The Ohio Innocence Project and OIP-u at Ohio University hosts a free screening of the documentary The Syndrome on Friday, April 1, at 5 p.m. in Schoonover 145.
A Q&A session with the filmmaker Susan Goldsmith and film subject Kathy Hyatt follows the screening.
This event is free and open to the public, refreshments are provided. Members of the legal community are encouraged to attend; the event has been approved for 1.0 hour General CLE Credit Ohio and 2.0 hour General CLE Credit Kentucky.
The Syndrome is a documentary focused on a group of doctors, scientists, and legal scholars who have uncovered that “Shaken Baby Syndrome,” a child abuse theory responsible for hundreds of prosecutions each year in the United States, is not scientifically valid. The “junk science” behind Shaken Baby Syndrome has led to the convictions of innocent people, including parents and child-care providers.
According to a recent year-long study by The Washington Post and Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project, there have been nearly 2,000 cases involving violent shaking since 2001. More than 200 of those cases ended when defendants were found not guilty, the charges were dropped or dismissed, or convictions were overturned.
The mission of OIP-u is to support the Ohio Innocence Project in its efforts to free the innocent and prevent wrongful conviction by educating the public about its causes and consequences. OIP-u provides a way for undergraduate and graduate students all over Ohio to come together fight for the freedom of the many innocent men and women incarcerated in this state.
OIP-u and the Ohio Innocence Project are screening The Syndrome at six universities across Ohio with OIP-u chapters: University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, University of Dayton, Ohio State University, John Carroll University, and Ohio University.
For questions about OIP-u at Ohio University, please contact Students for Law, Justice & Culture.
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