After 15 years of researching shaken baby syndrome in the courts, I have seen this cognitive bias in action: Based on a pattern of bleeding and swelling inside an infant’s head, the doctors report violent abuse, by the last caregiver with the child before the tell-tale seizures and breathing problems emerged. Investigators and prosecutors accept this scenario as fact, and then interpret everything the caregiver says through this lens, often ignoring actual evidence that should raise doubts. Interrogators employ the same tactics developed for hardened criminals on a parent or caregiver who is not only grieving but also feeling guilty, if only because they were in charge and something did, indeed happen to the baby. As it turns out, however, a number of legitimate medical conditions can also produce the symptoms that have defined shaken baby syndrome for the past 30 years, and even when there is abuse, the symptoms can emerge over hours, as with any other head injury. Sadly, a handful of coerced confessions is now being used to “prove” that the theory is true, and the symptoms are immediate.

I’m so glad the Innocence Project is considering the gnarly problem of false confessions.

DNA exonerations proved that an attorney esteemed by his peers cannot be counted on to protect the public from being further fleeced to warehouse innocents while continually endangered by actual criminals that were not apprehended. After eight years of non-attorney innocence advocacy, I can confidently name dozens of attorneys that are esteemed by their peers who are content to let convictions stand without examination although achieved by discredited dog handlers, outdated fire forensics, medical examiners, etc.

The Bar is a social club that protects its own almost exclusively, justice and public safety be damned … which I’ve repeatedly pointed out to the IRS Oversight Board are activities that are worthy of prosecution, not tax exemption. There are thousands upon thousands of darkly clouded convictions nationwide for which officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges (and everyone responsible for their oversight at the local, state and federal level) are eagerly awaiting death notices that will allow evidence destruction.