Elaine Whitfield Sharp has gained a nation-wide reputation for providing the best and most knowledgeable representation for parents and care-providers wrongly accused of child abuse. Working closely with nationally-known experts, she investigated and developed the medical and scientific defense of Louise Woodward in the “Boston Nanny” case. Ms. Woodward, who was facing life in prison, was released after serving 279 days in jail because the trial judge understood and accepted the defense of which Elaine Sharp was the architect for trial.
When your case is at the intersection of science and the criminal law, there can be no better with whom to navigate the intersection than Boston-area attorney Elaine Whitfield Sharp. Elaine has a way of placing the record under the a microscope and finding meaningful ways to disassemble the junk science and assumptions that so often underlie the government’s case. Elaine’s personal and professional credibility with many of the nation’s top experts open avenues that are otherwise difficult to open. Elaine has a personal policy of not taking a case to trial unless she believes the client is innocent. The experts, many of whom are physicians who have taken the Hippocratic Oath, know of Elaine’s position. In my case, we began with a charge of first-degree murder arising out of an alleged shaken baby. A host of physicians testified that the baby was violently shaken and my client’s confession confirmed … Continue reading
Wrongful Death
Sex Crimes
Junk science lurks in child abuse cases of every variety, whether they are alleged sexual molestation, or other physical and mental abuse cases. Parts I and II of this series covered the scientific flaws of a specific area of child abuse: so-called “shaken baby syndrome” (SBS) cases, and the scientific flaws in short falls cases. This article will cover some of the ways to characterize and challenge those flaws in a pretrial Daubert or Frye motion using the rules of evidence governing the admissibility of scientific evidence. (If you do not have a SBS case, you may still find the section on scientific evidence rules helpful because it applies not only to cases of alleged SBS, but to all scientific evidentiary issues in all civil or criminal cases.) To the extent that the judge agrees to exclude testimony that is not based on reliable science, testimony that is not based on the correct application of reliable science to a case, … Continue reading
Assault
Murder
I was in the middle of a murder trial when I got the feeling that something the medical examiner had testified about a bullet wound just wasn’t right. I called Elaine about it that evening, and she reviewed the autopsy report with me and helped me find the one measurement in the report that proved the untruthfulness of the State’s fact witnesses. Thanks to Elaine, we knew that the complainant hadn’t died the way the State said he had and that there was forensic proof that showed the client acted in self defense. Mark Bennett, Bennett & Bennett Houston, Texas