An Ontario judge has given a man the chance to appeal a conviction in his infant son’s death in Belleville, which his lawyers say was the result of evidence from a now disgraced pathologist.
Doctor Charles Smith concluded Richard Brant’s son likely died in 1992 from being violently shaken, despite a pathologist who did the autopsy listing pneumonia and respiratory failure as causes of death.
Brant says his lawyer at the time explained Smith was considered `the king’ of his field and his opinions were virtually impossible to challenge, so he took a deal and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in 1995.
Lawyer James Lockyer, who is now handling Brant’s case, asked the Ontario Court of Appeal yesterday for a time extension to file an appeal and Justice Marc Rosenberg granted it.
