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Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994.

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Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994. Empty Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994.

Post by Wrapitup Thu May 24, 2012 5:38 pm

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By COLLEEN CURRY
May 24, 2012
A Texas woman who was convicted of killing a 3-month-old baby but claimed she merely dropped him could be released from her cell on death row and receive a new trial.

Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994.

Henderson, now 55, was found guilty of killing her infant neighbor, Brandon Baugh, while she babysat, and then burying the body in a wine cooler box 60 miles from the home and fleeing the state. Henderson maintained throughout her trial that she accidentally dropped the boy on her concrete floor, from four-and-a-half feet in the air, while swinging him around to try and calm him.

Dr. Roberto Bayardo, the Travis County, Texas, medical examiner, refuted that claim, saying that the injuries sustained by the baby would not have been possible from that height.

"The infant would have had to fall from the height higher than a two-story building," he concluded, and ruled the death a homicide, according to brief filed in the Criminal Appeals Court by Wisser.

But new research suggests that Bayardo's conclusion may not be accurate, and Bayardo testified at a 2007 hearing that he would not have ruled the same way if he had details on the new research at the time of the trial.

"I think if you took away Dr. Bayardo's testimony at the first trial that the jurors would not have convicted Ms. Henderson," Wisser told ABC News affiliate KVUE.

"I believe it was very difficult for the jurors to separate the death of the infant from Ms. Henderson's subsequent behavior," said Wisser.

Henderson came within two days of her death sentence in 2007 before receiving a last-minute reprieve based on the new scientific evidence and Bayardo's change of opinion. In the intervening years, Wisser has toiled over whether Henderson's verdict should be tossed, he told KVUE.

"In the 16-17 years (since), things have changed," Wisser said. "We have more scientific proof and evidence that I thought a jury should have the opportunity to consider."

Wisser's recommendation will land on the desks of the nine Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judges, who will issue a ruling sometime in the "next few months," according to the court.

The judges will either deny Wisser's recommendation or set a date for a hearing on the matter, in which prosecutors and defense attorneys could argue for a new trial. The court can either release Henderson from prison immediately while the two sides prepare for the hearing, or continue holding her in jail until a final decision is reached.

Eryn Baugh, the father of the infant that was killed, is dismayed at the development, according to KVUE.

"It is extremely difficult," Baugh told the station. "We came within two days of having this over with and having her executed and getting on with our lives. Now we are back in a courtroom and hearing what is basically a bunch of junk science that is basically going on over the death of my son."

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Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994. Empty Henderson granted new trial in baby’s 1994 death

Post by NiteSpinR Thu May 30, 2013 2:56 am

Dec. 5, 2012

Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994. Atexas10
Cathy Lynn Henderson, once just two days from execution for the 1994 death of an infant she was baby-sitting in her Pflugerville-area home, was granted a new trial by a sharply divided Court of Criminal Appeals.

The 5-3 ruling tossed out Henderson’s capital murder conviction and death sentence, returning the case to Travis County, where prosecutors will determine what charge she will face — and whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison if it’s capital murder — in a retrial likely to begin sometime next year.

Writing in support of a new trial, appeals court Judge Cathy Cochran said scientific advances in the field of pediatric head injuries have raised doubts about testimony from prosecution experts who said 3-month-old Brandon Baugh’s injuries could only be explained by Henderson intentionally slamming him into the concrete floor of her home.

“Changing science has cast doubt on the accuracy of the original jury verdict” and deprived Henderson of “a fundamentally fair trial based upon reliable scientific evidence,” Cochran wrote. “This … is a case that should be retried to ensure the accuracy of our verdicts and the integrity of our system.”

In a bluntly worded dissent, Judge Michael Keasler wrote that he was “baffled and appalled” by the decision to order a new trial. The majority, he said, ignored other evidence pointing to Henderson’s guilt — particularly her cross-country flight to avoid capture after the boy’s death and her admission to a friend that she was on the run because she had “killed somebody.”

“It is a travesty to grant this child killer relief … while her tiny, defenseless victim lies dead and reburied,” Keasler wrote.

The court’s order for a new trial was unsigned but accompanied by three concurring opinions signed by five judges and two dissenting opinions joined by Keasler, Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Judge Barbara Hervey. Judge Lawrence Meyers didn’t participate in the decision.

Henderson, now 55, had claimed that Brandon died after slipping from her arms and falling about 4 feet to the tile-on-concrete floor of her kitchen. She said she panicked and buried the boy’s body in a Bell County field before fleeing to Missouri, where she was found and arrested 11 days later.

