The Greece woman who was released from prison after her conviction in a shaken baby case was overturned will be put on trial again.
The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office says it will retry Rene Bailey, who was found guilty of second degree murder in 2001 after a two-and-a-half-year-old girl died in her home day care. Bailey’s lawyer has already filed a motion to dismiss due to lack of evidence. She’ll be in court April 11th.
A judge overturned Bailey’s conviction nearly two years ago. In 2001, prosecutors argued that Bailey must have shaken or thrown the child hard enough to cause a fatal brain injury. But scientific opinion about “shaken baby” injury has changed since then.
County Court Judge James Piampiano ruled that there had been a “compelling shift” tending to support the defense theory that the child was injured in an accidental fall. He overturned the conviction, and an appeals court agreed last fall that Bailey would likely have been acquitted had she been tried today.
By putting Bailey on trial a second time, District Attorney Sandra Doorley is testing those rulings. Her office says the new trial will begin September 5th.