Paul, Weiss Co-counsels With Wisconsin Innocence Project on High-Profile Matter

Paul, Weiss and co-counsel the Wisconsin Innocence Project are seeking a new trial for a woman convicted in the 2007 death of a child at her home daycare after a key witness changed his testimony.

Our client was charged with first-degree reckless homicide after a four-month-old child under her care became unresponsive and died after being taken to the hospital. At trial in the case, which attracted intensive media attention, the state never articulated any theory of how any alleged abuse occurred or presented any clear evidence of abuse. But in February 2019, as reported by The Associated Press, U.S. News & World Report and other media, our client filed a motion to overturn her conviction and order a new trial after the prosecution’s lead medical examiner recanted his original testimony that the child’s cause of death was abuse.

The court granted our client an evidentiary hearing, giving her the opportunity to show whether new evidence existed that could be reasonably expected to change a jury verdict in the case, and whether she received ineffective assistance from her prior counsel. In a seven-day hearing drawing media attention, 11 witnesses testified, including three forensic pathologists, two child abuse pediatricians, a pediatric radiologist, a pediatric neuroradiologist, a police detective and three lawyers. Post-trial briefing is still being completed.

The Paul, Weiss team included litigation partner Craig Benson, counsel Michelle Parikh and associates Sarah Ripa, Katherine Stewart, Alessandra Baniel-Stark, David Cole, Kirsten Dedrickson, Monique-Agnes Ladeji and Amanda Sterling, with critical support from associates Eliza Strong, Benjamin Gitlin, Sarah Joseph, Ryan Rizzuto, Rajdeep Dhaliwal, Saurabh Gupta, Akila Bhagarva and Crystal Johnson Geise.