Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #323 Maggie Freleng with Tasha Shelby

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#323 Maggie Freleng with Tasha Shelby · Wrongful Conviction

0:09
Speaker 1: On August thirteenth, nineteen ninety seven, Tasha Shelby was arrested
0:13
Speaker 1: and taken to the Biloxi Police Department. Throughout that sweltering
0:17
Speaker 1: Mississippi day, she sat handcuffed to a chair while Sergeant
0:21
Speaker 1: Warren Newman interrogated her relentlessly. Tasha and her new husband,
0:26
Speaker 1: Brian Thompson, were still mourning the loss of his two
0:29
Speaker 1: and a half year old son, Little Brian, who had
0:31
Speaker 1: died suddenly a few months before, but that didn't stop
0:35
Speaker 1: Officer Newman. His questioning grew more and more aggressive as
0:39
Speaker 1: the hours wore on, and then finally.
0:43
Speaker 2: And it turns into full fledged like rage where he's
0:46
Speaker 2: just like throwing everything off to the desk and he's
0:49
Speaker 2: put in his arms in his hands on either side
0:51
Speaker 2: of my chair and he's shaking me and look at
0:53
Speaker 2: me in my face and he was like, I know
0:54
Speaker 2: you did it, you baby killer. Like he's calling me
0:57
Speaker 2: a baby killer. He's calling me that I did this
1:00
Speaker 2: horrible thing, and he's funny, opens the door and says,
1:06
Speaker 2: this bitch is not gonna talk. Let's booker. My name
1:14
Speaker 2: is Tasha on Sadie Shelby. I have been incarcerated for
1:17
Speaker 2: twenty five years longfully convicted for twenty two years.
1:26
Speaker 1: From Lava for Good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
1:29
Speaker 1: Freeling today. Tasha Shelby. Tasha Shelby was born in Columbus, Mississippi,
1:46
Speaker 1: on March eighth, nineteen seventy five, to Paul Douglas Shelby
1:50
Speaker 1: and Sherry Lynne Buttermore, but she was raised in Texas
1:53
Speaker 1: by her father, Paul.
1:55
Speaker 2: My mother was accident from my life and so it
1:59
Speaker 2: was just me and my dad. I have several siblings
2:02
Speaker 2: that you know, he had with other ladies, but for
2:06
Speaker 2: the most part, it was just me and my dad
2:07
Speaker 2: and we just kind of lived a pretty nomadic life.
2:15
Speaker 1: Tasha and her dad did everything together, and his love
2:18
Speaker 1: of music created some of her most favorite memories with him.
2:22
Speaker 2: He loved classic rock, and anytime we would just be
2:27
Speaker 2: cruising around, he would always like school me on music.
2:31
Speaker 2: A song would come on the radio and it could
2:33
Speaker 2: be like Ynard Skinnard or led Zeppelin or the Beatles
2:36
Speaker 2: or whatever, and you know, we'd be sitting there looking
2:39
Speaker 2: at each other jamming and he'd turn it down and
2:42
Speaker 2: he's like, what's the next one? Or he would ask
2:44
Speaker 2: me who is this. So he kind of like introduced
2:50
Speaker 2: me to my love of music, which I love all music,
2:53
Speaker 2: but have a special price in my heart classic rock
2:56
Speaker 2: because of my dad.
3:01
Speaker 1: Life with her dad was a blast. He also made
3:04
Speaker 1: time to take Tasha to visit his sister who lived
3:07
Speaker 1: in another state.
3:09
Speaker 3: She was so cute and little.
3:11
Speaker 1: This is Tasha's aunt Penny.
3:13
Speaker 3: And she comes bursting through my door and puts her
3:15
Speaker 3: hands on her hips and says, you are my uncle Penny.
3:22
Speaker 3: It's Aunt Panny. She has no uncle Penny. Until she
3:25
Speaker 3: was a teenager, she called me uncle Panny.
3:29
Speaker 1: And then when Tasha was fourteen, tragedy struck when.
3:33
Speaker 2: My dad was thirty three, he was killed in a
3:37
Speaker 2: car wreck. And after that, I kind of just that's
3:43
Speaker 2: a little lost in the world, if I'm being honest.
3:46
Speaker 1: Tasha went to live with her Aunt Penny in California
3:48
Speaker 1: for a year. Aunt Penny thought the world of Tasha.
3:52
Speaker 3: She's smart, she's funny, she has a very very strong faith,
3:57
Speaker 3: she's very compassionate, empathetic towards people, and she's really a
4:01
Speaker 3: very strong woman, much stronger than me.
4:04
Speaker 1: Even though Tasha was in the loving arms of Aunt Penny,
4:07
Speaker 1: she continued to feel lost without her dad, So she
4:11
Speaker 1: grew up fast.
