Georgia Supreme Court Orders New Trial for Father Convicted of Shaking Infant Son to Death

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA. — The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a Gwinnett County father imprisoned for more than two decades should receive a new trial in a case that once made national headlines — overturning his 2003 conviction for the death of his infant son.

Danyel Smith, 50, was sentenced to life in prison for the 2002 death of his two-month-old son, Chandler, after prosecutors claimed he violently shook the baby, causing fatal brain injuries. But Smith and his attorneys have long maintained his innocence, pointing to new medical evidence that challenges the original diagnosis of “shaken baby syndrome.”

Decades-Long Legal Battle for Justice

Smith’s case has been one of Georgia’s longest-running wrongful conviction challenges. Despite serving over 20 years behind bars, he refused a 2023 plea deal that would have immediately freed him in exchange for admitting guilt.

“He wasn’t going to admit to something he didn’t do,” said Mark Loudon-Brown, senior attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which represents Smith.

The Supreme Court’s decision vacated a September 2024 ruling by retired Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor, who had denied Smith’s motion for a new trial. The justices ordered the lower court to apply the correct legal framework when reconsidering Smith’s extraordinary motion for retrial.

New Evidence Points to Medical Misdiagnosis

In hearings last year, Smith’s defense team presented eight medical experts who testified that baby Chandler’s death was caused by complications from premature birth, not physical abuse.

“He was actually a very sick child from birth until two months old,” Loudon-Brown explained. “That all went overlooked at the time because the diagnostic approach was presumed abuse.”

Experts for the defense argued that advancements in pediatric neurology and forensic pathology over the past two decades now discredit the shaken baby diagnosis once commonly used in such cases.

However, Judge Batchelor’s 2024 order had dismissed those claims, writing that, “based on all the latest developments in medical knowledge, it is now more certain that the victim died from abusive head trauma than in 2002.”

The state’s high court disagreed, saying the trial court misapplied the law and failed to properly weigh the new scientific evidence.

Supreme Court Reverses ‘Clearly Erroneous’ Order

Smith’s legal team called the Supreme Court’s ruling a “major step toward justice.”

“We’re very grateful for the opinion and for the Supreme Court reversing this clearly erroneous lower court order,” Loudon-Brown said Thursday.

The justices’ decision means Smith’s case will now return to the Gwinnett County Superior Court, where a new judge must reconsider whether his conviction should stand in light of the evolving science surrounding infant head trauma.

A Case That Could Reshape Georgia’s Legal Precedent

Legal analysts say the case could have broader implications for how Georgia courts handle scientific testimony in old convictions — especially those based on medical theories that have since been disputed or discredited.

If a new trial is granted, it will mark a rare instance where modern medical science could overturn a conviction based on what defense lawyers now call “junk forensic assumptions.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling does not immediately free Smith, but it opens the door for his defense to present the case again under updated standards. It remains unclear when the next court hearing will be scheduled.

Residents can follow major Georgia court rulings and wrongful conviction updates at SaludaStandard-Sentinel.com.