: "Munchausen" Mom
Jailed for Life, Innocent since 1982, Doctor
Tells Governor
Roanoke, VA 24014
July 1, 2003
The senior doctor
among many hoping to detour around a
deliberately tardy Lewisburg court, Dr.
Joseph Aldrich now of Arkansas wrote
forcefully to West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise
urging him to free an innocent mother
incarcerated for life without mercy.
Pediatrician for both now deceased children,
Dr. Aldrich joins others in expressing
concern at the local court's ignoring pre-
and post-trial evidence of Marybeth Davis's
actual innocence in the death of her
daughter, 3, in 1982 and injury of her baby
son the year before.
Citizens to Free Marybeth Davis, a group of
doctors amazed and outraged at the mother's
continuing imprisonment, first wrote to Gov.
Wise in Feb. 2002, receiving a response 15
months later after its second letter
requesting exoneration. The group's
insistence is based on medical documentation
since 1981-82, much of it withheld and still
more found only after a wrongful conviction
in August 1997.
Born with obvious problems, eventually found
based in genetic error, little Seth clearly
needed expert help and was airlifted from
West Virginia to Children's Hospital in
Pittsburgh. Discovered only recently was his
devastating loss of oxygen because his
endotracheal tube slipped during air
transport. Dr. Aldrich mentioned that major
event to Gov. Wise and stressed Seth's brain
damage was not caused by the insulin
injection claimed to have been given by his
mother but never was.
"We (the doctor-medical specialists group)
submitted this Application for Exoneration
to you on behalf of Mrs. Davis...because the
court has refused to acknowledge/accept
proof refuting any wrongdoing on (her)
part," the doctor, now practicing in Fort
Smith, Ark., wrote.
He repeated what was known and accepted now
into a third decade ago:
"I advised the prosecuting attorney of my
diagnoses and impressions prior to the trial
(summer 1997 in Lewisburg, W. Va.) however
he proceeded, relating there was 'new
evidence.' There was no new evidence. The
facts were the same as those reviewed and
discussed with the original prosecuting
attorney in office in 1982 who saw no reason
to proceed.
"The trial was in a hostile environment due
to misunderstanding, complexity, and
inappropriate information 'leaked' to the
public. Again, proof has been submitted
exonerating Mrs. Davis, but it has been
stonewalled and she remains in jail," Dr.
Aldrich recounts.
For 10 months prior to a trial six
newspapers repeated stories from the then
prosecuting attorney, now State Sen. Mark
Burnette who touted the Davis conviction in
his campaigns. He spoke emotionally about
the scientifically baseless motivation
theory called "Munchausen Syndrome by
Proxy." It was conceived a quarter-century
ago by currently discredited retired British
pediatrician Roy Meadow. His testimony in
two recent high profile trials in UK is
being ridiculed, at least six imprisoned
mothers may have their cases reviewed, and
every case using MSP (by any variant name)
worldwide will ultimately require
reconsideration as well.
Dr. Aldrich indicated to Gov. Wise the long
accepted reality that the Davis children
shared an inherited genetic predisposition
causing Tegan's death from diagnosed (and
often reconfirmed) Reye's Syndrome. The
slipped tube is the apparent cause of baby
Seth's most severe brain injury. Had the
Pittsburgh Hospital read its lab result
showing human growth hormone (HGH)
deficiency while he was there, rather than
years later before his mother's trial, and
properly treated him, his life would have
been different and better.
"There are 16 doctors listed (by Citizens to
Free Marybeth Davis in Nov. 2002) who have
told the courts that no crimes were
committed in the Davis Case; and, there are
more. It is not believeable that the courts
are unaware of these doctors and the obvious
fact that the Davis case has no crimes,"
notes group website information naming
doctors and their specific findings.
After noting that he had forwarded a letter
asking West Virginia's Chief Medical
Examiner to review medical facts of the
Davis case, Dr. Aldrich concluded his
reaction to Gov. Wise's belated response of
May 29:
"The suggestion of waiting until 2012 to
proceed with any action is not right nor
just since there was no crime committed
other than having children with inborn
weakness. Once again I beg you to do
everything in your power to help secure the
release of this innocent woman Marybeth
Davis."
Seth Davis died in October 2002. His autopsy
report has been requested dozens of times.
The latest promise is that it will be in the
mail to Paul Detch's law office on Monday at
the latest.
Barbara Bryan
Contact: Paul Detch in Lewisburg, W. Va.,
Davis attorney from the original agreement
that there was no case to prosecute in 1982.
Also:
http://www.freemarybethdavis.homestead.com
Barbara Bryan
(BHBryan@aol.com)
Communications Director
National Child Abuse Defense & Resource
Center
P.O. Box 8323
Roanoke, VA 24014
Phone : 540-345-1952
Fax : 540-345-1899
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