Judge denies post-conviction relief in Nashville shaken baby case

Russell Maze will remain in prison, where he has spent the past 25 years after a jury convicted him of abusing and ultimately killing his infant son, Alex.

On Thursday, Judge Steve Dozier issued an order denying the request to reopen his petition for post-conviction relief.

Learn about the background in the case in the player above.

The decision came a month after a two-day hearing in which the Tennessee Innocence Project and the Davidson County District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit — which had conducted an exhaustive study of the case — argued that Maze was not guilty of murder. Maze’s conviction rested on a diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome, and numerous medical experts testified that they believed this was incorrect, and that new scientific evidence both ruled out abuse and offered any number of possible alternative medical explanations for baby Alex’s death. A detective testified that a Vanderbilt doctor’s early diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome shaped their investigation to the point of excluding other possibilities.

On the first day of that hearing, Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk gave a short statement, saying that based on “clear and convincing evidence,” it was his “duty to ask the Court to vacate and dismiss the case.”

Judge Dozier disagreed with that characterization.

“The Court is unconvinced the ‘new scientific evidence’ presents substantially more than different opinions on extant proof,” Judge Dozier wrote in his decision. “The Court cannot conclude that Petitioner has established by clear and convincing evidence that ‘no jury would have convicted him in light of the new evidence’ presented at this post-conviction hearing.”

Russell’s wife and Alex’s mother, Kaye Maze, was also seeking to have her conviction vacated. Her petition was also dismissed.

Shortly after the decision was handed down, Funk told the Banner, “I stand by the investigation and conclusions of the Conviction Review Unit.”

After six exonerations, this marks the first time the CRU has been unsuccessful in getting a conviction vacated. The unit receives hundreds of applications but has only taken a select few to court.