He was charged with murdering his baby on the word of one coroner. Facing a life sentence, he sought a second opinion.

His daughter, Alice, was now 7. “I missed the last few years of my little girl being a little girl.” His parents said his incarceration had already cost them almost $100,000 — for legal fees, daily phone calls, food at the jail commissary and other costs. They had offered to put up their house, worth about $200,000, as bond for his release, but the judge had denied the request.