Following
a jury trial in 2005, the defendant was convicted of first-degree child abuse
and was sentenced to 2 to 15 years in prison in a case alleging shaken baby
syndrome. The conviction was affirmed on
appeal, and the defendant was denied relief after filing a motion for relief
from judgment. The defendant pursued
habeas corpus relief in federal court, and the United States Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit held in 2016 that the defendant’s appellate counsel
performed deficiently on direct appeal by not requesting an evidentiary hearing
on the issue whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to retain an
expert witness. The federal district
court, on remand, ordered the Michigan Court of Appeals to grant the defendant
a new direct appeal of right. The case
went back to the trial court on a motion for new trial. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial
court denied the motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court in
an unpublished opinion. The Supreme Court has ordered oral argument
on the application to address whether the defendant was denied the
effective assistance of trial counsel due to counsel’s failure to seek funds
from the circuit court to hire an expert witness or to otherwise obtain and
present the testimony of an expert witness.