People v. Herlihy

By Lois Herlihy

There is nothing as painful as a mother going through the same thing as her child. It does not matter how old that child maybe. Brian is our only son and what he feels we feel. When they are accused and convicted of a crime they did not commit, the Mom goes to prison as well. Since August 2, 2000, we have been living this nightmare. We spent $165,000 on this case and he was convicted of "culpable negligence manslaughter" Currently, his case is in " first level of appeal based on trial errors" We had no choice but to use a Florida 1st district court of appeals public defender to prepare this case since we are broke. I am afraid about using a P.D. I contacted every local attorney here in the Fort Lauderdale and Miami area. Including Roy Black, Janet Reno, Wrongfully convicted and project innocence at both Nova Southeastern and the University of Miami but to no avail. I contacted all the Jesuit Law schools requesting help again no luck and I even contacted our catholic church for assistance. This has taken a toll on our family physically, emotionally, medically and financially and I really see no end in sight.

My husband and I never met Robbie, did not even know about him until the night we received that awful call. I sat though a trial that I feel would have resulted in a 1st degree murder conviction and life in prison if it had not been for John Plunkett M.D. and Ronald Uscinski M.D. After the trial we received the letter from Dr. Uscinski expressing his grief on what happened and his "Expert medical opinion" that he would have never testified on the case if he felt that Brian was guilty. This softens ones heart to know there are people who really want justice not "conviction stats " Will we ever be the same NO, what will become of our case due to lack of funds, I do not know. All I know is with the review of Dr. Ali-Bayati's report we now know for sure what happened. But until someone steps in and holds the DA's and the states responsible innocent people will suffer and babies will continue to die. Malpractice played a big part in what happened to Baby Robbie and cover up by the attendings made it worse. Sloppy medical work, and incompetence on the part of the medical examiner led to this conviction. Brian continues to suffer in a prison nine (9) hours away from us and I am in prison as well. My life stopped August 2, 2000 and contrary to what people may say. When you are a mother the umbilical cord is never cut it just continues to stretch.

Thank you for listening

 

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