Murder charge withdrawn in latest Charles Smith case

Tammy Marquardt speaks to the media in Oshawa, Ont., on Tuesday, June 7, 2011.

OSHAWA, Ont. - The Crown has withdrawn a second-degree murder charge against a woman who was convicted of killing her toddler based in part on evidence from pathologist Charles Smith.

Earlier this year, the Court of Appeal for Ontario quashed Tammy Marquardt's second-degree murder conviction, calling her a victim of a miscarriage of justice and ordering a new trial.

But there won't be another trial due to Smith's flawed evidence and because so much time has passed, the Crown said Tuesday in an Oshawa, Ont., courtroom.

"Honestly, I never thought I would see this day," Marquardt said outside court. "I thought, there is no justice. They're going to believe him and they're not going to believe somebody like me. When someone finally did take interest and start listening, I was in shock."

Marquardt spent 14 years behind bars after she was convicted in 1995 in the death of her son, two-year-old Kenneth Wynne.

"All these years, I don't feel Kenneth has been able to rest in peace because of everything that's been going on," Marquardt said. "Now he's finally able to be at rest."

Marquardt, who showed off a tattoo on her left shoulder that says "Freedom," said she has lost a lot because of the ordeal.

"Took away a big portion of my life, took away my life with my children, took away my ability to grieve, my freedom, my mentality, really took a big chunk of my soul," said Marquardt.

Smith, who was recently stripped of his medical licence for professional misconduct and incompetence, testified persuasively that Kenneth was strangled or suffocated.

Other experts have since denounced Smith's findings, concluding Kenneth's cause of death could not be determined, though her lawyer says the boy was epileptic and could have died from a seizure.

Marquardt said she remembers her son as a bright little boy who loved to play with his dinky cars.

"He was very grown-up for a two-and-a-half-year-old," she said