10 year bump! Turns out the medical examiner presiding over the autopsy in this case has had his findings called into question. The accused may have been wrongfully convicted due to these findings...
Quote:
Alberta Justice began looking into Matshes's work in early 2012 after an insurance company raised concerns about one of his accidental death autopsies. Internal records show officials were most concerned about possible wrongful convictions.
A panel of three forensic pathologists was selected to review several of Matshes's autopsies, including cases that had already led to second-degree murder charges.
One case involved 18-year-old Shelby Herchak, who was described in news headlines as a "baby killer." In 2010, she was charged with second-degree murder after her 26-day-old son Daniel died of blunt-force trauma to the head. Herchak later accepted a plea deal for manslaughter and served more than five years in federal prison.
The original report by Matshes stated there were multiple injuries to Daniel's head, including one that was seven to 15 days old.
To the police, that meant intent. Herchak was charged with second-degree murder.
"That medical examiner deemed me a monster," Herchak said in a recent interview at her home in Calgary's south end.
No one told Herchak that senior officials in Alberta Justice — including some who are now judges — had initiated that review of Matshes's work. Her son's autopsy was among the cases reviewed.
That report could have been critical to Herchak's defence because it questioned two key facts the Crown asserted to the judge ahead of her sentencing.
The expert review panel disputed that there was evidence of that earlier injury to Herchak's infant son, Daniel. They also raised concerns that Matshes may have mistaken a natural separation in a newborn's skull, which is not fully fused, with a fracture.
The possibility there was a single injury to Daniel's head would have fit Herchak's assertion that she dropped her baby after waking up suddenly.
"I did not kill my son. It was an accident. I dropped him," Herchak said.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fifth...opsy-1.5421945