Medical examiner admits he was wrong on shaken baby syndrome

In the summer of 2024, Dr. Bruce Levy, the former chief medical examiner of Tennessee, got a call asking whether he remembered the death of a baby boy, Alex Maze.

The name, from nearly 25 years earlier, faintly stirred Levy’s memory. Levy had conducted an autopsy on the 19-month-old boy, and he had concluded that Alex’s death was a homicide, the result of being violently shaken.

Levy’s testimony was critical in helping Nashville prosecutors secure a murder conviction against Alex’s father, Russell Maze, who was sentenced to life in prison.

For decades, Maze has denied abusing his son. He had been home alone with Alex in May 1999 when the baby suddenly stopped breathing. At the hospital, a pediatrician who specialized in identifying child abuse found what she said were clear signs that Alex was the victim of shaken baby syndrome. Levy later agreed.

Now, decades later, Levy was being asked to re-examine Alex’s death amid an initiative in Nashville investigating potential wrongful convictions. Intrigued, Levy said yes.

This month, in his first public comments on the case, Levy told NBC News that after having received information he never knew about Alex’s medical history, he came to a startling conclusion: He was wrong about Alex’s being abused, and he believes Maze is innocent.

“I have to remember that I’m not perfect and I can make mistakes,” Levy said. “And the best that I can do, is when I come to realize that, is to admit that I have made a mistake and try to do what I can to rectify that.”

Thousands of caregivers have been arrested based on the long-held medical belief that three symptoms — brain swelling, bleeding in the brain and bleeding behind the eyes — indicate that a young child was deliberately shaken.

But in the decades since Maze was convicted, there has been a growing acknowledgment among experts that the symptoms once believed to be proof of shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma, can appear in children for other reasons, like complex medical conditions. And with that shift in understanding, a movement has been growing to re-examine — and potentially reverse — some shaken baby convictions, particularly when the evidence of abuse now appears questionable.

In October, NBC News’ “The Last Appeal” podcast investigated the high-profile case of Robert Roberson, a condemned man on Texas’ death row who was convicted of fatally shaking and abusing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in 2002. On Oct. 9, Texas’ highest criminal court halted the latest attempt to execute Roberson, sending his case back to a lower court for another review. “We are confident that an objective review of the science and medical evidence will show there was no crime,” Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said at the time.

Maze is still waiting for a similar breakthrough.

After he reviewed Maze’s case, Levy wrote an affidavit in September 2024 recanting his homicide finding and determining that Alex had succumbed to a “natural” death. He joined an ongoing effort by the Nashville district attorney’s office, which has been working to free Maze.

Levy reclassified Alex's cause of death as "undetermined" and manner of death as "natural" in 2024. Alex's legal name was Bryan.Courtesy Kaye Maze

Yet despite supporters in law enforcement and forensics fighting for his release, Maze remains behind bars. Since last year, both the trial court and the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals have declined to vacate his conviction. Maze’s struggle is emblematic of the uphill climb parents face when they try to combat charges of shaking their babies.

The latest decisions were yet another disappointment for Maze’s wife, Kaye, who has never wavered in her belief in her husband’s innocence. She was not home when Alex stopped breathing in 1999, but like her husband, she was also charged. She accepted what is called an Alford plea, allowing her to maintain her innocence and stay out of prison while pleading to reckless aggravated assault. She remains a convicted felon.

Her home in East Tennessee, where she moved to be closer to her husband’s prison, is filled with framed pictures of Russell and Alex, their buoyant expressions frozen in time.

A collection of family photos at Kaye Maze's home in East Tennessee.Juan Diego Reyes for NBC News

“We had a whole life planned out,” Kaye told NBC News in her first interview about the ordeal. “You know, you have a baby with so much hope, so much promise. And to have it all just ripped away from you is just — it’s sorrow and anger. And anger is pretty high up there.”

The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to make Russell Maze available to comment in person or by phone.

The Mazes’ experience as parents was fraught from the very beginning.

Alex was born prematurely in March 1999, weighing just 3 pounds, 12 ounces. He spent his first days in a neonatal intensive care unit for ailments including jaundice, anemia and a racing heart rate.

The Mazes, in their 30s, were vigilant first-time parents. Russell worked for a trucking company, and Kaye picked up a couple shifts as a vendor at a music festival. Alex was sent home from the hospital wearing a heart monitor. The Mazes took him to doctors seven times over the next three weeks, Kaye said.

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