"A disputed diagnosis imprisons parents"

"Doctors for the prosecution said Trevor had been a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome, a 40-year-old medical diagnosis long defined by three internal conditions: swelling of the brain, bleeding on the surface of the brain and bleeding in the back of the eyes. The diagnosis gave a generation of doctors a way to account for unexplained head injuries in babies and prosecutors a stronger case for criminal intent when police had no witnesses, no confessions and only circumstantial evidence.

It has also led to more than a decade of fierce debate: Testing has been unable to show whether violent shaking can produce the bleeding and swelling long attributed to the diagnosis, and doctors have found that accidents and diseases can trigger identical conditions in babies.

Challenges to the diagnosis have spilled into courts on two continents...
“You can’t necessarily prove [Shaken Baby Syndrome] one way or another — sort of like politics or religion,” said forensic pathologist Gregory G. Davis, the chief medical examiner in Birmingham, Ala., and the board chairman of the National Association of Medical Examiners. “Neither side can point to compelling evidence and say, ‘We’re right and the other side is wrong.’ So instead, it goes to trial.”"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/shaken-baby-syndrome/