Melonie Ware was a daycare provider in Georgia who was sentenced to life in prison for shaking a nine-month-old baby to death in 2004. But in a 2009 retrial, a court declared that the medical examiner’s findings were insufficient, concluding that the baby most likely died because complications due to sickle-cell anemia, and acquitted Ware.
Doctors have credited hundreds of untimely infant deaths to shaken baby syndrome over the years. But more and more, medical experts are starting to doubt that baby shaking was the cause of death in certain cases. A new Frontline documentary, airing tonight on PBS stations, examines some of these cases, including Ware’s.
A.C. Thompson joins us to speak about the film, “The Child Cases.” Thompson was a reporter and correspondent for the film, and also reports for ProPublica. Dr. Jon Thogmartin, Florida’s district six medical examiner appears in the Frontline special. He joins us from Clearwater, Fla.