The search for the boy’s body, the pain felt by his distraught parents and the hunt for Henderson dominated headlines in February 1994.

Brandon’s parents, Eryn and Melissa Baugh, remain convinced of Henderson’s guilt and said they were profoundly disappointed by Wednesday’s ruling.

“We’ve been living with this for almost 19 years. We’re looking for closure, and we can’t get it,” Eryn Baugh said from his Dallas-area home. “It’s an ongoing nightmare that has put our lives on hold.”

The Baughs said they will attend every day of Henderson’s new trial, just as they’ve traveled to Austin for every other hearing associated with her case. “This is a mess, and we shouldn’t be put through this a second time,” Eryn Baugh said. “What me and my wife went through in the first trial, all those years of waiting, has been horrific.”

Henderson was two days from a June 13, 2007, execution date when the Court of Criminal Appeals halted proceedings — directing Travis County District Judge Jon Wisser, who had presided over her trial, to examine Henderson’s claims that new science cast doubt on her murder conviction.

Last May, after a series of hearings featuring testimony from prosecution and defense experts on pediatric injuries and forensic science, Wisser recommended that the appeals court grant Henderson’s request for a new trial.

Wisser found that jurors would have been unlikely to convict Henderson had they known about new scientific discoveries into head trauma, including studies showing that falls of less than 4 feet can be lethal, producing complex skull fractures similar to what Brandon Baugh suffered.

The new evidence included a change of heart by the prosecution’s central witness, former medical examiner Roberto Bayardo, who several years ago said he no longer believes what he told jurors at Henderson’s 1995 trial — that it was “impossible” to attribute the boy’s extensive head injury to an accidental fall.

Bayardo said he now believes that advances in the understanding of pediatric head injuries show that relatively short, accidental falls onto a hard surface can produce skull fractures similar to what he discovered during Brandon’s 1994 autopsy.

The appeals court didn’t have to accept Wisser’s recommendation for a new trial, and the court routinely declines to overturn convictions or order new sentences based on similar requests from trial court judges. But, Cochran noted, Wisser was swayed by credible expert testimony that modern science couldn’t prove that Brandon’s death was the result of an accidental drop or intentional act.

Cochran added that the court’s order for a new trial doesn’t mean that Henderson is innocent of capital murder. “It simply means that the crucial evidence that had supported both the cause of Brandon’s death and (Henderson’s) intent to cause his death has been retracted. The present guilty verdict is based on scientifically unreliable evidence, but, after another capital murder trial, a guilty verdict could be based on scientifically reliable evidence,” she wrote.

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg didn’t oppose Wisser’s recommendation for a new trial. Though Lehmberg said prosecutors remain convinced of Henderson’s guilt and were unswayed by the opinions of her experts, the questions raised by Bayardo’s changed opinions and by Wisser’s findings left little choice but to head to a second trial.

“I believe justice requires that a new jury hear the case, which was the position I took with the appellate court,” she said.

Lehmberg said the charge Henderson will face will be determined after a review of court records, evidence and the new testimony from Wisser’s hearings. If the charge is capital murder, an additional determination will be made on whether to seek the death penalty, Lehmberg said.

In the meantime, Henderson will remain in custody under her original capital murder indictment and at a future date will be transferred to Travis County Jail to await her new trial.

Henderson case timeline

Jan. 21, 1994: Cathy Lynn Henderson flees after 3-month-old Brandon Baugh dies in her Pflugerville-area home.

Feb. 1, 1994: Henderson is arrested in Independence, Mo.

Feb. 8, 1994: Investigators find the infant’s body buried in a Bell County oat field.

May 17, 1995: Henderson is found guilty of capital murder.

June 11, 2007: An appeal halts Henderson’s June 13 execution and returns her case to Travis County.

May 14, 2012: Travis County judge recommends that Henderson’s conviction be overturned.

Dec. 5, 2012: Court of Criminal Appeals orders a new trial.

What’s next?
Henderson will be transferred from death row to Travis County Jail, where she will await a new trial.
Travis County prosecutors will determine what charge to seek and, if it’s capital murder, whether to seek the death penalty.

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Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994. Empty Former Death Row Inmate Cathy Lynn Henderson Back In Court

Post by NiteSpinR Thu May 30, 2013 3:02 am

Feb. 7, 2013

Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994. Adyc-h10

A defense team has been assembled and attorneys are ready to begin the discovery process for a new trial in the case of Cathy Lynn Henderson, a former babysitter once on death row for the 1994 death of an infant.