4:12
Speaker 2: In the tenth grade. Maybe three months in that's when
4:16
Speaker 2: I found that I was pregnant with my son. I
4:19
Speaker 2: was seventeen, and I just ever went back to school.
4:25
Speaker 1: At seventeen, Tasha gave birth to her first child, her son, Dakota.
4:30
Speaker 1: By this time, she was back in Mississippi, and after
4:32
Speaker 1: a couple of years, she ran into an old acquaintance,
4:35
Speaker 1: Brian Thompson the Third, also known as Big Brian.
4:40
Speaker 2: He's one of the first people I see from my
4:43
Speaker 2: old crew, and he, you know, was like, hey, you
4:46
Speaker 2: want to go down to the beach. I'm like, yeah,
4:48
Speaker 2: I haven't seen the latter in forever. And so from
4:51
Speaker 2: that moment forward, things kind of turned for us in
4:54
Speaker 2: another way. He was single, I was single, and we
5:02
Speaker 2: knew each other. We felt comfortable, and we started seeing
5:05
Speaker 2: ourselves following them love.
5:08
Speaker 1: Tasha says Brian was trustworthy and dependable, and with him,
5:12
Speaker 1: for the first time in her life, she finally felt
5:15
Speaker 1: a sense of stability and security.
5:19
Speaker 2: Everything just felt like permanent, and that's in my life
5:22
Speaker 2: had ever felt permanent, and I always felt like fleeting,
5:25
Speaker 2: and this was just a moment. It was going to
5:27
Speaker 2: pass and it didn't feel like that with him, and
5:31
Speaker 2: I think he just added to my life, so the
5:34
Speaker 2: first time I felt something or someone had added something
5:38
Speaker 2: for me.
5:38
Speaker 4: And to me.
5:46
Speaker 1: Brian and Tasha decided to move to a three bedroom
5:49
Speaker 1: trailer in Biloxi and blend their families. Brian had a
5:52
Speaker 1: two and a half year old son who was called
5:54
Speaker 1: Little Brian, and Tasha had her three year old son, Dakota.
5:58
Speaker 1: They also found out they were expecting a child together,
6:01
Speaker 1: a baby girl.
6:04
Speaker 2: Then I did start having difficulties with my pregnancy. I
6:08
Speaker 2: had priaclanpsia. And I'm still young, and I've never had
6:12
Speaker 2: anyone talk to me about what pregnant life looks like
6:15
Speaker 2: or any of these things, you know. My dad certainly
6:19
Speaker 2: didn't talk to you about those things at fourteen and younger,
6:22
Speaker 2: you know. So I didn't know really what to look for.
6:27
Speaker 2: And I kept having a lot of pain and it
6:33
Speaker 2: was early, but for like three weeks leading up to
6:37
Speaker 2: her birth, we kept having to go to the emergency
6:40
Speaker 2: room in the middle of the night because as I
6:41
Speaker 2: would wake him up and say, this is it, She's coming,
6:45
Speaker 2: let's go.
6:48
Speaker 1: Finally, on May fourteenth, nineteen ninety seven, Tasha and Big
6:52
Speaker 1: Brian's daughter, Devin, was born, but the labor and birth
6:55
Speaker 1: left Tasha with serious medical problems.
6:59
Speaker 2: With Devin, she actually almost died and I almost died
7:02
Speaker 2: during the birth. They ended up passing to do an
7:06
Speaker 2: emergency sea section. Devan was pretty big when she was born.
7:11
Speaker 2: She was over eight pounds, and Dakota had only been
7:13
Speaker 2: like six pounds in something.
7:15
Speaker 1: And Tasha is actually quite small, under five feet tall.
7:19
Speaker 1: Both her pregnancies had taken a toll on her body,
7:22
Speaker 1: so even before she had the sea section, she had
7:25
Speaker 1: already decided the birth would be a good time to
7:27
Speaker 1: get her tubes tied.
7:29
Speaker 2: And so that's what I was recuperating from, you know,
7:34
Speaker 2: both of those surgeries first, just on any given day
7:38
Speaker 2: is difficult for a woman.
7:42
Speaker 1: After about three days in the hospital, Tasha was able
7:44
Speaker 1: to go home to her family, Big Brian, Little Brian, Dakota,
7:48
Speaker 1: and Devin. Tasha was on bed rest with Big Brian
7:51
Speaker 1: doing most of the caretaking.
7:53
Speaker 2: You know, I was given instructions to not do any
7:56
Speaker 2: heavy lifting or bending over. You know, it was going
7:59
Speaker 2: to take time to recuperate from the difficult you know
8:05
Speaker 2: birth I had just given and the surgeries On top
8:08
Speaker 2: of that, were.
8:09
Speaker 1: You even able to pick up the babies if you
8:11
Speaker 1: wanted to?
