DIAGNOSIS : MURDER

Apologies here in that I borrowed the above title from last night's "the fifth estate". It was on Channel #26 at 8 pm. and it absolutely blew my mind. I make very little pretense that I have a lot of respect for the law but last night stunned me. The fifth estate interviewed medical experts who essentially said that the science around SBS (shaken baby syndrome) has been voodoo science. They have done physical simulations with toddlers and infants (ie. weighted mannikins) with electrical sensors attached and basically it is nearly impossible for an adult human being to lift, hold and shake an infant long enough to produce the brain damage that has been found in dead infants and children. Their conclusion is that yes indeed children and toddlers do die of brain injuries but that the cause absolutely is not due to so called shaken baby syndrome. It appears that for decades now when doctors or pathologists couldn't determine an absolute cause of death, the fallback position was SBS.

The ramifications are absolutely stunning as is the application of the law. It seems that the majority of times when the legal system jumps in and lays charges, that the accused are young, poor and uneducated. It's even better if the "evidence" points to the father having recently been alone with the child. If young, poor, uneducated and male isn't available then the legal system will suffice with young, poor, uneducated and female. James Lockyer of the Association For The Wrongly Convicted has become involved with a number of cases. This gentleman and his group have made a name for themselves in regards to numerous wrongful murder convictions in Canada. In one of the more egregious cases involving medical and legal malfeasance a young girl was supposed to have been sodomized and strangled. The "perpetrater", her Uncle spent over a decade in jail not only for a crime he didn't commit but in fact for a crime that did not exist. Further forensic examination years later determined that the original pathologist had a long history of making mountains out of molehills. The girl had actually died of natural causes and was neither sodomized nor murdered.

Somewhere along the line the idea of "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" has become twisted and distorted into guilty because you're the likeliest candidate we could come up with on short notice and it dosen't make the justice system look good having unsolved crimes. This sort of culture finds it very easy to throw blame on the fat, ugly, poor, disadvantaged, scarred, uneducated, short, black people among us. Our legal system discriminates, always has and as a result have brought themselves into disrepute. SHAME ON AN ENTIRE LEGAL SYSTEM .