Medical and legal experts often disagree on how to determine the cause of a child’s unexpected death. One result is that parents sometimes are wrongly accused of murder and sent to prison. No place has uncovered a bigger problem — or dealt with it more directly — than Ontario, Canada.

The dispute over shaken baby syndrome is a bitter civil war. On one side, doctors, lawyers and other experts say the diagnosis is key to winning convictions of people accused of the most horrible acts of child abuse. Opponents say the diagnosis is used too freely and that sometimes, innocent people go to prison.

Journalist Pamela Colloff uncovers the human cost of the Shaken Baby Syndrome diagnosis in one family who did everything right. “These are parents who did everything they were supposed to do. They were very intentional about when they started a family and how. They built a home in a good school district. They built a beautiful life for their kids with extended family all around them. When the baby became ill, there was immediate emergency attention sought for him. And so it’s hard to know what any parent could have done differently than what Nick and Felecia did in this case.”

We analyzed nearly two dozen cases in the United States and Canada in which people have been accused of killing children based on flawed or biased work by forensic pathologists, and then later cleared. Some spent years in prison before courts overturned their convictions.

Shaken baby syndrome is a hypothesis that has been around for decades, rooted in the mechanics of whiplash. Medical academics, law enforcement, and prosecutors agree that violently shaking a baby is a form of child abuse. But Audrey Edmunds, a pregnant mother running a daycare out of her home, was wrongfully convicted of shaking a child who died in her care. She served 11 years in prison. Doctors advocated for her release after studies undermined what was known about the “tell-tale” signs of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Melissa Bright thinks she’s living every parent’s worst nightmare when her five-month-old baby tumbles from a lawn chair and hits his head on the driveway. But after she rushes him to the hospital, a new nightmare begins. The Brights are thrust into a medical and legal system so focused on protecting children from abuse, it has targeted innocent parents. With exclusive audio captured as the events unfolded, this harrowing six-episode series takes you inside the Brights’ fight to hold their family together, against a system that can sometimes do more harm than good. Hosted by NBC News National Investigative Reporter Mike Hixenbaugh, Do No Harm is a co-production of NBC News and Wondery.

Originally released as a subscriber-only episode in 2019, this is now available free with a signup. Hosts discuss a movement that has put thousands of innocent people in prison. Brought to you by the makers of the Satanic Panic.

Sarah is a journalist obsessed with the past. Every week she reconsiders an event, person or phenomenon that’s been miscast in the public imagination. In this episode, Mike tells Sarah how an over-simplified diagnosis, over-confident doctors and over-zealous prosecutors combined to get thousands of innocent parents thrown in prison. Digressions include food poisoning, Sherlock Holmes and 1950s medical ethics. Mike wanted to mention Louise Woodward but he forgot.

In the final episode of the season, Josh Dubin explores Shaken Baby Syndrome with Kate Judson, Executive Director for the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences. Shaken Baby Syndrome isn’t a foolproof diagnosis. There are in fact many other causes for the symptoms of Shaken Baby Syndrome that do not arise from intentionally shaking a baby at all.

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) has been the subject of countless news specials, TV drama plots, and shocking tabloid headlines––horrific tales of child abuse, quickly met with the firm justice of the state. But in recent years, medical and legal experts have begun pushing back against the conventional wisdom surrounding SBS, questioning its fundamental scientific basis. Appeal staff writer Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg talks about efforts to re-examine many the assumptions about how our legal system treats SBS cases, with a particular focus on the case of Michelle Heale in New Jersey.