On October 30, 1997, British au pair Louise Woodward was found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen . She appealed, the conviction of second degree murder was reduced to one of involuntary manslaughter, and she was sentenced to time served and freed.

Many people in England and the United States followed the trial carefully. At first, many in England supported the young au pair and believed she didn't do it. In the United States, people were spilt on if she did or didn't do it. Many organizations supported Woodward in her cause. After she was found guilty, she broke down and cried in the courtroom.

When her sentence was reduced to 279 days (exactly the time she had already spent in prison), Assistant District Attorney Gerald Leone (who showed a lot of anger to Woodward and the overturned verdict), immediately called for an appeal in the state supreme court. Woodward would fight as well to have the manslaughter charge removed. In a 4-3 split decision the Supreme Court of Massachusetts confirmed the reduced conviction and sentence in June 1998, and Woodward returned to England.

When she left for England, demonstrators and reporters were waiting at the entrance of Boston's Logan Airport. Even one reporter asked her how it felt going home as a convicted felon. She was taken to a private area of the airport to wait for her flight, for which she had first class ticket. When the English press got a hold of that information, they turned on her. One headline even read "First Class Child Killer".

Woodward immediately gave a press conference when returning home. It was broadcast live in England and in Boston. She said that she would be giving an interview to the BBC for no money and wanted to return to her life. The interview was conducted by Martin Bashir (who also famously interviewed Michael Jackson) in a special edition of the flagship BBC show, Panorama. Many critics believed she was mimicking the style of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Nevertheless, she maintained her innocence in the interview.

Meanwhile in America, the parents of the late Matthew Eappen filed another lawsuit against her, this time in civil courts. Woodward had no plans to show up for the hearing because she did not have the money to go through with another lawsuit. The Eappens won the hearing easily.

After the fuss died down, Woodward attended a university in London. She received a law degree and passed her exams so she could practice law in England. She became a trainee solicitor working in Greater Manchester, England for the firm of North Ainley Halliwell. However, in March 2005 she left the law to become a dance teacher.

Many of us who witnessed the trial in Boston could see clearly that this was a political trial in which Ms. Woodward served as a scapegoat whose character was mercilessly assassinated in the print and electronic media. A sympathy verdict for the grieving parents became the jury's moral obligation. A careful review of the evidence by Dr. Ian Leestma of the University of Chicago, the foremost American expert on shaken baby syndrome and confirmation by several other leading sceintific sources established, beyond dispute, that the infant was neither shaken nor slammed. Several physicians who examined the child and the MRI scans did not testify. The state's medical examiner subsequently recanted his testimony. Though evidence was suppressed and the defense not permitted to examine the child's body, police perjury was caught on the 911 (emergency) tape recorded at the local police station. After the trial, several jury members expressed doubts about Ms. Woodward's guilt even though they had convicted her "beyond a reasonable doubt." The Nanny Trial, as we call it in the States, will likely, in time, become one of the great scandals and moments of shame in the history of American jurisprudence. For confirmation of these observations, review the many online discussions, especially those at Newton, Massachusetts' townonline forums as well as the wealth of print articles and TV reports from that period.

External Links

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/woodward/73117.stm - BBC News story on her release