8:12
Speaker 2: It was very difficult. I was able to pick her up,
8:17
Speaker 2: but I didn't do it unless I was home alone
8:20
Speaker 2: without Brian, which only happened on two occasions, which was
8:26
Speaker 2: the night in question.
8:41
Speaker 1: On May twenty ninth, nineteen ninety seven. Big Brian went
8:44
Speaker 1: to work around seven thirty pm. He had just started
8:48
Speaker 1: a new job at a beer distribution plant and he
8:50
Speaker 1: was on the night shift. Around the same time, Tasha's
8:53
Speaker 1: grandparents came over to help with the kids. They visited
8:56
Speaker 1: for about an hour, talking and watching little Brian play,
9:00
Speaker 1: then they left, taking Dakota with them for the night.
9:03
Speaker 1: Tasha says that before Devin was born, she and little
9:06
Speaker 1: Brian loved their one on one time. They made watching
9:09
Speaker 1: movies and having snacks in the living room a special occasion.
9:13
Speaker 2: So we were watching The Brave Little Toaster, eating the popcorn,
9:17
Speaker 2: drinking the pink lemonade. Then it's you know, fast time
9:21
Speaker 2: and bedtime, and I put him to bed and I
9:24
Speaker 2: go to bed. I'm exhausted.
9:27
Speaker 1: Tasha went to sleep with baby Devin in bed with
9:29
Speaker 1: her and little Brian in his bed, and then in
9:32
Speaker 1: the early morning hours. She was awakened by a loud thud.
9:37
Speaker 2: And I immediately think Devin has fallen out of the bed.
9:41
Speaker 2: And I look and she's okay, and I'm like, okay, well,
9:43
Speaker 2: that's not what has happened. And so I get out
9:49
Speaker 2: of my bed and it's just like a couple of
9:50
Speaker 2: steps to the doorway and I look and I see,
9:55
Speaker 2: you know, Little Brian is on the floor and it
9:59
Speaker 2: appear me that he's having a seizure. He was laying
10:07
Speaker 2: on the floor, he was his eyes were rolled in
10:11
Speaker 2: the back of his head. His hands, I remember his
10:14
Speaker 2: hands just looking almost paralyzed, if you will. And I'm thinking,
10:24
Speaker 2: I don't know what to do, and I'm panicking. I'm
10:27
Speaker 2: trying to get the say attention to me or hear me,
10:31
Speaker 2: respond to me, and he's not at all.
10:37
Speaker 1: So Tasha called Biloxi Regional Medical Center, the hospital she
10:41
Speaker 1: had just been discharged from. They said to get Little
10:43
Speaker 1: Brian there as quickly as possible. Tasha then called Big Brian,
10:47
Speaker 1: who raced home where Tasha had been trying to administer
10:50
Speaker 1: a CPR.
10:54
Speaker 3: Brian comes in.
10:55
Speaker 2: He's in a panic mode. He has him on the floor.
10:58
Speaker 2: He's doing CPR. We've got to go. We've got to go.
11:01
Speaker 2: I have to get a diaper bag for Devin. And
11:04
Speaker 2: when we're rushing to get to the van, Brian hits
11:07
Speaker 2: Little Brian's head on the van door, which is not
11:10
Speaker 2: on purpose. He's almost limped like at this time, and
11:14
Speaker 2: his eyes were just rolled in the back of his head.
11:20
Speaker 2: And then we get to the hospital and a man
11:24
Speaker 2: rushes him into the emergency room and then we're in
11:27
Speaker 2: the emergency room and they take Little Brian away from
11:30
Speaker 2: us try to help him.
11:36
Speaker 1: In the meantime, hospital staff had called the police to
11:39
Speaker 1: investigate whether Little Brian had been abused. Most states, including Mississippi,
11:44
Speaker 1: have mandatory reporting laws if they're suspicion of child abuse
11:47
Speaker 1: or neglect. And when the police showed.
11:49
Speaker 2: Up immediately they're asking questions. They're kind of hounding us
11:54
Speaker 2: a little. But I'm thinking this is normal. You know,
11:57
Speaker 2: there's an emergency, and I think this must be what
12:00
Speaker 2: people do when there's an emergency, whichcause they care so
12:02
Speaker 2: much they want to know what's happened.
12:07
Speaker 1: Little Brian was transferred to a hospital in Mobile, Alabama
12:10
Speaker 1: for further treatment, but it was too late for any
12:13
Speaker 1: meaningful difference. The next day, Big Brian had to make
12:17
Speaker 1: the hard decision to take Little Brian off life support.
12:22
Speaker 1: The child was pronounced dead on May thirty first, nineteen
12:25
Speaker 1: ninety seven. Tasha and Brian left the hospital devastated, and
12:31
Speaker 1: we pull up to our house.
