Junk Science Convicted Her. Will Mississippi Set Her Free?

The state of Mississippi no longer has much of a case against Tasha Shelby. Almost 25 years ago, Shelby was convicted of a murder that almost certainly never happened. Prosecutors said she had shaken to death Bryan Thompson IV, her fiance’s two-year-old son from a previous relationship.

But the case has since fallen apart. In 2015, the medical examiner who helped convict her recanted his testimony. Last year, a juror from her trial said he now believes Shelby is innocent. And the theory under which she was convicted—Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS)—has been largely debunked. Symptoms associated with SBS can be caused by, among other things, illnesses, injuries sustained during childbirth, and short-distance falls. 

To coincide with National Wrongful Convictions Day, Shelby’s legal team mailed an amended clemency petition to Gov. Tate Reeves and sent a copy to District Attorney Crosby Parker, Shelby’s attorney, Valena Beety, told The Appeal. Neither the governor nor prosector’s office responded to messages from The Appeal.

Beety says they last submitted a clemency petition in 2022 but did not receive an answer from the governor. Reeves has not yet granted any clemency petitions, but Shelby’s team hopes he’ll change course. 

Evidence of Shelby’s innocence is “overwhelming,” Beety said.

Shelby has always maintained that she heard a thump on the night of Thompson’s collapse and went to check on him. About two weeks earlier, Shelby, then 22, had given birth by emergency cesarean to a baby girl. She also had a three-year-old son, who was at a relative’s house for the night.

She found Thompson on the ground, seemingly having a seizure. She called her fiancé, who rushed home. They went to the hospital. But Thompson never regained consciousness. When the family arrived home later that night, Shelby says Child Protection Services was waiting for her. She says agents ripped her infant daughter from her arms.

After the state’s medical examiner, LeRoy Riddick, ruled the death a homicide, Shelby was arrested and convicted of capital murder. The jury opted for a life sentence over the death penalty. She’s been locked up ever since. 

“That is something that no one will ever be able to give back to me—those moments that I’ve lost as a mom,” Shelby told The Appeal in 2022.

In 2015, Riddick said he made a mistake. He said that he now believed Thompson had fallen and suffered a seizure and that the child’s asthma had also contributed to his death. At the time of his initial examination, he says he did not know that Thompson’s family had a history of seizures or that Thompson was scheduled to see a neurologist before he died.

In 2018, Riddick amended the manner of death on Thompson’s death certificate from homicide to accident. Riddick died in 2021.

Daniel Mullen, a juror in Shelby’s initial trial, also agrees that the crime never occurred. 

“I initially was of two jurors that voted for the death penalty, but I now believe Tasha Shelby is innocent,” Mullen said last year in a sworn statement provided to Shelby’s legal team. 

Mullen said Riddick was “the most influential witness of the trial,” and his testimony was “the biggest factor” in why he voted to convict Shelby. Had Riddick ruled the death an accident at the time of trial, Mullen said, “there would have been absolutely no way Tasha Shelby would have been found guilty.”

Courts have repeatedly rejected Shelby’s appeals. 

Her future now rests with Governor Tate Reeves, who can grant her clemency petition, and the Mississippi Second Circuit Court District Attorney’s Office, who Beety says can petition the court to have Shelby resentenced and released. 

Across the country, 34 people have been exonerated of Shaken Baby Syndrome, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Courts have exonerated people in 14 SBS cases in the past three years alone.

In Shelby’s petition, her legal team mapped out the life she can have on the outside and what she’s accomplished during her incarceration. According to her petition, she’s earned numerous certificates in cosmetology and business technology, mentored other prisoners, and is respected by her college professors and prison staff. If released, she plans to continue her education at Millsaps College on a full scholarship and live with her aunt and uncle. 

“Tasha has a passion for history and one day hopes to become a teacher or professor,” her legal team wrote. “She also hopes to become an advocate for other people in the criminal legal system who have faced the same plight as her.”