For nearly a quarter of a century, Russell Lee Maze has been incarcerated for the murder of his infant son, Alex. Much of the evidence against him hinged on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, a medical conclusion that seemed certain at the time but has since come under intense scrutiny. Now the case is being re-examined by a Nashville panel dedicated to exposing potential wrongful convictions, offering a glimmer of hope in a story marked by tragedy and evolving scientific understanding.
At the center of the reevaluation is the work of the District Attorney’s Conviction Review Team, led by Sunny Eaton. A former public defender, Eaton brings a unique perspective to the district attorney’s office in 2020, a firm belief that, as the Toni Morrison quote framed on her office wall proclaims, “the function of freedom is to liberate others.” On her first day, she stood amidst the towering stacks of case files and immediately realized the enormity of the task: dealing with convictions that may have been flawed because of science that has been revealed over the past few years to be unreliable or completely untrustworthy.
Indeed, the world of forensic science has changed dramatically in the last thirty years. From blood spatter analysis to eyewitness identification, disciplines that were once relied upon in the courtroom have been shown to lack a solid scientific foundation or to be unreliable. Crucially for the Maze case, the diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) has faced increasing challenges in both the medical and legal communities. What was once considered a virtually infallible indicator of abuse – the triad of brain swelling, peribulbar hemorrhage, and fundal hemorrhage – is now understood to potentially stem from a range of natural or accidental causes, not just violent shaking.
Despite a growing body of research questioning the certainty of the SBS diagnosis, many people continue to be convicted and imprisoned on this scientific basis. The legal system provides limited avenues of appeal for such cases. The important work of re-examining these convictions falls on the shoulders of a variety of organizations, including law school clinics, innocence projects, and, increasingly, conviction review units (CRUs) within prosecutor’s offices, particularly those headed by reform-minded district attorneys.
Glenn Funk, the district attorney elected in 2014, was a defense attorney, and after an initially ineffective iteration, he relaunched the department in 2020 with Eaton at the helm, giving her the independence she needed to handle tough cases. Eaton sensed her outsider sensibility early in her career, identifying herself as “a queer Puerto Rican woman with no name and no connections,” and that sensibility has served her well, providing her with the mandate to be independent of institutional loyalties and the freedom to tackle complex, uncertain territory.
State of Tennessee v. Russell Lee Maze was one such complex case before Eaton. As she weighed the risks of dedicating her team’s limited resources to a full reinvestigation, she turned to a document provided by her colleague Anna Hamilton: the personal journal of Russell’s wife, Kaye Maze, which detailed the events surrounding the short life of their son, Alex.
In her journal, Kaye paints a picture of longing for parenthood that is intertwined with deep medical concerns from the beginning. She recounts finding out she was pregnant in the fall of 1998 and being hospitalized two days later for cramping and bleeding. She writes, “I found out I was pregnant when I was four weeks along. Two days later I was hospitalized with cramps and bleeding. The bleeding was on and off throughout the pregnancy and was accompanied by severe nausea and vomiting.” Russell took care of her while working overnight shifts, and for six long months they were in a “state of suspended animation, hoping for the best.”
Kaye suffered from gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension and low amniotic fluid. Finally, the decision was made to induce labor at 34 weeks of pregnancy. Alex was born on March 25, 1999, weighing only 3 pounds, 12 ounces. He spent his first 13 days in the NICU, where his parents shared a room with him, learning about preemie care and infant CPR, as well as learning to monitor his abnormally fast heart rhythms (supraventricular tachycardia) with the cardiac monitor provided.
The Mazes were clearly attentive parents, and within three weeks of Alex’s discharge from the hospital, they had taken him to doctor’s appointments and medical facilities seven times. However, their efforts were rebuffed.On April 18, they took Alex to an after-hours clinic, concerned about Alex’s grunting and difficulty breathing, and a doctor ignored their concerns. Kaye wrote, “We were told that as long as we could comfort Alex, there was nothing wrong with him, he was just spoiled.” The doctor also advised them that “as anxious new parents, we need to understand what is normal.” This caution to let down their guard had tragic consequences.
When bruises appeared on Alex’s temples and abdomen, they were discouraged and hesitant to seek further medical attention. Russell worried that they were the result of an abdominal massage for constipation. “We were worried,” Kaye writes, ‘but we tried not to jump into the shadows. ’On May 3, tragedy struck. Alex stopped breathing. Before paramedics arrived, Russell frantically called 911 and attempted CPR. At the hospital, doctors discovered serious injuries: a subdural hematoma and retinal hemorrhage.
Initial medical tests did not reveal any infections or illnesses, and coupled with the bruises on his body, it was quickly suspected that Alex had been abused. Kaye writes, “We were told that the injuries on Alex’s body could only be seen in shaken baby syndrome.” Kaye quotes a doctor who was called in to examine the baby, “She told me she thought Russell had hurt Alex.” That diagnosis became the basis of the prosecution’s case.