12:34
Speaker 2: There's already people there waiting to take Devon from me,
12:39
Speaker 2: and they're there telling me that I can't have my daughter.
12:43
Speaker 2: And I'm like why, Like I'm not understanding, and I'm crying.
12:46
Speaker 2: I'm hysterical. We're just pulling in from the loss of
12:51
Speaker 2: Little Brian and they rip her out of my arms,
12:56
Speaker 2: and I'm on my knees, begging and crying and they're
13:00
Speaker 2: taking her. That's when I realized, my god, they seek
13:08
Speaker 2: that I have done something.
13:19
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
13:24
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
13:28
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
13:31
Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
13:34
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
13:37
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
13:41
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
13:45
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Following the death
13:58
Speaker 1: of Little Brian, and as soon as Tasha and Big
14:01
Speaker 1: Brian got home from the hospital, Baby Devin was taken
14:04
Speaker 1: by Child Protective Services and put into foster care. Dakota
14:08
Speaker 1: stayed with Tasha's grandparents while in mourning over Little Brian.
14:14
Speaker 1: Tasha and Big Brian went to Texas for a week
14:16
Speaker 1: to spend time with Tasha's family. A month later, they
14:19
Speaker 1: decided to seal their commitment to each other by getting married.
14:24
Speaker 1: Also during this time, Little Brian's autopsy report was released,
14:28
Speaker 1: signed by doctor Leroy Riddick. It listed the cause of
14:31
Speaker 1: death as blunt force trauma to the head and the
14:34
Speaker 1: manner of death homicide. Two months after Little Brian died,
14:40
Speaker 1: the police showed up at Tasha's.
14:42
Speaker 2: Door and they tell me and I am under arrest
14:48
Speaker 2: for the murder Brian Elwis Holmeston before and I kind
14:54
Speaker 2: of lost my bodily functions in that moment. My keyed
14:59
Speaker 2: everywhere and I'm asking can I please change and they're like, no,
15:03
Speaker 2: you can't do that. You have to go like this.
15:07
Speaker 1: The police transferred Tasha to the precinct. It was summer
15:11
Speaker 1: and scorching hot in Mississippi, and so they take.
15:14
Speaker 2: Me to this room that has absolutely no air conditioning,
15:18
Speaker 2: no fan, nothing, And they not to be dramatic, but
15:24
Speaker 2: it felt like I was chained, but it was handcuffed.
15:27
Speaker 2: So I'm handcuffed to one side of the chair was
15:30
Speaker 2: my left hand and one side of the chair was
15:32
Speaker 2: my right hand.
15:34
Speaker 1: Sergeant Warren Newman of the Biloxi Police Department then started
15:38
Speaker 1: interrogating Tasha about the death of little Brian, and.
15:42
Speaker 2: Warn Newman starts just digging in. You know, oh, we
15:46
Speaker 2: know that you did this. We already have the proof.
15:50
Speaker 2: But I understand you're probably suffering from postpart of depression.
15:54
Speaker 2: This was a lot of stress. You had three children.
15:57
Speaker 2: You just couldn't handle it. It was too much, like
15:59
Speaker 2: saying all these things to me, and I'm just crying.
16:02
Speaker 2: I'm thinking in my mind, like I've had three brothers
16:05
Speaker 2: and two sisters, and I pretty much helped raise all
16:09
Speaker 2: of my siblings. Like three kids is a piece of
16:12
Speaker 2: cake to me. You know, this is my life, This
16:15
Speaker 2: is everything to me. What are you talking about.
16:18
Speaker 1: Tasha told Officer Newman that that night little Brian fell
16:21
Speaker 1: out of bed. She didn't hurt him, but Officer Newman
16:25
Speaker 1: was not buying it, and then.
16:30
Speaker 2: It turns into full fledged like rage where he's just
16:34
Speaker 2: like throwing everything off to the desk and he's put
16:36
Speaker 2: in his arms in his hands on either side of
16:38
Speaker 2: my chair and he's shaking my chair because I'm really little,
16:41
Speaker 2: and he's shaking me and look at me in my
16:43
Speaker 2: face and he's like, I know you did it, you
16:45
Speaker 2: baby killer, Like he's calling me a baby killer. He's
16:48
Speaker 2: telling me that I did this horrible thing and I
16:51
Speaker 2: just needed just make it better for myself and tell
16:53
Speaker 2: him the truth.
16:55
Speaker 1: But Tasha said, the truth is what she already told him.
16:58
Speaker 1: She didn't hurt little.
17:00
Speaker 2: And he finally opens the door and says, this bitch
17:04
Speaker 2: is not gonna talk. Let's booker.
17:11
Speaker 1: At twenty two years old, Tasha Shelby was booked into
17:14
Speaker 1: the Harrison County Adult Detention Center to await trial.
