MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL FILED 1/31/24
New page added with all of the information you need to know. Follow us on Facebook and X for updates.
“I do not think that you can get a fair child abuse trial before a jury anywhere in the country…I do not care how sophisticated or law smart jurors are, when they hear that a child has been abused, a piece of their mind closes up, and this goes for the judge, the jurors, and all of us.”
– Abner Mivka, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit 1990
We are the supporters of Brian Peixoto, an innocent man wrongly convicted of a horrific crime 28 years ago. Brian was convicted of murdering a child, a crime that he did not commit.
In 1996, Brian Peixoto was arrested and charged with the murder of 3-year-old Christopher Affonso, Jr. After a five-day trial and two-hour deliberation, a jury found Brian guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to spend the rest of his natural life in prison.
In addition to Brian’s family, friends and loved ones, Brian is supported by an extraordinary legal team.
Representing Brian is top criminal trial lawyer Jennifer Fitzgerald. She comes to us with twelve years’ experience as a public defender and a passion to fight wrongful convictions. Jen is steadfast in her pursuit of justice for Brian. Since joining us in early 2015, Jen has dedicated her practice to this effort. She has made incredible sacrifices and has worked pro bono, around the clock on Brian’s behalf for nearly a decade.
Brian is also represented by the CPCS Innocence Program – a Massachusetts program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice to represent innocent people. For the past few years, Director Lisa Kavanaugh has taken an active role in preparing Brian’s Motion for New Trial. Lisa has supported dozens of innocence cases by winning and administering federal grant funds to pay for experts and investigators needed to establish innocence, often where the trial courts had already refused requests for funding. Lisa took it upon herself to organize a fund-raising vehicle for innocence cases. Her program, “Running for Innocence,” has been a most successful fundraiser for the past nearly 10 years.
John Nardizzi is the private investigator on this case. John is the OG member of this group. He has been an integral part of Brian’s defense team for the past decade. He has worked on some of the most significant and notable wrongful conviction cases in New England. John is typically behind the scenes, but his work is front and center and has led to several exonerations and million-dollar settlements. John’s credits are extensive and include securing exculpatory evidence which led to the exoneration of Kenny Waters whose story was the source for the movie, Conviction. John is also an award-winning author with a specialty in – you guessed it – crime novels.
MA attorney Jack Cunha is recognized as a preeminent best Boston criminal defense lawyer, by both national and local attorney-ranking organizations. He was awarded the Edward J. Duggan for Outstanding Service Private Counsel Award for his incredible service to zealous advocacy by CPCS in 2015. Jack is a nationally known expert in a number of forensic evidence disciplines.
Finally, we are incredibly grateful to have the support of the New England Innocence Project. We are most appreciative of their ongoing collaboration efforts.
Nationally and internationally recognized medical experts, well respected in the evolving field of misdiagnosed child abuse and head trauma have conducted independent, unbiased reviews of the available medical and court records. According to these prominent medical professionals, the state’s Medical Examiner got it wrong and that to a degree of medical certainty the child did not die from the skull fracture or an acute brain injury as was alleged by the Bristol County prosecutor and the state’s paid experts. It is now provable that the child died as a result of a condition that was ignored by the prosecution and state’s experts but was evident in the medical records all along.
Brian was collateral damage in the wake of the media frenzy around a highly publicized and prejudicial, emotionally charged case. A month before the trial in 1997, the nation was tuned in to the case of Louise Woodward (the “British Nanny”) based here in MA and less than a short drive from Brian’s trial. Since then, there have been many questions raised in the pediatric forensic community regarding the validity of the science used in SBS/AHT cases. Widely accepted beliefs in the field of pediatric head trauma were rejected and dismissed as unreliable. The new science, including changes in biomechanics of pediatric head trauma, rocked the forensic community, shedding light on many mistaken diagnoses, including that from Brian’s case. It became evident that parents and caregivers were being wrongly accused of child abuse.
This website was created to shed light on Brian’s case and to point out the facts – facts taken directly from court documents, police statements, and medical reports, including some of our own opinions and thoughts. Also included is new medical evidence, witness statements that were never made available to the jury and evidence that was hidden and not provided to the defense. It must be pointed out that Brian was convicted without one piece of evidence showing that Brian ever hit Christopher or hurt him in any way. The following pages depict Brian’s long and difficult struggle for innocence.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION WHICH MAY BE OF ASSISTANCE TO THIS CASE, PLEASE SEND A CONFIDENTIAL EMAIL TO INFO@BRIANPEIXOTO.COM
I love everything about this website. It has been a long and dark 18 years for our family. I can’t even begin to explain the emotions that are brought up just knowing that FINALLY we have such a bright, intelligent, and understanding group of people that are supporting my father and are doing anything possible to prove his innocence. Finally my family sees the possibility of the light at the end of this gloomy tunnel we’ve been living in for so long. I hope that all of this information enlightens people and shows them that there are always two sides to every story. What the media projects out to the rest of the world is not always fact. All of the evidence and testimonies have been all here in front of everyone’s eyes for any one to see all the while an innocent man has spent half of his life behind prison walls unable to experience daily situations so many of us take for granted. I am so thankful to every one who has taken their time and effort to put this website together. It is truly a dream come true.
I first read about this case in Boston magazine. I worked with a nurse whose nephew slipped on ice falling backward and striking his head a short time later he died. The mother of the little boy obviously lied. She is the guilty parent and should be charged with perjury and contempt. Brian you are a good man please do not let go of that. The American legal system is a complete failure. Let me know what I can do to help.
