TITLE CARD: ANATOMY OF A MURDER CASE

TEXT ON SCREEN:
IT STARTED WITH A LETTER FROM AN INMATE

ADELE BERNHARD: She told me her story. She told me that she’d been convicted of shaking a child who was in her daycare center, causing injuries which led to the child’s death, and when I read the letter I couldn’t believe she had been convicted, and so I decided to take on the case and learn more about it.

TEXT ON SCREEN:
ADELE BERNHARD WAS IN CHARGE OF THE PACE LAW SCHOOL POST-CONVICTION PROJECT.

RENE BAILEY WAS THE INMATE.

ADELE BERNHARD: Rene was running a small daycare center in her home and she heard a noise that sounded like a thump, it sounded like someone had fallen.  She saw little Brittney Sheets on the ground and one of the other children told her that Brittney had been on the chair and had fallen.

TEXT ON SCREEN:
AT BAILEY’S 2001 TRIAL, PROSECUTORS DISMISSED THE FALL AND ACCUSED HER OF SHAKING THE TODDLER TO DEATH.

ARCHIVAL (WHAM:)
DOUG RANDALL (MONROE COUNTY ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY): The force required to do this to a two-and-a-half-year-old was incredible.

ADELE BERNHARD:  The jury voted guilty. The jury found it compelling.

TEXT ON SCREEN:
BAILEY WAS SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON.

ADELE BERNHARD: At that time, there was very little evidence in the scientific journals of children dying through falls. A fall killing someone is a very rare occurrence but unfortunately just because something is rare doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen.

TEXT ON SCREEN:
SINCE BAILEY’S TRIAL, STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT SHORT FALLS CAN CAUSE FATAL BRAIN INJURY.

IN 2014, BAILEY WENT BACK TO COURT. THIS TIME WITH BERNHARD AT HER SIDE.

ADELE BERNHARD: And what we argued was the change in the medical understanding of head injuries in the last 10 years should — is so dramatic and so great that it should qualify as new evidence, newly discovered evidence, and the judge agreed with us and said you know it really is different, what they were told is not what a jury would be told today.

ARCHIVAL:
NEWS REPORT: The woman convicted of shaking a baby to death in 2001 is now out of prison. Rene Bailey will remain under  home confinement.

TEXT ON SCREEN:
BUT THE CASE IS NOT OVER.

PROSECUTORS STILL BELIEVE BAILEY IS GUILTY. THEIR EXPERTS MAINTAIN THE CHILD’S INJURIES WERE INFLICTED AND COULDN’T BE EXPLAINED BY A SHORT FALL.

IF PROSECUTORS LOSE THEIR APPEAL, THEY PLAN TO TRY HER AGAIN FOR THE MURDER OF BRITTNEY SHEETS.

(END)