Pamela Jacobazzi, a former daycare provider, was sentenced to 32 years in prison for the death of Matthew Czapski, a child in her daycare. Prosecutors said the infant died of shaken baby syndrome.
The case gained the attention of the Illinois Innocence Project, which is based at the University of Illinois Springfield, in 2007 after Jacobazzi’s attorney requested the group’s help.
Illinois Innocence Project investigator Bill Clutter said Jacobazzi’s defense attorneys failed to introduce pediatric records from Dr. David Nadelman that would have contradicted testimony of prosecutors who claimed Czapski was a healthy baby.
“In fact, the records indicate that the child had persistent fevers, was anemic, and during a deposition after Pam was convicted, Dr. Nadelman acknowledged that he suspected the child had internal bleeding because iron supplements he proscribed had no effect on the anemic blood,” Clutter said.
Clutter believes if the jury had known about this at trial, it would have supported an emergency room radiologist’s testimony that the CT scan showed both old and new blood.
Jacobazzi’s attorney filed a clemency petition seven years ago, but Gov. Pat Quinn has yet to act on a confidential recommendation from the Prisoner Review Board made to then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The case was featured in a June 23, 2012, article in the State Journal-Register.
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