Background
Five days after being admitted to Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, Matthew Eappen fell into a coma, and died on February 9, 1997 from a fractured skull and subdural hematoma. He was also found to have a fractured wrist, an unnoticed and unexplained injury from a month earlier. Dr. Lois E.H. Smith, M.D., Ph.D., an ophthalmologist at the hospital, observed retinal hemorrhages judged characteristic of shaken-baby syndrome.
In a statement to the police, Woodward said that she "popped the baby on the bed". There was a dispute in her case over the use of the word popped: in British English, this phrase means "put" or "placed", and Woodward claimed she was saying that she "placed the baby on the bed". However, in American English, popped suggests violence. Her defense lawyers argued to the jury that the word popped does not have the same meaning as in American English. However, in addition to "popping" Matthew on the bed, Woodward also told the police that she had dropped him on the floor at one point, and that she had been "a little rough" with him. The police officer who interviewed her immediately after the incident adamantly insists that she never used the word popped, but in fact said that she "dropped" the baby on the bed.
Media coverage of the case was intense, nowhere more so than in Britain. Before the trial, the defense tried to move the trial to another city, arguing that a local jury would be too biased to render a fair verdict. The judge disagreed and denied the defense motion.
Read more about this topic: Louise Woodward Case
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