Today, the Montana Innocence Project filed a new post-conviction relief petition in the case of Aaron Oliphant, who was wrongfully convicted in 2016 after doctors claimed his infant son’s injuries were caused by abusive head trauma, often referred to as Shaken Baby Syndrome.
This filing comes after years of litigation surrounding Aaron’s original post-conviction relief petition, which focused on ineffective assistance of counsel and the inability to fully investigate the medical evidence presented at trial due to a lack of access to the medical records.
Aaron’s trial attorney failed to obtain the child’s complete medical records, failed to consult with medical experts, and failed to challenge the prosecution’s case at all.
In Aaron’s first post-conviction proceeding, MTIP argued that these failures violated Aaron’s constitutional right to effective legal representation. But because trial counsel never collected the full medical record, MTIP could not fully investigate the medical evidence or obtain expert opinions explaining how those failures impacted the outcome of the trial. As part of this original petition, MTIP asked the court to order disclosure of the complete medical records so the evidence could finally be fully reviewed.
The petition was denied without any rulings about the medical evidence because the court said it was filed too late, and the Montana Supreme Court later upheld that decision. But two dissenting justices pointed out the Catch-22 in Aaron’s case: Aaron needed the medical records to prove his attorney’s representation harmed his case, but he could not get access to those records because the petition was considered untimely. At the same time, the petition was only considered untimely because of the attorney’s own failures — including telling Aaron after trial that there was “nothing to appeal.”
In other words, Aaron could not prove his attorney failed him without the records, but he could not get the records because of the very failures he was trying to prove.
While this decision was a setback, MTIP knew an innocent person’s life was at stake. After the ruling, MTIP’s investigative team continued pursuing the evidence independently and was ultimately able to obtain the full medical records from the hospital without a court order.
MTIP then consulted with nationally recognized medical experts, who concluded:
- The injuries are just as likely to be accidental as non-accidental
- There were no neck injuries or other findings consistent with shaking, despite the prosecution’s trial theory that this was abusive head trauma caused by shaking
- The child’s CT scans showed almost no swelling, which experts say means the injuries could not have occurred the night before while Aaron was caring for him
- One of the state’s own trial experts agreed that if the injuries had occurred during the timeframe alleged by prosecutors, more swelling would have been expected on the scans
See Intake & Pro Bono Coordinator Charlie McWeeny break down the petition and what MTIP is asking for:
This newly discovered evidence supports Aaron’s innocence and directly challenges the foundation of the prosecution’s case.
In a new episode of Unpacking Injustice, MTIP Legal Director Brady Minow Smith and Intake & Pro Bono Coordinator Charlie McWeeny break down the history of the case, the failures of Aaron’s original defense, the new medical evidence now being presented to the court for the first time, and the broader implications of this case as it relates to the trust we place in attorneys and expert witnesses.
Click here to listen to the new episode now.
For Aaron and his family, this filing represents a long-awaited opportunity to finally have the full evidence reviewed. MTIP hopes this filing brings Aaron one step closer to the justice he has fought for over the last decade, and we will continue fighting to ensure this evidence — and Aaron’s innocence — are finally fully considered.