of course, so I 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:28.000 had no income, so that became an issue immediately. Maria 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:32.720 passed away seven days later. I was rearrested six weeks later, 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:37.520 on November eighth, two thousand and eight, on capitol felony 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.000 murder I had just taken my son to his bus 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.200 stop in the morning, and when I came back home, 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.240 I put up in a driveway like three squad cars 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.880 surrounded me, and everybody come racing out, screaming and yelling, 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:52.880 and put me in cuffs and put me in the 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.400 back of the cruiser and took me back to County Jail. 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.240 When they brought me in from booking that day, they 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:03.440 brought me straight to Solitaire cell in the lobby area, 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.400 and I could look out and see my face on 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:08.680 the news. And as I'm looking at my face on 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.480 the news, I'm looking at the other inmates that are 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.920 in there getting processed in, and they're all looking back 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.720 at me and that Solitaire cell. So it was a 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.440 very scary situation. There was a grand jury hearing, and 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.160 the attorney that I had that was fifty thousand dollars. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.280 He wouldn't try a capital case, so we had to 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:32.240 hire another firm and they cost us one hundred thousand. 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:33.600 I ended up. 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.840 Getting indicted and then we moved for a bond hearing. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:42.400 My bond hearing was successful, except it was three hundred 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.960 and fifty thousand dollars with an angle monitor and no 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.960 contact with any child in the age of twelve. I 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.400 thought there was no way that my family was ever 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:54.880 going to be able to come up with those kind 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.960 of funds because we had already spent so much. They 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.360 did come up with it. They fundraised, They drained all 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:08.120 of your savings, accounts, everything, and one night, on January 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:11.879 twenty sixth, two thousand and nine, after I think eighty 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.919 nine days in a solitaire cell, I was released at 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.720 two am, so I was able to come home and 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.520 wake both of my kids up. My daughter and I 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.320 ended up sitting on the front porch in a rocking 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.760 chair and watch the sunrise together. It was very hard 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.200 to sleep because I kept thinking I was going to 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:31.760 wake up and be back in there. The nightmare would 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:32.359 be there again. 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:47.840 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company, 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.720 and by Accenture, a global professional services company with leading 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.800 capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Working to reform the 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.320 criminal justice system is a key pillar of the AIG 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.720 pro Bono program, which it's free legal services and other 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:06.120 support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals most in need 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.679 as part of Extensure's commitment to racial and civil justice. 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.879 Accenture's legal Access program provides pro bono legal services in 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.960 partnership with more than forty organizations bringing meaningful change to 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:26.440 people and communities worldwide. 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.880 There were signals even before the trial that the state 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.639 was going to move away from a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.520 The real issue in this case is that we had 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.560 these presentations in the brain and the skull, and the 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.680 doctors were used to saying, oh, this could only be abused, 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.239 it's shaking baby syndrome. The problem is these things are 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.760 normally associated with signs of abuse, external injuries, and this 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:53.680 child did not have a scratch or a bruis, or 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.560 not even a single mark on her. And so the 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.399 doctors are trying to figure out, well, how can we 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.680 make this abuse and explain away the fact that there's 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:03.080 no visual injuries. 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:03.399 On this child. 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.160 And this is how what they call the child abuse 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.159 pediatrician I'm using air quotes. She came up with the 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.880 theory that, well, the reason there's no injuries that are 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.199 apparent on the outside is because the child was slammed 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.720 repeatedly on a soft surface like a crib mattress. 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.680 So this case is nutty, right, because you don't see 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:28.640 it very often that the state changes their theory sort 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.520 of midstream, right, So then they came up with this 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:35.439 soft impact theory. But the crazy thing is it seemed 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.800 like her attorneys were defending a different theory than the 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:41.760 one that the state was trying to convict her on. 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.600 Am I mistaken about that? That's exactly right. 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.720 The defense attorney was very focused on shaking inmy syndrome. 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.080 And when I deposed this attorney in post conviction, I 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.119 asked him about cases that he had done previously, and 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.359 what I found out was that he had done a 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.720 series of shaking baby syndrome cases where he got favorable 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:02.200 results from his clients. So he had his pat experts 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.520 in a formula for how he would approach these cases. 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.359 But he simply failed to learn his own case well 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.320 enough to know that he could not simply employ the 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.440 same formula that he employed in other cases where shaken 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.040 baby syndrome was a theory. Because not all cases are 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.280 the same, they're not creating equal In this case, the 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.040 state had already abandoned the shaking baby syndrome theory for 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.159 this seft impact theory, and so we're pressing long in 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.159 a case they get the biomechanical expert. They do the 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:30.480 thing that a lot of people don't do. They get 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.600 the right expert, they prepare that expert, but they prepare 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:37.160 them for the wrong theory. And there was this striking 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.880 moment in the trial where after the defense attorney sits down, 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:43.880 he thinks he's done a great job with the biomechanical expert. 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.040 And the first question the state asked the expert when 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.560 they get up is who told you that this was 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:52.880 a shaken baby syndrome case. It was a devastating moment 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:55.680 in the trial. And of course he could have put 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.280 his expert back up, got them to prepare all the calculations, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.240 and he failed to do that because he just didn't 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:02.560 even understand his own case. 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.600 The State of Florida in their prosecution, if Stephanie relied 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.280 on one particular pediatrician that they frequently rely on. It's 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:15.080 so hard because these doctors and experts come in to 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:20.359 court couched with credibility and reliability, and especially in areas 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.320 like Vanillas and Pasco County where we've used the same 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:28.720 experts forever, it's hard helping whomever the FactFinder is, jurors 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.640 or judges to understand this is a misapplication of science. 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.720 And so you get doctors that come in and they 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:40.719 use words that we as average folks don't understand, and 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.520 it sounds like, well, it must be true. And then 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.760 at the end it's with the conclusion that this child 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:50.720 died as a result of intentionally inflicted abuse of trauma. 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.120 Yeah, so the deck is truly stacked against even someone 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.400 like Stephanie. Right, she gets swept under this title wive 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.719 of nonsense that comes from preconceived biases and notions and things. Right, 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.160 because someone sees her in the defendan's chair, they automatically 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.520 assume somebody who was there must have done something to 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:09.880 be there. Right, there's that you have to overcome. Then, 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:11.720 as you said, there's all the medical stuff. A guy 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.200 gets up there and reads his credentials sounds very impressive, 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:18.040 and then spouting these theories that most jurors are not 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:22.240 equipped to understand or unpacked. So they think they're doing 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:24.120