17:18
Speaker 2: I was in a state of shock. I thought, what
17:21
Speaker 2: is going on? Nobody was telling me like any answers,
17:27
Speaker 2: and I just thought someone is going to find out
17:31
Speaker 2: that they're wrong and they're going to give me everything back,
17:34
Speaker 2: you know.
17:49
Speaker 1: Tasha waited three years in jail for her trial, all
17:53
Speaker 1: the while haunted by what happened to little Brian.
17:57
Speaker 2: It just did not feel real.
18:00
Speaker 4: And they would watch something on TV and I would
18:02
Speaker 4: be asleep and I could hear a baby crying on
18:06
Speaker 4: the TV, and I remember waking up thinking that it
18:09
Speaker 4: was all a train, that.
18:10
Speaker 2: I had been arrested, and that I thought Devan was
18:12
Speaker 2: waking me up clying.
18:19
Speaker 1: Tasha was appointed public defenders Michael Cox and Donald Smith.
18:23
Speaker 1: At trial, right from the start, Cox and Smith told
18:26
Speaker 1: Judge Robert H. Walker that they were overworked with a
18:30
Speaker 1: capital murder trial and did not feel comfortable representing Tasha,
18:34
Speaker 1: but Judge Walker dismissed their request and Tasha went to
18:37
Speaker 1: trial on June twelfth, two thousand. The prosecutors Remark Ward
18:42
Speaker 1: and Scott Lusk. At trial, they told the jury that
18:46
Speaker 1: little Brian died from shaking baby syndrome or SBS, the
18:50
Speaker 1: theory that if.
18:52
Speaker 5: A child exhibits bleeding in the brain, bleeding in the eyes,
18:57
Speaker 5: and brain swelling, then that is only caused by one thing,
19:02
Speaker 5: and that one thing is shaking. So the real fallacy
19:07
Speaker 5: of a shaking baby syndrome is that it says nothing
19:09
Speaker 5: else could cause those injuries, just shaking.
19:13
Speaker 1: This is Velina Beattie.
19:15
Speaker 5: I'm a law professor at Arizona State University Sandra Day
19:19
Speaker 5: O'Connor College of Law, and I'm also the deputy director
19:22
Speaker 5: of our Academy for Justice.
19:24
Speaker 1: She's also Tasha's post conviction attorney. Velina says that at trial,
19:29
Speaker 1: the state argued that Little Brian died from SBS, not
19:32
Speaker 1: from an accident, as Tasha said. The state star witness
19:36
Speaker 1: was doctor Leroy Riddick, the expert forensic pathologist who performs
19:40
Speaker 1: Little Brian's autopsy. Doctor Riddick testified that in addition to
19:45
Speaker 1: massive brain swelling, little Brian was covered in bruises less
19:48
Speaker 1: than two days old.
19:50
Speaker 5: It's not surprising they believed the child died from shake
19:53
Speaker 5: and baby syndrome. There wasn't that much research out at
19:57
Speaker 5: that time challenging the hypothesis.
20:01
Speaker 1: In fact, Tasha's own defense team agreed SBS caused the death,
20:05
Speaker 1: but they said it wasn't Tasha who did it. They
20:08
Speaker 1: said it had to have been Big Brian's doing, a
20:11
Speaker 1: theory Tasha vehemently did not agree with.
20:14
Speaker 5: Absolutely, she did not know. She said, this child did
20:17
Speaker 5: not die from abuse by me or by my husband.
20:21
Speaker 1: Absolutely, what the defense failed to argue though, was that
20:26
Speaker 1: it was impossible for Tasha to have shaken Little Brian
20:29
Speaker 1: so violently as to kill him. Remember, Tasha was under
20:32
Speaker 1: five feet tall and she was on bed rest after
20:35
Speaker 1: multiple surgeries and giving birth, and at three feet tall,
20:39
Speaker 1: Little Brian was big for his age, and they didn't
20:42
Speaker 1: mention this at all.
20:44
Speaker 5: She could not physically have had the strength to pick
20:50
Speaker 5: up and shake or abuse a thirty three pound, two
20:54
Speaker 5: and a half year old child who was over half
20:57
Speaker 5: of her sets.
21:00
Speaker 1: Big Brian also testified at trial he believed in Tasha's innocence,
21:04
Speaker 1: but because the prosecution was considering charging him as well,
21:07
Speaker 1: he was scared. In the end, he distanced himself from
21:11
Speaker 1: Tasha and actually cooperated with the prosecution. On the stand,
21:16
Speaker 1: Big Brian talked about his and Tasha's concerns about Little
21:20
Speaker 1: Brian's health.
