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Charles Randal Smith is a former
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pathologist known for performing flawed child autopsies that resulted in wrongful convictions. As the head
forensic pathologist Forensic pathology is pathology that focuses on determining the cause of death by examining a corpse. A post mortem examination is performed by a medical examiner or forensic pathologist, usually during the investigation of criminal law cases an ...
at the Hospital for Sick Children in
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,
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, from 1982 to 2003, Smith performed more than 1,000 child autopsies. In 2002, Smith was reprimanded with a caution by the
Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) is the regulatory college for medical doctors in Ontario, Canada. The college issues certificates of registration for all doctors to allow them to practise medicine as well as: monitors ...
for his work on three suspicious-death cases, and in 2003 he was removed from performing autopsies. In June 2005, the chief coroner of Ontario ordered a review of 44 autopsies carried out by Smith, thirteen of which had resulted in criminal charges and convictions. The review was released in April 2007, indicating that there were substantial problems with 20 of the autopsies. In response to the review, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant immediately announced that there would be a full public inquiry into the state of
pediatric Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...
forensic pathology in Ontario. The Goudge Inquiry began hearing evidence on November 12, 2007. The following year the inquiry found there to be fundamental errors made on the part of Smith. It concluded that Smith had "actively misled" superiors and made "false and misleading" statements in court. Many of the cases in which he had testified were re-examined and appealed. Smith proclaimed that he had "a thing against people who hurt children", while critics said that "he was on a
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and acted more like a
prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
" than a pathologist.


Early life and career

Smith was born in a Toronto Salvation Army Hospital in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
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, and put up for adoption three months later. He spent years looking for his biological mother and called her on her 65th birthday though she refused to take his call. His adoptive father was in the
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and lived in numerous places in Canada and Germany. Smith attended high school in Ottawa. Smith graduated from the
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in
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,
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, Canada in 1975. He completed his training in
Pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
and was certified as an anatomical pathologist in 1980. He joined the Hospital for Sick Children in 1981 as one of the rotating team of pathologists, and shortly was doing autopsies on children who had met sudden or suspicious deaths. In 1992, the Ontario
Coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
's Office created a
pediatric Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...
forensic pathology unit at Hospital for Sick Children and Smith was appointed director. He had become almost solely responsible for investigating suspicious child deaths in Ontario. In this period he conducted hundreds of autopsies and testified in court multiple times. He conducted training sessions for lawyers on how to examine and cross-examine expert witnesses, and training for law-enforcement and medical staff on detecting
child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...
. While at Sick Children's Hospital, Smith lived on a farm in Newmarket.


Notable cases


Maureen Laidley

Maureen Laidley was charged with killing Tyrell Salmon, the three-year-old son of her boyfriend, after the child died in 1998. Laidley said the boy had jumped off the couch, slipped, and struck his head on a marble coffee table, but she was arrested after Smith told police that such injuries could not result in death. The charge was abruptly stayed when outside experts testified that the injuries were fully consistent with Laidley's account.


William Mullins-Johnson

William Mullins-Johnson of
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was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his niece, Valin Johnson, after a two-and-a-half week trial in September 1994. He was convicted after a jury trial in which Smith's evidence played a major role in determining the time of death, the cause of death and whether the girl had been sexually assaulted. Mullins-Johnson had babysat Valin, 4, and her 3-year-old brother on the evening of June 26, 1993. When the girl's mother returned home, she did not check on her daughter. At 7 a.m. the next day she found Valin dead in bed. A local pathologist performed an autopsy on Valin. Then "consultation reports" were sought from Smith and four other specialists, based on tissue samples and other evidence from the autopsy. Smith was the only consultant to conclude Valin was sexually assaulted at the time of death. That contradicted the defence's point that Valin, who had a history of vomiting in bed, might have died of natural causes. The jury convicted, which the
Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode H ...
upheld in 1996. The
Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...
dismissed a further appeal in 1998. Attempts were made to clear his name based on available
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
technology, but the tissue could not be located by Smith, who was given the evidence by the pathologist who did the autopsy, until 2005, 11 years after the trial, when the missing tissue samples turned up in Smith's office. William Mullins-Johnson was released on bail in 2005, pending review of his case. On July 16, 2007, a report by three expert pathologists (a report written unbeknownst to the lawyers working on his behalf) determined there was no evidence that the girl was sexually assaulted, and the Ontario
Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
Michael Bryant, said that William Mullins-Johnson's conviction "cannot stand" and that he should be acquitted by the appeals court. On October 15, 2007 he was acquitted by the Ontario Court of Appeal. In 2010, five years after he filed a $13 million lawsuit, he received $4.25 million in a compensation settlement from the government of Ontario.


Sherry Sherret

On the morning of January 23, 1996, Sherry Sherret found her four-month-old son Joshua lying in his bed not breathing. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Three and a half years later she was given the option to accept a plea of infanticide. She was convicted of infanticide without offering a defence (but offering no admission of guilt) in a plea (the delay was primarily attributable to Smith not wanting to testify). Sherret was jailed on the basis of Smith's opinion that her four-month-old son Joshua had a skull fracture, and that he had been smothered. She was released on
bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...
in 1996 and remained on bail until the conviction. Sherret's sentence was 1 year in jail and 2 years probation. Sherret served eight months in total. Her older child was removed by Children's Aid, and in order to get him out of foster care, she agreed to give him up for adoption and have no physical contact with him until he was 18. Later exhumation of the child and examination of the skull have shown that there was no skull fracture. It is thought Dr. Smith confused the normal gap between the baby's skull plates for an injury. On December 7, 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal exonerated Sherret, stating that it was "profoundly regrettable that due to flaws in pathological evidence" she was wrongfully convicted.


