E59- “I made a mistake.”

Oct 31

In this episode of the Short Fuse Podcast, Elizabeth Howard is in conversation with Valena Beety, author of Manifesting Justice: Wrongly Convicted Women Reclaim Their Rights and Tasha Mercedes Shelby, calling in on a telephone from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, where she is serving a life sentence, without parole, for murder. For decades, Tasha has been proclaiming her innocence in the death of her two-and-a-half-year-old stepson who fell out of his bed because of a seizure and died. Mississippi State Medical Examiner Dr. Leroy Riddick testified at her trial that “the child was violently shaken to death – that is undisputed.” That was in 2000. In 2017, Dr. Riddick issued a statement: "I made a mistake." Yet, Shelby remains behind bars. The child's death certificate lists his death through natural causes.