21:21
Speaker 5: Tasha was concerned about his development and that he was
21:26
Speaker 5: eating mud. He just didn't seem to be progressing at
21:31
Speaker 5: the same rate that Dakota, the other child in the household,
21:36
Speaker 5: who is approximately the same age, so they should be at,
21:40
Speaker 5: you know, approximately the same development level.
21:43
Speaker 1: Big Brian also said that several weeks before his death,
21:46
Speaker 1: little Brian's eyes appeared bloodshot. He and Tasha had also
21:50
Speaker 1: noticed Little Brian's staring off into space, his eyes rolling
21:53
Speaker 1: back into his head. This phenomenon would now be diagnosed
21:57
Speaker 1: as a petite mal seizure. Big Brian testified that he
22:01
Speaker 1: and Tasha had taken Little Brian to the pediatrician, who
22:04
Speaker 1: suggested they see a neurologist. In fact, the appointment was
22:08
Speaker 1: scheduled for seven days after Little Brian's death. Tasha had
22:13
Speaker 1: also written about her concern over Little Brian and her diary. However,
22:17
Speaker 1: neither her diary nor the family calendar where they had
22:21
Speaker 1: written the appointment with the neurologist were ever recovered or
22:24
Speaker 1: presented to the jury.
22:32
Speaker 3: It was truly just a mate believe trial.
22:35
Speaker 1: That's how Tasha's Penny remembers it.
22:37
Speaker 3: They withheld evidence, they destroyed evidence. You know, they just
22:41
Speaker 3: lied about her. And you know she had out of
22:44
Speaker 3: the journals that she kept. In those journals, she talked about,
22:47
Speaker 3: you know, how much she's loved O'Brien and how much
22:50
Speaker 3: she loved the mom, and well, they took those journals
22:54
Speaker 3: and then they lost them, didn't find them.
23:01
Speaker 1: The defense argued the best case they could for reasonable
23:04
Speaker 1: doubt that it was possible Little Brian had died from
23:06
Speaker 1: falling out of bed, or that he had a seizure,
23:09
Speaker 1: or even that Big Brian was responsible. However, it was
23:13
Speaker 1: not enough. On June sixteenth, two thousand, at the age
23:17
Speaker 1: of twenty five, Tasha was sentenced to life without parole.
23:31
Speaker 1: Sentenced to life in prison. Tasha struggled to come to
23:34
Speaker 1: terms with what was happening to her.
23:37
Speaker 2: I didn't oh that, you know that this was real.
23:41
Speaker 2: Yet knowing that I didn't have my life, my children
23:46
Speaker 2: and my family, you know, everything in that moment just
23:49
Speaker 2: felt like it had been taken from me.
23:52
Speaker 1: Even Big Brian was gone. The last time Tasha saw him,
23:55
Speaker 1: she was still in County jail, two years before she
23:58
Speaker 1: was convicted. It was her twenty third birthday, March.
24:02
Speaker 2: Eight, rankteen ninety eight. We had a contact visitation. We
24:07
Speaker 2: actually got to hold each other and touch each other,
24:09
Speaker 2: and you know, it's only happy birthday. I love you,
24:13
Speaker 2: all of these things. Everything's gonna be okay. You know
24:15
Speaker 2: I'm here. He walked out that night and said, I
24:21
Speaker 2: will call you tomorrow. The next day, I call like
24:26
Speaker 2: I normally would, and I hear the recording that this
24:30
Speaker 2: number is no longer in service, and I have never
24:35
Speaker 2: spoken to him again, and I do not know what happened.
24:46
Speaker 1: But others in her family have stayed in Tasha's life
24:49
Speaker 1: and continue to champion her innocence. The first time she
24:53
Speaker 1: visited Tasha in prison, her aunt Penny found Tasha just
24:56
Speaker 1: as she remembered her.
24:58
Speaker 3: She was still the same Tash. I was still a
25:00
Speaker 3: little and cute and funny and smart, and you know,
25:05
Speaker 3: it's like no time it ever passed at all.
25:09
Speaker 1: Although Tasha was doing life in prison, she was determined
25:12
Speaker 1: to make the most of her time, so she joined
25:14
Speaker 1: an art program and tutored women getting their ged, and
25:18
Speaker 1: she began taking college courses, including one that she says
25:21
Speaker 1: has changed her life.
25:23
Speaker 2: The history of Southern women had to may Wells and
25:30
Speaker 2: Saney lou Hammer and learning about these women that went
25:32
Speaker 2: through these struggles. From that moment forward, I really started
25:38
Speaker 2: realizing who I am, really started realizing my voice, and
25:47
Speaker 2: that I don't have to accept this, that I am innocent,
25:50
Speaker 2: that I'm going to fight and I'm going to keep
25:53
Speaker 2: on fighting. Then I don't care what struggles I have
25:56
Speaker 2: to go through. I saw these women through way more
26:01
Speaker 2: horrific things that I went through. They rose above each time.
