Pathologist Admits To Being Self-taught

Post Date: 29th Jan, 2008 - 7:38am / Post ID: #

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Pathologist Admits To Being Self-taught

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TORONTO - A pathologist whose expert testimony against people accused of killing children led to at least seven wrongful convictions said Monday that he taught himself pediatric forensics and was ignorant of the criminal justice system.

Dr. Charles Smith has a medical degree but admitted that he was self-taught in pediatric pathology, the field in which he was once considered a leader in Canada. Smith testified at an inquiry that his lack of formal training contributed to mistakes over two decades of performing autopsies in cases of suspicious child deaths.

Those mistakes included conclusions that several children were homicide victims when later investigations determined they had died of other causes.

"(My training) was self-taught, it was minimal, and retrospectively I realize it was woefully inadequate," he said.

Smith also testified that he was "profoundly ignorant" of the criminal justice system in which he worked and of the role played by expert witnesses, despite providing expert testimony in numerous criminal cases.

Ontario's provincial government ordered the probe after an investigation of 45 child deaths involving autopsies or expert testimony from Smith found the pathologist made questionable findings in 20 cases dating back to 1991. Of those, 12 led to convictions, and at least seven have since been thrown out by courts.

Smith has not been charged with a crime, and the commission conducting the inquiry will recommend policy changes but has no authority to punish Smith or evaluate past convictions.

As his lawyer took him case-by-case through his questionable conclusions, Smith admitted errors but also defended those findings as being consistent with medical knowledge at the time.

He said that the review has led him to "appreciate mistakes that I made and I am sorry for them. I do recognize that at times, my conduct was not professional, and I deeply regret that."

Sherry Sherret was convicted of infanticide in the 1996 death of her 4-month-old son largely on the strength of Smith's conclusions. After Sherret was charged, the province put one of her other children up for adoption.

A subsequent investigation led two other pathologists to conclude the boy died of natural causes.

"I would want to ask him face-to-face, off the record - why did he do it? How does he feel? And does he regret anything that he did," Sherret said. "He's turned so many people's lives upside down, so it's time for him to answer."

William Mullins-Johnson was convicted of sexually assaulting and strangling his 4-year-old niece, and spent 12 years in prison. Evidence later surfaced that showed the girl died of natural causes, and Mullins-Johnson was exonerated in October.

Smith apologized directly to several of the people who were either wrongfully accused or convicted, including Mullins-Johnson.

"I did give an opinion and I testified in the court and therefore I believe I contributed to a miscarriage of justice," Smith said. "I'm sorry and I do apologize."

In another case, a mother was charged with murder after Smith testified at a pretrial hearing that her daughter died of multiple stab wounds. A later autopsy found the girl was mauled by a pit bull. The mother, Louise Reynolds, spent two years in jail awaiting trial before she was exonerated. She is suing Smith.

Smith's testimony is expected to last the week.

https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080129/ap_on_re_ca/canada_pathologist;_ylt=ApvHOCB3sRahh_ffXaV_SbwUewgF

I got so excited about this that I deleted everything I wrote on accident when I went to post it the first time. By excited I mean rather upset! I do not know much about this type of thing, but it seems to me that he should have some kind of responsibilty to answer for these crimes! Is he protexted by some kind of law-- I just can't imagine being one of these families, especially the child who was adopted out to find out later his mother was innocent.

The part I put in italics states that they are going to recommend policy changes? I would hope so! It also states that they cannot punush him---is there anyone that can? Am I wrong in thinking these people were victims of a crime?

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Pathologist Admits To Being Self-taught

Pathologist Admits Self-taught - Politics, Business, Civil, History - Posted: 29th Jan, 2008 - 7:38am

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Pathologist Admits To Being Self-taught