California Shaken Baby Conviction Set Aside After 15 Years
SACRAMENTO (AP) — A California man is set to walk out of prison 15 years after receiving a life sentence for shaking his 4-month-old daughter to death.
A judge has set Zavion Johnson's second-degree murder conviction aside amid questions over the medical experts' testimony that convicted him.
Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles ruled Friday.
Prosecutors agreed that current medical science wouldn't support Johnson's conviction but are considering whether to seek a new trial.
Johnson, then 18, said he accidentally dropped his daughter and she struck her head in November 2001. He told authorities she initially seemed fine but later stopped breathing.
He was convicted after medical experts testified that the damage could only have come from violent shaking.
Those experts now say the pattern of injuries isn't so clear.
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