Charles Smith, the now-disgraced pathologist whose testimony helped jail innocent parents for the deaths of their children, once provided evidence in an Ohio death penalty case.
The inquiry probing Smith's mistakes began to hear about the Ohio case Friday. But the inquiry commissioner, Stephen Goudge, decided that the case fell outside the scope of his inquiry and cut off further exploration into the case.
Still, documents about the case were released by the inquiry.
The 2000 trial involved an Ohio father convicted of raping and killing his three-year-old daughter. The trial ended in a death sentence for the father, Christopher Fuller. That sentence was later reduced to life in prison.
Lawyer Louis Sokolov, of the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted, said considering Smith's "failings as a pathologist and as a witness,'' having a jury decide a death penalty case based in part on Smith's evidence was, "to say the least, disquieting.''
"The evidence regarding Dr. Smith in this inquiry is troubling enough,'' Sokolov said outside the inquiry. "When you add the spectre of death penalty on top of it, it adds a different dimension.''
One of the documents released is a September 2000 letter to Smith from John Holcomb, the assistant prosecuting attorney in the case.
"I, along with my colleagues, found your work in this case to be truly outstanding,'' reads the letter.
"I can well imagine that pediatric forensic pathology must rank among the most unpleasant fields of medicine in which to practice, but society is indeed fortunate that a man of your calibre has chosen to do so.''
Fuller later appealed his conviction, but the appeal court rejected his appeal, noting, in part, Smith's testimony.
The court decision cites Smith's testimony that the girl "had a urinary tract infection in the days or weeks before she died.'' It noted that "Smith stated that wasn't necessarily indicative of sexual contact because there are 'lots of different causes of urinary tract infection.' ''
Sokolov says Fuller's lawyers and the New York City-based The Innocence Project, have been informed about Smith's status and the current inquiry.
Smith's work in some 20 cases of suspicious child death is the focus of the inquiry into systemic failings of pediatric forensics in Ontario.
The inquiry is expected to conclude its work by the end of April.
