The sound of a thump woke her up in the morning. Bryan Thompson IV, her toddler son, was having a seizure in his bedroom. Shelby called Bryan Thompson III, her fiance. Little Bryan was rushed by the couple to the emergency department. The two-and a half-year-old was declared dead the following day. Prosecutors in Harrison County said that Shelby had killed Little Bryan. The state’s medical examiner, who performed the autopsy, was a witness that said the child died from someone deliberately shaking him and banging against something. “It’s a violent, violent shaking,” a prosecutor said to jurors in 2000 during Shelby’s trial. The jury convicted Shelby in capital murder and sentenced Shelby to life imprisonment without parole. Since then, Shelby, now 44 years old, has been in prison. Shelby’s lawyers claim she is innocent. Experts cite advances in medical science as reasons for Shelby’s conviction. To prove Shelby’s guilt, they claim that the prosecutors used shaken baby syndrome science, which was once widely accepted as a diagnosis of child abuse, but critics argue that it is flawed. Shelby’s medical examiner, who was against her at her trial, has changed his mind. Oral arguments will be heard Wednesday by Shelby’s attorneys and the state at Mississippi Court of Appeals. “Our view on this case was that there was a mistake made,” stated Valena Beety (West Virginia Innocence Project Director), who worked at the Mississippi Innocence Project in 2011. She took Shelby’s case on in 2011. Although LeRoy Riddick initially ruled that the death of the child was a homicide in his original ruling, he reviewed medical records, and re-examined himself in 2015. He discovered that Bryan suffered from a seizure disorder. He stated that Riddick would have approached this case differently if he had known about the seizures during the trial and autopsy. Riddick revised Bryan’s death certificate and recorded the manner in which Bryan died as an accident. The defense attorney general’s office for the state maintains Bryan died from blunt force trauma and that prosecutors didn’t rely entirely on the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis during trial. According to an appeals court brief, the attorneys general also defended the conviction. The state also claims that the evidence Shelby will present on appeal, including Riddick’s modified opinion, is not new. The agency’s spokesperson declined to comment due to the ongoing litigation. The state stated in its brief that there is no evidence Bryan fell from the bed while standing. Bryan’s head was not protected. Bryan did not suffer from seizure disorder. Beety asks Beety how Bryan, a toddler of 30 pounds and less than 5 feet, could be physically shaken by her client. Shelby gave birth to her daughter via emergency cesarean less than two weeks before Bryan died. Beety said that her doctor had placed an order for her to rest. Judge Roger T. Clark of Harrison County Circuit Court upheld Shelby’s conviction last year. He noted that shaken baby syndrome is not “debunked.” Beety stated that Bryan didn’t display the three required symptoms for diagnosis: subdural hemorhage, retinal bleeding, and brain swelling. The Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences and the Innocence Network filed an amicus brief. They note that there are many other causes for these symptoms, including short falls. The brief states that the majority of medical professionals, including the American Academy of Pediatrics today reject the conclusions that led to Shelby’s conviction. In recent years, several people who were convicted of shaken-baby syndrome have taken their cases to Mississippi’s highest courts. Joshua Clark, an Itawamba County resident, was sentenced last year to 40 years imprisonment for the 2008 death his 4-year-old boy. Clark’s attorney Jim Waide said that Clark is fortunate to have a Mississippi Court of Appeals that is very academically oriented. “I think they will look at the science in [the Shelby case].” The Court of Appeals could also consider cases involving Jeffrey Havard (an Adams County man sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend’s infant daughter) and Amy Wilkerson (who pleaded guilty to the murder of her 8-week-old babysitter in Jackson County). The last 20 years have been difficult for Shelby and her family. Shelby’s aunt Linda Brockman stated that the family has kept Shelby innocent since the beginning. Her brother Jacob Shelby said that Shelby has missed many family events, such as funerals, birthdays, and other occasions over the years. Jacob Shelby stated, “We’re just anxious to see her home.” Shelby was incarcerated at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, Pearl. She has participated in Bible study groups, received her GED, and obtained her cosmetology license while working as a prison hair stylist, which are not always available to lifers. Shelby wrote an essay in 2012 comparing her experience in prison to “Groundhog Day,” where the protagonist is forced repeat the same day over and over. Shelby wrote that she still maintains good relationships with her family, despite losing custody of her son and her daughter. Shelby wrote that “all you could have done to haunt you like a ghost.” Shelby wrote, “You don’t just lose your loved ones here; you also lose yourself.”