The prosecution’s case rested on the powerful testimony of the diagnosing doctor, Suzanne Starling. At Russell’s first trial, she testified that the bleeding indicated a vicious act of violence, and she claimed that “children who fall from three or four stories onto a concrete floor suffer similar brain damage.” The state also presented x-rays showing a broken collarbone and a recording of Russell’s interrogation, which prosecutors characterized as a confession.
Eaton reviewed the interrogation recordings and realized that Detective Ron Carter had conducted a relentless interrogation. Recognizing that his confrontational style had once been considered good police work, Eaton noted how Carter mirrored Dr. Starling’s initial findings, basing his questions on shaky assumptions and rejecting Russell’s denials. “You must have shaken the kid,” Carter insisted, repeating a dozen times that ”that’s the only way it could have happened.”
With his son’s life hanging in the balance, Russell, who had already undergone multiple rounds of questioning at the hospital, was in great distress and had always denied intentionally hurting Alex. He tries to be cooperative and tries to help the detective understand, agreeing that it’s “possible” he accidentally shoved Alex. But when pressed and warned that he was “in more and more trouble” and that his child was “laying on top and you caused this,” Russell sounded confused and finally assumed that he might have pushed or shaken Alex in an attempt to revive him after realizing he was unresponsive . “I guess it’s possible,” he said. “It’s possible.” For Eaton, it wasn’t a confession, but the words of a distraught father pressured to accept blame.
Alex’s health had unfortunately deteriorated. He was taken off life support on October 25, 2000, despite his parents’ strenuous objections. “It took 20 minutes for my beautiful boy to leave us,” Kaye wrote in her final journal entry, recalling holding him. “I held him in my arms, rocked him and sang him to heaven. It was the most terrible thing for any mother. My husband was in pain because he couldn’t be there for me, a pain no father should ever have to endure. What Tennessee took from us can never be repaired or forgiven.”
Russell was initially convicted of aggravated child abuse, but after that conviction was dropped on a technicality, he was then charged with murder.In 2004, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
A key turning point in the CRU investigation came with the medical review. Eaton sought professional opinions from doctors who questioned the traditional SBS narrative, a position that had previously been strongly resisted by some prosecutors, including Brian Holmgren, who tried Mazer’s case and publicly criticized the defense experts. Dr. Michael Laposata, a pathologist with extensive experience, urged doctors to look for underlying diseases rather than automatically presume abuse.
Dr. Laposata’s test results were shocking. Alex’s blood work was “abnormal.” His hematocrit was extremely low and his red blood cells were atypical, suggesting a chronic production of red blood cells, inconsistent with acute trauma. Dr. LaPosatta made it clear to CRU: “Abnormal red blood cells are not the result of child abuse. He also noted that Kaye tested positive for prenatal antinuclear antibodies, which suggests that Kaye may have an autoimmune disease, which could have passed antibodies to Alex, making him susceptible to blood clots. He argued that given the circumstances, it was “surprising that these tests were never performed on the child.”
This medically plausible explanation for Alex’s injuries raised profound questions about the basis of Russell’s conviction, and also had a new impact on Kaye’s experience. She was also charged with aggravated assault because prosecutors argued that the bruises meant she should have known Russell was abusing their son. To increase her chances of regaining custody, she took an Alford plea and accepted a reduced felony while maintaining her innocence. She was placed on probation, but lost her parental rights.
Throughout the ordeal, Kaye’s loyalty to Russell remained unwavering. She testified at Russell’s murder trial, insisting that Russell could not have harmed Alex. After Russell’s incarceration, she moved to rural East Tennessee so she could be close for visitation, never giving up on their marriage-a rarity among spouses facing lengthy incarceration. This strong conviction stands in stark contrast to the state’s initial theory.
Eaton understands that even with compelling new evidence, the road to overturning Russell’s conviction will be long and challenging. She will argue the case before the trial judge, who may be reluctant to overturn the jury’s verdict. In addition, the district attorney’s office may resist admitting error, often due to trust in the original investigation, certainty of guilt or political pressure to appear tough on crime. Jason Gichner of the Tennessee Innocence Project, now representing Russell Maze, said, “Some prosecutors are entrenched in the belief that it’s going to be a fight for a fight.
However, the existence and work of units like Eaton’s represents an important evolution within the justice system and embodies the spirit of Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, who pioneered the concept. Watkins testified that when things go wrong, such as an airplane crash, “we investigate. We don’t pretend it didn’t happen; we don’t make false promises that it won’t happen again; but we learn from it and make the necessary adjustments so it doesn’t happen again.” That principle now guides work in places like Nashville, where dedicated individuals are sifting through decades-old cases armed with new scientific understanding and commitment to ensure that the justice once thought to have been served truly reflects the truth.
For Russell Mazer and others like him, the struggle is far from over, but the investigation continues because they are always hopeful that light will penetrate the deepest clouds of doubt.
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