Charges Withdrawn In Child Death Case Involving Pathologist Dr. Charles Smith

Charges have been withdrawn in another child death case involving discredited Ontario pathologist Dr. Charles Smith.

A manslaughter charge was dropped Thursdday in an Oshawa, Ont., court against a woman known as C.M., who said she had no choice but to plead guilty at her original trial to killing her baby based on Smith’s faulty findings.

Ontario’s top court quashed her conviction in October and ordered a new trial.

C.M.’s lawyer has described her as a frightened young woman who didn’t know she was pregnant when she gave birth in the bathroom of her home in 1992.

C.M. maintained the baby was stillborn, but said it “seemed like the only thing to do was to plead guilty” due to Smith’s stellar reputation at the time as a pediatric forensic pathologist.

A judicial inquiry has since found Smith’s work was responsible, in part, for several people being wrongfully convicted of killing children and sent to prison.

C.M. said in her affidavit that she still struggles with her decision to plead guilty to a crime she didn’t commit.

Her plea at the original trial meant she was spared a jail sentence.

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