26:08
Speaker 2: It put something inside of me. It will never be
26:11
Speaker 2: taken away from me, and it empowered me in a
26:14
Speaker 2: new way.
26:23
Speaker 1: Tasha started finding appeal after appeal after appeal on her case,
26:28
Speaker 1: but all were denied. Finally, in twenty ten, she met
26:32
Speaker 1: Velena Beattie, who you heard from earlier.
26:35
Speaker 5: I had just started working on shake and baby syndrome
26:38
Speaker 5: cases and realizing the extreme problems with that diagnosis and
26:44
Speaker 5: the number of people who had been wrongfully convicted based
26:46
Speaker 5: on that diagnosis.
26:48
Speaker 1: According to the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform,
26:51
Speaker 1: as of twenty twelve, an average of two hundred defendants
26:55
Speaker 1: were being convicted of SBS related crimes annually. Velena says that, unfortunately,
27:01
Speaker 1: it's not unusual in these cases for suspicion to fall
27:04
Speaker 1: on the child's caregiver.
27:06
Speaker 5: The allegation is the person who was alone with the child,
27:10
Speaker 5: who is frequently a woman, must have abused the child
27:15
Speaker 5: and killed the child. And it's a horrific allegation.
27:19
Speaker 1: In fact, symptoms once used to diagnose SBS have since
27:23
Speaker 1: been shown to be inconclusive.
27:25
Speaker 5: In two thousand and one, there's this amazing researcher, doctor Plunkett,
27:29
Speaker 5: who uncovered that short falls so less than three feet
27:34
Speaker 5: tall can cause bleeding in the brain. And we now
27:37
Speaker 5: know that again there can be bleeding from small injuries
27:41
Speaker 5: or even no injuries at all, like the process of
27:44
Speaker 5: a traumatic birth can even cause bleeding in the brain.
27:49
Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, after Velina took on Tasha's case, her
27:53
Speaker 1: team filed a second post conviction relief petition arguing that
27:57
Speaker 1: the conviction should be thrown out base on new scientific
28:01
Speaker 1: research on shaken baby syndrome.
28:04
Speaker 5: Once we get the medical records, we had experts who
28:09
Speaker 5: were radiology experts, biomechanical experts, and forensic pathology experts.
28:14
Speaker 3: So one of.
28:14
Speaker 5: Each look at her case and look at the medical
28:18
Speaker 5: records to give us an opinion as to whether they
28:22
Speaker 5: thought the cause of death was abuse or shaking. So
28:26
Speaker 5: they all came back and said, no, they did not
28:29
Speaker 5: think it was abuse or shaking. That shortfall definitely could
28:34
Speaker 5: have caused the bleeding in the brain, and having a
28:38
Speaker 5: seizure could have been part of this as well.
28:42
Speaker 1: A short fall and a seizure just like Tasha said
28:44
Speaker 1: she heard and saw. The experts also noted that Little
28:48
Speaker 1: Brian had asthma and difficulty breathing and lack of oxygen
28:52
Speaker 1: could have contributed to his collapse. They were also able
28:56
Speaker 1: to demystify the alleged bruising seen on little Brian's There.
29:01
Speaker 5: Were these two large areas on little Brian's back and
29:07
Speaker 5: on his buttocks and part of his leg that looked
29:10
Speaker 5: like bruising and looked really horrible, And photos of little
29:14
Speaker 5: Brian were shown to the jury and the jury was
29:17
Speaker 5: told that those were massive bruises, when instead they were
29:22
Speaker 5: actually a birthmark known as Mongolian spots. So it wasn't abuse,
29:30
Speaker 5: it was a natural thing this child had. It's nothing harmful,
29:34
Speaker 5: but doctor Ridick mistakenly said that they were bruises.
29:47
Speaker 1: Armed with all this information, Billina reached out to the
29:49
Speaker 1: state's star witness at trial, doctor Riddick, who had been
29:53
Speaker 1: adamant that the cause of Little Brian's death was SBS.
29:58
Speaker 1: They sent doctor Ridick all the new information and waited
30:02
Speaker 1: and waited. Then finally he calls.
30:07
Speaker 5: He leaves a message saying, you know, maybe I made
30:13
Speaker 5: a mistake.
30:15
Speaker 1: Doctor Ridick, who died in twenty twenty one, actually revised
30:18
Speaker 1: his diagnosis in this twenty seventeen deposition.
30:21
Speaker 6: He says that I made a mistake on my conclusions
30:28
Speaker 6: and that given the information I have now that the
30:33
Speaker 6: child died from hypoxic and soul philopathy with herniation due
30:40
Speaker 6: to seizure disorder.
30:44
Speaker 5: Doctor Ridick literally changed the death certificate. So the death
30:48
Speaker 5: certificate no longer says homicide. It now says accident as
30:53
Speaker 5: the cause of death.