Henderson, now 56, appeared with her attorneys in a routine hearing Thursday before before District Court Judge Karen Sage.

She spent nearly two decades incarcerated for the death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh before a sharply divided Court of Criminal Appeals overturned her capital murder conviction and sentence in December.

The court upheld a recommendation by District Judge Jon Wisser that she have a new trial based on new scientific discoveries into the nature of head injuries.

“Testimony of the state’s chief experts was, at bottom, scientifically flawed,” Wisser wrote in findings dated May 14 and delivered to the appeals court last year.

After the Thursday’s hearing, Eryn and Melissa Baugh said it has been a confusing and frustrating journey through the legal system, though they are confident in Travis County district prosecutors in the upcoming retrial. Friday will be the 19th-year anniversary of when their son was found.

They feel they are back at square one, the couple said.

“It has been a living hell,” Eryn Baugh said of the process. “Now the wounds are back open again.”

Henderson claimed that Baugh died after slipping from her arms and falling about four feet to the concrete floor in her home in the Pflugerville area. She said she panicked, burying the boy’s body in a Bell County field before fleeing to Missouri, where she was found and arrested 11 days later.

The search for the boy’s body and hunt for Henderson dominated headlines in February 1994.

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg has said the new charge Henderson will face will be determined after a review of court records, evidence and the new testimony from Wisser’s hearings. If the charge is capital murder, an additional determination will be made on whether to seek the death penalty, Lehmberg has said.

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Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994. Empty Death Penalty Ruled Out For Henderson's Retrial

Post by NiteSpinR Mon Oct 14, 2013 10:56 pm

September 9, 2013

Travis County prosecutors will not seek the death penalty when Cathy Lynn Henderson is retried for the 1994 death of an infant she was babysitting.

Henderson, who was once two days from execution for the death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh, will be tried for capital murder and faces a potential sentence of life in prison, District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said Monday.

“I just think it’s best considering the evidence we have,” Lehmberg said. “Considering what the jury will be hearing, I think that’s the wisest decision.”

Henderson was granted a new trial last December by a sharply divided Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled that scientific advances raised doubts about testimony from prosecution experts about Brandon’s cause of death.

In the time since the ruling, Travis County prosecutors reviewed the original trial, the appeals court ruling, new evidence presented by Henderson’s legal team and other information to help determine what charge Henderson would face.

Lehmberg said she made her decision in recent days. “We will pursue capital murder but not pursue the death penalty in this second trial,” she said Monday.

Henderson, now 56, had claimed that Brandon died after slipping from her arms and falling about 4 feet to the tile-on-concrete floor of her kitchen. She said she panicked and buried the boy’s body in a Bell County field before fleeing to Missouri, where she was found and arrested 11 days later.

At Henderson’s 1995 trial, then-medical examiner Roberto Bayardo testified that it was “impossible” to attribute the boy’s extensive head injury to an accidental fall. The only explanation, he said, was a deliberate and forceful blow struck by Henderson, adding that Brandon would have had to fall from “higher than a two-story building” to sustain a similar injury.

But Bayardo recanted in an affidavit included in Henderson’s 2007 appeal, saying advancements in the understanding of pediatric head injuries indicate that relatively short falls onto a hard surface could produce injuries similar to those he discovered during Brandon’s 1994 autopsy.

Henderson was two days from a June 13, 2007, execution date when the Court of Criminal Appeals halted proceedings — directing Travis County District Judge Jon Wisser, who had presided over her trial, to examine Henderson’s claims linked to biomechanics, an emerging science that measures the effect of force on the human body.

Wisser recommended that Henderson receive a new trial, finding that jurors would have been unlikely to convict Henderson had they known about new scientific discoveries into head trauma, including studies showing that falls of less than 4 feet can be lethal, producing complex skull fractures similar to what Brandon Baugh suffered.

In a 5-4 decision last December, the Court of Criminal Appeals agreed, ruling that “this … is a case that should be retried to ensure the accuracy of our verdicts and the integrity of our system.”

Prosecutors have not revealed when they expect her new trial to begin.

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Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994. Empty Re: Death Row Woman Could Get New Trial Over 'Dropped Baby' Evidence/Texas Judge Jon Wisser has submitted a formal recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to toss the conviction of Cathy Lee Henderson for the murder of 3-month-old boy in 1994.

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