A Texas man convicted of shaking his baby so violently that it caused serious injuries saw his conviction thrown out on Oct. 9.
Andrew Wayne Roark would not have been convicted if developments in science related to shaken baby syndrome were presented at his trial, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said.
“The admissible scientific testimony at trial today would likely yield an acquittal,” Judge Barbara Hervey wrote for the majority.
Roark, now 47, was convicted in 2000 after prosecutors said that he shook his 1-year-old daughter so violently that it caused brain damage. Defense lawyers said the brain injury was caused by an injury suffered weeks earlier and that the old injury rebled when the girl hit her head in the bathtub or rolled off her bed….