Friday, February 1, 2013

Bulletin: Li Hangbin: Convicted of manslaughter but acquitted on second-degree murder charge in death of his 2-year-old daughter: New York Times. (Breaking and up-dated stories).


STORY: "Guilty verdict in Queens shaken-baby trial," by reporter Corey Kilgannon, published by the New York Times on February  1, 2013.

GIST: "After spending five years on Rikers Island awaiting trial in the death of his 2-month-old daughter Annie, Li Hangbin, 28, was found guilty of manslaughter in State Supreme Court in Queens on Friday. It took a jury about a day to reach a verdict in the trial after three weeks of testimony that focused primarily on medical evidence concerning the girl’s death. Prosecutors said she died because she was shaken and slammed by Mr. Li in their apartment in Flushing, Queens. Mr. Li was acquitted of the more serious charge of second-degree murder. Mr. Li faces a maximum of 15 years in jail on the manslaughter conviction. Adamantly maintaining his innocence, Mr. Li declined several offers of plea agreements that would have ended his time in jail."
The entire story can be found at:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/nyregion/guilty-verdict-in-queens-shaken-baby-trial.html?_r=0 

UP-DATED STORY:  "Prosecutors dropped all charges against Ms. Li last month, and Mr. Li was also given several offers to plead guilty to lesser charges before trial, which would have ended his time in jail. But banking on exoneration, and refusing to admit any guilt, he rejected the offers — a decision that Mr. Ashley said he had to leave to Mr. Li. “As much as I would like to call that water under the bridge, it’s more like vintage Champagne under the bridge, and of course now it looks so tempting,” he said about the spurned plea offers. But Mr. Ashley called Friday’s verdict a victory because of the acquittal on the murder charge. “There’s clearly a victory in this case, in that he’s not facing 25 years to life, but it’s not a total victory,” he said. He called the jury’s acquittal on the murder charge an indication that they believed Mr. Li did not act violently toward the baby but perhaps “did not care for the baby to the level that he should have.” After the verdict was announced, Mr. Li was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom. Ms. Li, 27, left sobbing uncontrollably, steadied by supporters. Outside the courthouse, Ms. Li told a group of Chinese-language reporters, “My husband and I didn’t hurt my baby at all, and our daughter, watching us in heaven, knows this.”

The up-dated story can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/nyregion/guilty-verdict-in-queens-shaken-baby-trial.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.