In 2003, two people were convicted in separate, unrelated murder trials in Franklin County for allegedly shaking a baby based on science that experts are increasingly questioning. Now, they’ve had back-to-back court wins.
On Monday, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Brown dismissed the case against 43-year-old Alan J. Butts at the request of county prosecuting attorneys.
Butts was released in 2022 after Brown granted him a new trial on charges stemming from the death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son, Jaydyn R. Unger, in 2002.
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Brown wrote in his 2022 decision that the “shift in understanding by the medical community (about shaken baby syndrome) raises a strong probability of a different result on retrial.”
According to court records, Franklin County prosecuting attorneys said the judge has admitted testimony of multiple experts “adverse to the state’s case,” and the child’s mother is requesting no further prosecution.