Johnny Burr was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of a four month old infant
According to court documents Johnny Burr would bring the four month old infant to the hospital and would tell the doctors that the infant’s seven month old brother had dropped her the previously night. However after a quick examination Burr story did not line up and the police were called after the infant passed away. Doctor’s would discover the infant had broken bones, bruises and a multitude of injuries which would cause the little girl to die.
Johnny Burr would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Johnny Burr Case
Susie was born to Lisa Bridges and her then-husband on April 1, 1991. Shortly thereafter, Bridges began having an affair with Burr. In late June, Bridges and her children moved with Burr into a trailer next door to another trailer owned by Bridges’s stepbrother. Burr quickly became physically abusive toward Bridges.
Around 6:00 P.M. on August 24, 1991, Bridges’s eight-year-old son, Scott, tripped over a cord while carrying Susie and fell on a gravel-covered driveway. Bridges and Burr examined Susie after the fall and found her to be uninjured. But early reports about the mechanics of the fall were inconsistent. Bridges and Scott both reported in the weeks afterward that Scott fell on Susie, dropped her, or both. However, at other times during those same early weeks, Bridges and Scott each reported that Scott did not let go of Susie and instead cradled her gently as he fell. One of Scott’s early reports was made to a social worker on August 27, who “assured him that nothing he had done hurt [Susie].” J.A. 1226.
Citations to the “J.A.” refer to the Joint Appendix filed by the parties in this appeal.
Late on the night of August 24 or in the early hours of the next morning, Bridges went next door to wash dishes at her stepbrother’s home. She left Susie in her crib in Bridges’s bedroom. Scott and his younger brother Tony were asleep in another bedroom. Burr also remained at Bridges’s trailer.
When Bridges returned forty-five minutes later, she found Susie in her swing in the living room. Burr claimed he had moved Susie from her baby bed to the swing after she woke up. It rapidly became clear that Susie was badly injured—she was covered in bruises; her eyes were unblinking and rolling; and she was unresponsive. Bridges and Burr brought Susie to the county hospital, where they arrived just before 3:00 A.M. on August 25.
The emergency room physician found Susie to be unconscious, with a weak pulse and wandering eyes; “intermittently seizing or having seizures”; and presenting with a bulging fontanel, “indicat[ing] some swelling inside the head.” J.A. 2812. In addition to the bruising all over her body, X-rays revealed that both of her arms and both of her thigh bones were broken. She also appeared to be suffering from a “closed head injury,” though X-rays did not show a skull fracture. J.A. 2819. The physician immediately formed a “high suspicion of abuse,” which he asked Bridges about. J.A. 2818. He also contacted the sheriff’s department and social services.
Due to the severity of her injuries, Susie was transferred to North Carolina Memorial Hospital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, she was examined by a trauma team that included the chief of pediatric surgery. The chief of pediatric radiology reviewed Susie’s X-rays and CT scan and concluded that Susie had a “depressed skull fracture” that was mere hours old. J.A. 2713. By contrast, the fractures in both of Susie’s thigh bones showed evidence of early healing. The radiologist estimated those fractures were eight to nine days old, with a range of three days on either side of the estimate. Susie’s arm fractures did not show signs of healing, and the radiologist testified that they could have happened at the same time as the head injury or up to five days previously.
A pediatric neurologist also reviewed Susie’s CT scan and agreed that she had a “depressed skull fracture.” J.A. 2840. He noted that there was no external wound on the scalp. And he found that Susie exhibited symptoms, such as bilateral retinal hemorrhages, that were indicative of “shaken baby syndrome,” “a specific kind of injury where the baby has a whiplash kind of injury from being shaken back and forth.” Id.
Susie died from her injuries on August 27, 1991. The medical examiner concluded that Susie’s cause of death was a closed head injury, and that the manner of death was homicide. Burr was arrested the next day.