Thank you,
Wes
Commendations on a nicely presented web site. I am sorry to learn about another one of these cases, but I am glad that Mr. Peixoto has an active support group. As you know, there is a serious problem with the over-diagnosis and over-prosecution of pediatric abusive head trauma. I hope you well in your efforts.
I have added a link to this site on the Cases page (http://onsbs.com/cases/) of my web site and blog about Shaken Baby Syndrome, which is at http://onsbs.com/. I hope we can stay in touch.
The biggest impediment to freeing the incarcerated innocent in the U.S., is not the lack of exculpatory evidence; but largely the great reluctance of a system that judges the fallibility of its citizens, to accept its own fallibility.
Sad that as a nation, we have more people incarcerated then Russia and China. Both nations much larger then the USA, with the latter having FOUR TIMES as many people AND A COMMUNIST NATION with a %99 conviction rate, yet we, the USA, have more people in prison then they do. Ive known Brian for many years, he is a great guy….compassionate, caring and in NO WAY capable of such a heinous crime. Someday hopefully this judicial system will be properly addressed….right now there are too many factors that make it an unbalanced playing field, with too many advantages for Prosecutors. Brian I hope you are home soon, may God bless you and your family…
Your friend,
John Tex
Hey Brian.wanted to drop a hello…hope ur staying strong…..I just know u r one day closer. I sent the website to a bunch of my Facebook friends and family….a few lawyers…so perhaps they can be of some help with ur case. Cannot wait to see ur face again….Love you!!!!
Hey Brian…Just want you to know I’m thinking of you. Time to come home! Love you, lisa
We are all thinking of you Brian. Only the Lord can judge, and if you are truly innocent as I know you are….imagine the blessings the Lord has in store for you….you have suffered more then most, and still stand strong. You are an inspiration. You are a modern day Job, and a far better and stronger man then I will ever be. May all of the Lord’s angels come to your rescue.
Brian
You are in my prayers daily. I pray for justice for you. You are innocent. Wrongfully accused.
Time for you to go home
My heart aches for you every time I see you with your family
Keeping you and yours in thought and prayers always…standing beside you in love, light & blessings…
I read your story in Boston Magazine. It amazes me that in this country you are guilty until you prove your own innocence. What stuck out in my mind are two things. If you had killed this little boy would you have driven him to the firehouse or run? Liam Neilson was married to a woman who had a skiing accident. She died a day or two later. This little boy had a head injury and died later. His mother failed to follow up on his injuries. You are clearly innocent in my mind.
I worked with a nurse who was from a large family and very close to one sister. This sisters grandson died at the age of 3 or 4. I asked how did this happen. He had slipped on ice and fell back striking his head. Maybe another approach would be to present all of these slight accidents that end in death. I also see the system working against you. If you are freed you then have the right to sue…..do I dare say for big money. The legal system does not want that. This is the point that bothers me the most. What ever happened to doing the right thing?
I have read the article. Are there skull x-rays to refer to? It is stated 8 separate injuries. A fall down two stairs does not equate out to 8 head injuries. Any thoughts of pouring over the pathologists reports or if it comes to that exhuming the remains for a post mortem x-ray or ever better CAT san?
Please excuse my silence. I have been told my cancer has returned after 5 years. Will know more tomorrow after I meet with the surgeon and oncologist. I believe you are innocent and I plan to use you in a good way. I am going to fight the fight of my life so I will be able to help you. Your friend and I share the same last name please ask her reach out to me. Is there an attorney involved? I will not give you false hope. It is my pleasure to help in anyway I can. You sleep well tonight knowing we both have our battles to fight. I plan to live and to see you walk free. Wes
Our prayers are with you and your family during this time. Thank you so kindly for your support. It is truly appreciated. As Brian’s father always says, “Where there is life, there is hope.”
Please note above on this home page the info for Brian’s attorney as well as the significant support he has received from both the medical and legal communities.
Lord Denning, formally one of Britain’s most senior judges, displayed a truly lamentable reluctance to admit the fallibility of the English justice system. He is quoted as saying: “Hanging ought to be retained for murder most foul. We shouldn’t have all these campaigns to get the Birmingham Six released if they’d been hanged. They’d have been forgotten, and the whole community would be satisfied… It is better that some innocent men remain in jail than that the integrity of the English judicial system be impugned.” You have the same problem in America: judges will not decry their miscarriages of justice. Instead, rather than admit their failure to mete out justice, they compound the failure of the system by turning a blind eye to the miscarriage and refuse to acknowledge it. Thus, where there has been a miscarriage, in the eyes of the public the system is impugned twice and by the judges themselves. Judges are often too aloof to acknowledge this, but they must be made, by constitutional challenge, to adopt the dictum of the eighteenth century English jurist, Sir William Blackstone: “Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”
I urge everyone concerned about Brian’s incarceration to look at the books mentioned in this posting: http://www.opentrial.org/unjust-process/item/141-us-judicial-process-reduced-to-flea-market-haggling
It will become evident that Brian is seen as a mere pawn in plea bargaining game – someone who dared to protest his innocence and not settle for a plea. In the US legal system, to allow Brian to be acquitted would set an example to those who might otherwise cop a plea under duress. On this basis Brian’s conviction could be challenged, as it was arrived at in an unconstitutional system that consists largely of pleas as opposed to fair trials.
My heart aches for Brian and his family, our “injustice” system sickens me to the core. My son was gone after with a vengeance for not taking a bogus plea as happens to so many innocent. If our system was truly about finding the guilty person as oppose to getting the win, they would want to explore all, including new evidence.
Wow….that is so sad and wrong….i really hope justice of an innocent man is recognized…stay strong you are not alone