30:55
Speaker 1: And that gave Tasha's team the opening they needed to
30:59
Speaker 1: be granted and evidentiary hearing. At the hearing, doctor Riddick's
31:03
Speaker 1: testimony lasted half a day. He admitted he was wrong,
31:07
Speaker 1: but that wasn't enough for the court. Tasha's motion for
31:10
Speaker 1: a new trial was denied.
31:13
Speaker 5: That judge ultimately decided that he simply believed doctor Riddick's
31:20
Speaker 5: trial testimonymore.
31:22
Speaker 1: Wow, this man is sitting there telling him I was wrong,
31:25
Speaker 1: and he's telling him you're.
31:27
Speaker 5: Not wrong exactly exactly.
31:31
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not funny, it's just absurd.
31:34
Speaker 5: It's shocking to me that the medical examiner who the
31:37
Speaker 5: state relied on to convict Tasha Shelby, that he changed
31:43
Speaker 5: his opinion and the court just dismissed that. It's just
31:48
Speaker 5: horrifying to me. That we can't acknowledge when science changes,
31:52
Speaker 5: and even when the experts change their opinions, we have
31:55
Speaker 5: to still keep people convicted.
32:09
Speaker 1: Tasha now has a habeas corpus petition pending in the
32:12
Speaker 1: Southern District of Mississippi, and she's waiting to hear whether
32:16
Speaker 1: the judges will grant her a hearing, reverse her conviction,
32:19
Speaker 1: or uphold her conviction. Penny now lives on a farm
32:31
Speaker 1: in Tennessee with lots of animals, including donkeys that Tasha's
32:35
Speaker 1: excited to meet, and there's a room for Tasha at
32:38
Speaker 1: Penny's house when the time comes.
32:40
Speaker 3: So I've sent her pictures of what her view will
32:43
Speaker 3: be like once she gets here. I'm just waiting on
32:45
Speaker 3: the phone call and I will dribe the Mississippi and
32:49
Speaker 3: get her and bring her home.
32:53
Speaker 1: Tasha hopes to someday be reunited with her children. Devin
32:57
Speaker 1: was a newborn and Dakota was three when Tasha was arrested.
33:01
Speaker 1: When Dakota turned eighteen, he reached out to Tasha and
33:04
Speaker 1: they've been in touch occasionally via email, but she hasn't
33:07
Speaker 1: spoken to Devin and hasn't seen either child since. So
33:11
Speaker 1: Tasha wants to send a message to them in hopes
33:14
Speaker 1: that they're listening.
33:20
Speaker 2: Dakota and Devin, I want you to know that I
33:22
Speaker 2: love you so much. I'm a missue and I think
33:25
Speaker 2: of you every single day. I don't know what you
33:29
Speaker 2: think or what you've heard, but I want you to
33:32
Speaker 2: hear from me, as your mom, that I am innocent
33:36
Speaker 2: and I will continue fighting for my innocence as long
33:39
Speaker 2: as it takes. I look forward to the day that
33:43
Speaker 2: we could be reunited, it can see one another again
33:46
Speaker 2: face to face, and I pray and hope to restore
33:50
Speaker 2: and rebuild all that has been lost between us. I
33:53
Speaker 2: love you so much. I also would like to tell
33:56
Speaker 2: my family and my friends, all the people of that
34:00
Speaker 2: supported me throughout this journey that your belief in me
34:03
Speaker 2: what has propelled me to be able to keep fighting.
34:06
Speaker 2: And I love you all and you mean the world
34:08
Speaker 2: to me, and thank you very much.
34:18
Speaker 1: To find out more about Tasha and how you can help,
34:21
Speaker 1: go to Free Tasha Shelby dot com. You can sign
34:23
Speaker 1: a petition for her freedom to be delivered to Mississippi
34:26
Speaker 1: Governor Tate Reeves at change dot org. These and other
34:30
Speaker 1: links are on our bio page. Next Time Unwrongful Conviction
34:42
Speaker 1: with Maggie Freeling Janetta Carr.
34:46
Speaker 7: He asked me if I was in a gang. He
34:48
Speaker 7: told me that I was a danger and to society
34:50
Speaker 7: and that I was going to prison for f and live.
34:53
Speaker 7: When I asked my mom, he told me that it
34:55
Speaker 7: was not a girl Scouts meeting and that my mom
34:57
Speaker 7: was not allowed to come down there.
35:02
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
35:05
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
35:08
Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
35:11
Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
35:14
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
35:18
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonia Paul. The show is edited and
35:22
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
35:25
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
35:29
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
35:32
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35:36
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as
35:40
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35:43
Speaker 1: you can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter
35:46
Speaker 1: at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a
35:49
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal
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Speaker 4: Oh No No