MONROE - The Wisconsin Innocence Project is taking up the case of a Brodhead man convicted of killing his infant son by shaking him.
Attorneys with the Project filed a motion last week in Green County Circuit Court asking for a new trial for Casey J. Shelton, 39, an inmate at Dodge Correctional Institution. Shelton was sentenced in 2009 to 40 years in prison for the 2007 death of his 2-month-old son, Christopher.
Shelton has unsuccessfully tried to appeal his conviction three times, with and without representation. He's been denied twice in the District IV Court of Appeals and once by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Last year, Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Kohl told The Monroe Times, "Really, I doubt Mr. Shelton is ever going to give up on this. He's got nothing better to do than come up with additional grounds to get a new trial."
This time, however, Shelton has the backing of the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Founded in 1998, it seeks to exonerate the innocent, educate law students and reform the criminal justice system "by identifying and remedying the causes of wrongful convictions."
Last week's motion was filed by clinical law professors Carrie Sperling and Katherine Judson, along with law student Curtis Hinca.
"As he will demonstrate in this motion, Mr. Shelton's request is well-founded and does not amount to a fishing expedition," the attorneys wrote.
The appeal, if accepted, would be one of a mounting number of challenges to "shaken baby" cases across the country, based on a claim of newly discovered medical evidence. The Wisconsin Innocence Project and similar programs nationwide have successfully freed defendants convicted in shaken baby cases.
"Generally, you're only allowed one attempt to challenge a conviction," Sperling said. But an appeal in Shelton's case and others like it is warranted "now that we know that much of the science upon which they're based has been discredited."
A Wisconsin State Journal investigation last year identified 108 shaken baby cases charged statewide since 1978, all but one of them since 1991. In the past five years, two of these convictions have been overturned.
Shelton successfully applied to the Wisconsin Innocence Project for representation in this appeal, according to Sperling.
The Project does not accept the vast majority of applications it receives from inmates, according to Sperling. Each year, about 450 requests come in. Currently, 274 cases are on a waiting list and 86 are assigned to students.
Since 1998, "we have completed litigation in 49 cases that are now closed. We've won new trials for 22," Shelton said. Of the 22 individuals who went to trial, 20 were exonerated.
Convictions in shaken baby cases are based on autopsy evidence of Shaken Baby Syndrome, a triad of medical symptoms that includes internal hemorrhaging. Doctors say this triad of symptoms can only be attributed to violent shaking of an infant directly before the baby dies.
This interpretation of symptoms has in recent years been challenged. Last year a federal judge in Chicago ruled that Shaken Baby Syndrome as a cause of death has little to no scientific basis.
"There are a whole host of non-abrasive ways that babies can come up with bleeding in the brain," Sperling said.
Shelton was charged after Christopher's death with first-degree reckless homicide and two felony counts of child abuse. The child abuse charges were later dismissed and are based on evidence presented in court that Shelton was physically abusive of Christopher and his twin brother Charles, who Shelton reportedly threw on the floor "just like a football."
Sperling now argues that "there was no evidence at trial that alleged any abuse that was consistent with how Christopher died."
Kohl, the prosecutor handling Shelton's case, wrote in an email Wednesday to the Times that he has had not yet had an opportunity to review and investigate the claims made in the Wisconsin Innocence Project motion for appeal. It is 90-plus pages.
The motion "appears to take what has become a recent popular tactic of claiming changes in medical knowledge shown in studies which don't always stand for what is claimed," he wrote. "Keep in mind that it's easy to make claims, but always harder to back them up."
A court hearing on the motion has not yet been scheduled. The case is assigned to Judge James Beer, who is on medical leave. A reserve judge, David Deininger, expects to look at the case within the next month or so, according to judicial assistant Jennifer Prien.
Attorneys with the Project filed a motion last week in Green County Circuit Court asking for a new trial for Casey J. Shelton, 39, an inmate at Dodge Correctional Institution. Shelton was sentenced in 2009 to 40 years in prison for the 2007 death of his 2-month-old son, Christopher.
Shelton has unsuccessfully tried to appeal his conviction three times, with and without representation. He's been denied twice in the District IV Court of Appeals and once by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Last year, Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Kohl told The Monroe Times, "Really, I doubt Mr. Shelton is ever going to give up on this. He's got nothing better to do than come up with additional grounds to get a new trial."
This time, however, Shelton has the backing of the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Founded in 1998, it seeks to exonerate the innocent, educate law students and reform the criminal justice system "by identifying and remedying the causes of wrongful convictions."
Last week's motion was filed by clinical law professors Carrie Sperling and Katherine Judson, along with law student Curtis Hinca.
"As he will demonstrate in this motion, Mr. Shelton's request is well-founded and does not amount to a fishing expedition," the attorneys wrote.
The appeal, if accepted, would be one of a mounting number of challenges to "shaken baby" cases across the country, based on a claim of newly discovered medical evidence. The Wisconsin Innocence Project and similar programs nationwide have successfully freed defendants convicted in shaken baby cases.
"Generally, you're only allowed one attempt to challenge a conviction," Sperling said. But an appeal in Shelton's case and others like it is warranted "now that we know that much of the science upon which they're based has been discredited."
A Wisconsin State Journal investigation last year identified 108 shaken baby cases charged statewide since 1978, all but one of them since 1991. In the past five years, two of these convictions have been overturned.
Shelton successfully applied to the Wisconsin Innocence Project for representation in this appeal, according to Sperling.
The Project does not accept the vast majority of applications it receives from inmates, according to Sperling. Each year, about 450 requests come in. Currently, 274 cases are on a waiting list and 86 are assigned to students.
Since 1998, "we have completed litigation in 49 cases that are now closed. We've won new trials for 22," Shelton said. Of the 22 individuals who went to trial, 20 were exonerated.
Convictions in shaken baby cases are based on autopsy evidence of Shaken Baby Syndrome, a triad of medical symptoms that includes internal hemorrhaging. Doctors say this triad of symptoms can only be attributed to violent shaking of an infant directly before the baby dies.
This interpretation of symptoms has in recent years been challenged. Last year a federal judge in Chicago ruled that Shaken Baby Syndrome as a cause of death has little to no scientific basis.
"There are a whole host of non-abrasive ways that babies can come up with bleeding in the brain," Sperling said.
Shelton was charged after Christopher's death with first-degree reckless homicide and two felony counts of child abuse. The child abuse charges were later dismissed and are based on evidence presented in court that Shelton was physically abusive of Christopher and his twin brother Charles, who Shelton reportedly threw on the floor "just like a football."
Sperling now argues that "there was no evidence at trial that alleged any abuse that was consistent with how Christopher died."
Kohl, the prosecutor handling Shelton's case, wrote in an email Wednesday to the Times that he has had not yet had an opportunity to review and investigate the claims made in the Wisconsin Innocence Project motion for appeal. It is 90-plus pages.
The motion "appears to take what has become a recent popular tactic of claiming changes in medical knowledge shown in studies which don't always stand for what is claimed," he wrote. "Keep in mind that it's easy to make claims, but always harder to back them up."
A court hearing on the motion has not yet been scheduled. The case is assigned to Judge James Beer, who is on medical leave. A reserve judge, David Deininger, expects to look at the case within the next month or so, according to judicial assistant Jennifer Prien.