I have a shaken baby capital case starting soon. Does anyone have any anatomical models, drawings or other aids they have used in these trials. My expert will be a local doc who has done a good job in the past, but anything to help explain this to the jury would be appreciated.

I have recently been working on a shaken baby case and CPS connected me with The Shaken Baby Alliance, which is headquartered in Tarrant County, but I am told is nationwide. In speaking with Bonnie Armstrong, who heads the group, she told me that they just got a large grant (I think she said $400,000!!) to assist prosecutors throughout Texas in developing and prosecuting non-sexual child abuse cases. She told me that they can help in organizing medical records for presentation or preparation, lining up expert witnesses, and providing demonstrative evidence, including what I understand to be a see-through infant doll with a brain that goes side-to-side to simulate the damage caused by shaking. She said that they have recently helped the Tarrant County DA's Office on a shaken baby murder trial they had there, so maybe someone in Fort Worth can give you their input as well. Anyway, her office number is (817)882-8686. Good luck!

Good info, Jeff. I will contacting them now on a case I have pending.

I was at a seminar last summer put on by the SB Alliance from Fort Worth, they have some phenomenal software that would be most helpful. Unfortunately, up here we don't have all the high-tech whistles and bells that would optimally power the software.
I have borrowed from the local CPS office a baby doll that can be weighted, by putting rice in the belly, to the exact weight of the child at the time of the injury. The baby doll is very effective in the hands of a doctor to demonstrate the violent force necessary to cause the typical shaken baby injuries. I try the CPS cases and haven't seen this demonstration in a criminal trial, but the first time I saw my normal MD expert shake the baby doll it was POWERFUL to say the least. Good Luck!

I recently prepared for a shaken baby trial. I attended both the Fourth Naitonal Conference on Shaken Baby Syndrom in Salt Lake City and the National Child Abuse Defense & Resource Center's Seminar in New Orleans.

I have a great deal of information and transcripts on a prosecution expert by the name of Randall Alexander of Atlanta, Georgia. I also a great deal of information and transcripts on defense experts, Uzinksi, Plunkett, Goldsmith and Leetsma.

My case involved a "short fall" and the potential for more than one perpetrator. After much preparation the case finally pled.

However, please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance. I don't know the specifics of your case so can't be much help here.

Lee Ann;

Sounds like you have some good resources. You don't have any contact info listed with TDCAA. If you could email me at myoung@co.cameron.tx.us or call 956-544-0849 I would like to discuss what all you have.

Check out Dr. Dan Davis, Assistant Medical Examiner, Hennepin County, 730 South 7th Street, Minneapolis MN 55415, Tel: 612-215-6300 Fax: 612-904-4323. He did up an excellent Power Point presentation on CD of the mechanism of injury in shaken-baby cases. He's been on the faculty at the National Advocacy Center.