Opinion: McCabe's ethical resolve

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe should be commended for ordering a review of autopsy evidence in a child abuse case that had sent a man to prison. As it turned out, two medical experts did not support an earlier conclusion by then Medical Examiner Joan Wood that the infant died after being shaken by his father, John W. Peel. Given that new evidence, McCabe asked a judge to throw out the conviction and Peel walked free last month, after four years in prison.

"I wish we hadn't gotten to this point, but you deal with these as they come along and you do the right thing," McCabe said.

Indeed, McCabe did the right thing. And his actions should be an example for other prosecutors who, upon being presented with information that casts doubt on a defendant's guilt, refuse to admit that justice may not have been served in the case.

Peel, a teenage stock clerk at the time, described a tragic accident. He said he fell asleep with his infant son on his chest and that the baby rolled off onto a concrete floor. But after performing an autopsy, Wood said she observed hemorrhaging in the child's eyes, a sign of "shaken baby syndrome" and proof that it was a murder case. Faced with a life sentence and Wood's testimony, Peel entered a plea to a lesser charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he never changed his story.

Two years later, Wood's professional reputation was in tatters. The precipitating event was the medical examiner's surprise reversal of her own findings in a controversial case involving the death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. McCabe dropped charges in that case, as well. The events brought Wood's professional competence into question and led to her resignation.

Earlier this year, new medical examiner Jon Thogmartin was forced to stand in for Wood in a Pasco County murder case involving child abuse charges against David Long. Wood had ruled that Long's 7-year-old daughter, Rebecca, died of "blunt traumatic head and neck injuries." After reviewing Wood's work, Thogmartin questioned that conclusion and called in Dr. Stephen Nelson, an expert in such injuries, to review the evidence. Not only did Nelson find that Rebecca had suffered no significant head injuries, but he also determined that the girl had actually died of bronchial pneumonia.

McCabe dropped the murder charge against Long, and because of the questions raised about Wood's work in complex child-abuse autopsies, he ordered a review of the Peel case. That led to Peel's release from prison.

Wood has been uncommunicative, almost reclusive, since she left her medical examiner's post. No one can say for sure why her forensic work and administration of the office had slipped so badly, but her resignation came too late. One man suffered four years of unjust imprisonment and another the threat of a murder charge because of Wood's seriously flawed judgment, and for that she cannot be excused.

McCabe said he knows of no other case in which questionable autopsy evidence exists from Wood's tenure. If it did, he said, he would review it as has done in the Long and Peel cases. Pinellas and Pasco residents should thank McCabe for his ethical resolve.

Back to Opinion

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

From the Times
Opinion page