Pathologist Admits to Being Self-Taught
TORONTO (AP) — A pathologist whose expert witness testimony against people accused of killing children led to at least seven wrongful convictions said Monday that he taught himself pediatric forensics and was ignorant of the criminal justice system.
Dr. Charles Smith has a medical degree but admitted that he was self-taught in pediatric pathology, the field in which he was once considered a leader in Canada. Smith testified at an inquiry that his lack of formal training contributed to mistakes over two decades of performing autopsies in cases of suspicious child deaths.
Those mistakes included conclusions that several children were homicide victims when later investigations determined they had died of other causes.
"(My training) was self-taught, it was minimal, and retrospectively I realize it was woefully inadequate," he said.
Smith also testified that he was "profoundly ignorant" of the criminal justice system in which he worked and of the role played by expert witnesses, despite providing expert testimony in numerous criminal cases.
Ontario's provincial government ordered the probe after an investigation of 45 child deaths involving autopsies or expert testimony from Smith found the pathologist made questionable findings in 20 cases dating back to 1991. Of those, 12 led to convictions, and at least seven have since been thrown out by courts.
As his lawyer took him case-by-case through his questionable conclusions, Smith admitted errors but also defended those findings as being consistent with medical knowledge at the time.
He said that the review has led him to "appreciate mistakes that I made and I am sorry for them. I do recognize that at times, my conduct was not professional, and I deeply regret that."
"I did give an opinion and I testified in the court and therefore I believe I contributed to a miscarriage of justice," Smith said. "I'm sorry and I do apologize."
Smith's testimony is expected to last the week.
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