This man served 26 years for shaking his girlfriend’s baby to death, but new evidence behind the cause of death puts his punishment under doubt

Luck is surely a strange thing. Sometimes, when things are not in someone‘s favor, a stroke of luck, like it was for this girl who was kidnapped, can take them out of all adversity. But sometimes, everything can be in someone’s favor, and still, he ends up getting rolled on if fate is not in his favor. A similar sort of incident happened almost 26 years ago when a person was charged with taking the life of an infant, but it was not he who killed; it was pneumonia. For that crime, which might not be his, he spent 26 years in jail. Though he has now been exonerated from jail after spending half of his life behind bars.

According to People, Stephen Martinez of Denver made a call to 911 telling that the infant of his then girlfriend was choking and he needed help. Upon arrival, the authorities found the child with a head injury, and Martinezz declared that he accidentally hit the baby with the crib while trying to calm him down, as reported by 9News. Martinez tried to explain that it was an accident, but the prosecution had him convicted. 

Following his conviction, Martinez was given a life sentence, and he spent 26 years in prison until his decision was overturned in April 2026. Andrew Luxen, the judge who listened to the case, overturned the decision on the 21st of April. The decision was made after the Korey Wise Innocence Project brought new evidence to light. According to the Associated Press, the new evidence confirmed that the child died of pneumonia and was not killed by Martinez.

Korey Wise Innocence Project saved Martinez from his remaining sentence 

Korey Wise’s Innocence Project, which provides free legal support to innocent convicts in jail, declared that Martinez was wrongly convicted by the court in 2000. After the decision by the court, Denver’s District Attorney, John Walsh, wrote in a press release, “The Korey Wise Innocence Project presented my office with multiple credible medical experts who challenged the initial determination that Heather’s death was caused by physical abuse.”

Walsh went on to declare that his office did not try to stop or affect the work done by the Korey organization to get Martineez out of jail. He added, “Additionally, and more importantly, the Denver medical examiner who conducted Heather’s autopsy in 1998 recently acknowledged a reasonable doubt about Heather’s cause of death. This is simply an example of the criminal justice system being willing and able to reassess a case when necessary.”

This is not the first time that a convict has been found innocent after so many years of being wrongfully convicted.  James Watson was convicted in 1979 for murdering Boston cabbie Jeffrey Boyajian based on flawed hypnosis IDs, coerced informants, and no physical evidence; he served 41 years until a Suffolk County judge overturned it Nov. 5, 2020, for misconduct, dismissing charges after his early COVID release.

We have heard about a 17-year-old being shot by a man in the name of revenge, but this incident’s twist after 26 years is indeed intense. Coming back to Martinez’s case, he has not been given any financial returns, and he has also been declared innocent of the charge of taking the life of an infant.