Brenda Waudby

Brenda Waudby of Peterborough was charged with beating her 2-year-old daughter Jenna to death on January 22, 1997, on the basis of Smith's professional opinion as to what time the injuries were inflicted.


Anthony Kporwodu and Angela Veno

Anthony Kporwodu and Angela Veno were charged in 1997 with murdering their infant daughter. Smith took more than seven months to prepare his initial autopsy report. The charges were ultimately thrown out by a judge for violating the constitutional right to a timely trial.


Louise Reynolds

Louise Reynolds was a 28-year-old single mother living in
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, charged with second degree murder for having killed her seven-year-old daughter Sharon in 1997 by stabbing her more than 80 times with a pair of scissors. Much of the case rested on Dr. Smith's 10-page autopsy report. In January 2001 the Crown abruptly dropped the charges, after numerous experts, including Crown witnesses, disagreed with Smith and agreed that a powerful dog had mauled the girl (there was a
pit bull Pit bull is an umbrella term for several Dog type, types of dog believed to have descended from bull and terriers. In the United States, the term is usually considered to include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, A ...
present in the house at the time). By then, Reynolds had spent 22 months in custody. Louise Reynolds sued in March 2007. Despite the rules related to Crown immunity, the Court of Appeal ruled, in a ground-breaking decision, that the suit against Smith and other experts could go ahead: while court testimony is protected, faulty work is not.


Dinesh Kumar

Dinesh Kumar was a 26-year-old Punjabi immigrant to Canada who was charged with second degree murder in the 1992 death of his infant son. He pled guilty to
criminal negligence In criminal law, criminal negligence is an offence that involves a breach of an objective standard of behaviour expected of a defendant. It may be contrasted with strictly liable offences, which do not consider states of mind in determining c ...
causing death and was sentenced to ninety days in jail. He was acquitted by the Ontario Court of Appeal on January 20, 2011. His case was part of the review ordered of Dr. Smith's cases following the Goudge Inquiry.


Tammy Marquardt

Tammy Marquardt was convicted in Ontario in 1995 of killing her two-year-old son, who had epilepsy. Her conviction rested in large part upon testimony from Smith, who concluded the boy had been strangled or smothered. She was sentenced to life in prison, and her two other children were taken from her and put up for adoption. Marquardt's conviction was set aside on 10 February 2011 by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Prosecutors agreed her trial had been faulty because of Smith's unreliable testimony, but they would not say whether a retrial would be sought or not. On June 6, murder charges were withdrawn.


Maria Shepherd

Maria Shepherd pled guilty in 1992 to the 1991 death of her stepdaughter, Kasandra Shepherd. She was sentenced to two years less a day for manslaughter. In May 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed her to appeal her initial conviction. In February 2016, the Crown agreed her guilty plea and conviction should be struck and an acquittal should be entered in its place.


Life and career after SickKids

Around the time that his pathology work at Sick Children's received heavy scrutiny, Smith's marriage collapsed. Smith resigned from Sick Children's Hospital in July 2005, to take up a position at Saskatoon City Hospital in Saskatchewan. However, he failed to mention to his new employers that he was under investigation for misconduct in Ontario; in December 2005 he was dismissed. Smith successfully appealed, but was not reinstated because he was not licensed to practise in Saskatchewan. He pled guilty to a charge of unprofessional conduct for his failure to disclose he was under investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan. On February 1, 2011, Smith was stripped of his licence during a hearing by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario examining "disgraceful conduct". In 2017 multiple attempts to locate and contact Smith by the
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failed and it was unknown where he lived.


Legacy

Justice Goudge's report, released on October 1, 2008 concluded that there were serious problems with the way suspicious deaths involving children are handled in Ontario. He pointed to the problems that had been found with the 20 or so problematic cases that Charles Smith had handled as evidence of serious problems in the Ontario system. Also in 2008, the chief forensic pathologist for Ontario began a public inquiry into 220 cases of shaken baby syndrome to determine if anyone was wrongfully convicted in the babies' deaths. Individuals that were wrongly accused by Smith were entitled up to $250,000 as a "recognition payment".


See also

*
List of miscarriage of justice cases This is a list of miscarriage of justice cases. This list includes cases where a convicted individual was later cleared of the crime and either has received an official exoneration, or a consensus exists that the individual was unjustly punished ...


References


External links


Background biography''Injustice Busters'' coverage


Report and inquiry


Goudge Inquiry

The Charles Smith Blog by Harold Levy
a retired TorStar reporter writing a book on Smith
Coroner's report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Charles Living people Canadian evangelicals Canadian pathologists Forensic pathologists Members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Scientists from Toronto University of Saskatchewan alumni University of Toronto alumni Year of birth missing (living people)