The Syndrome

Filmmaker Meryl Goldsmith and national award-winning investigative reporter Susan Goldsmith document the unimaginable nightmare for those accused and focus on the men and women dedicating their lives to defending the prosecuted and freeing the convicted.

How did the myth of “SBS” begin and who are the shocking people behind it who have built careers and profited from the theory? Both are unflinchingly identified. Shaken baby proponents want to silence their critics even as countless lives are ruined.

THE STORY

A mother of three spent 11 years in prison for killing a baby she never harmed. That’s what happens when widely held beliefs based on junk science lead to the convictions of innocent people.

The explosive documentary The Syndrome follows the crusade of a group of doctors, scientists, and legal scholars who have uncovered that “Shaken Baby Syndrome,” a child abuse theory used in hundreds of U.S. prosecutions each year, is not scientifically valid. In fact, they say, it doesn’t exist.

THE CAST

Dr. John Plunkett is an anatomic, clinical, forensic pathologist and retired Minnesota state pathologist.

Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer, now at Northwestern Law, is a former Manhattan domestic violence prosecutor and author.

Dr. Patrick Barnes is a professor and Chief of Pediatric Neuroradiology at Stanford University Children’s Hospital and the founder of the hospital’s child abuse task force.

Dr. Ronald Uscinski is a world-renowned neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery at Georgetown University and George Washington University.