Burned by ‘Bad Science’ A Doctor’s Questionable Opinion Can Help Send Caregivers to Prison
A prosecutor projected a grisly photo onto a screen for the jury. It showed a little girl’s feet, burned up to her ankles and covered in blisters. The 2-year-old had climbed into a bathtub when nobody was looking, her grandparents had said, and the hot water must have been set too high.
In the Texas courthouse 100 miles east of Dallas that day in September 2012, the prosecutor turned to his expert witness and asked whether he believed the child’s injuries could have been the result of an accident.
