Medical examiner recants testimony in decades-old baby homicide case, Nashville father maintains his innocence

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A medical examiner whose autopsy report helped sentence a Nashville man to life in prison two decades ago is now recanting his testimony, according to court documents obtained by News 2 on Tuesday.

This comes just months after the Davidson County District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) said new medical evidence proved Russell Maze was innocent.

Russell was accused of shaking his six-week-old son, Alex, in May 1999 and later convicted of murder in connection with the 19-month-old’s death in October 2000.

“Every single medical expert using current science confirms that Russell and Kaye Maze are actually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted,” said Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk in the court on March 26.

According to an affidavit, the former chief medical examiner for Tennessee, Dr. Bruce Levy, would now classify Alex’s manner of death as “natural” after revisiting the case in July and August.

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Court documents say Levy reviewed additional medical records that were not available in the initial investigation and studied recent reports from medical experts who reexamined the case.

Levy told the court if he was called to testify now, he would have no reasonable degree of medical certainty that Alex died from shaken baby syndrome, which was stated as the cause of death in the initial autopsy report.

Russell is still serving his life sentence while this new evidence is being considered. An appeals court will decide what happens next.

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