Robert Kaiser

7.5 YEARS IN PRISON

On May 17, 2022, Robert Kaiser was freed from wrongful incarceration after serving 7.5 years in prison. He was subsequently retried for the same charges during a four week trial in Spring 2025. A jury found Robert not guilty of all charges on May 2, 2025.

A tragic, medically complex case
In 2014, Mr. Kaiser’s infant son William was taken to the hospital because of seizures. Imaging revealed bleeding around his brain and retinas. Some doctors jumped to the conclusion that William’s neurological decline was the result of abusive head trauma (AHT). While hospitalized, William developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), an often-fatal condition involving the disintegration of intestinal tissue, ultimately resulting in his death.  

Mr. Kaiser was arrested within days of his son's death. Given the lack of any bruising, laceration, or other sign of impact to the infant's head, the State theorized that Mr. Kaiser must have violently shaken William or slammed him into a soft surface the day of his hospitalization. At trial, the State's medical witnesses relied heavily on medical imaging, insisting to the jury that there was no other explanation for the William’s neurological presentation other than AHT. They also claimed that the abuse must have occurred immediately before the seizures began, while William was in his father's care. Mr. Kaiser's defense team argued that NEC was the actual cause of death, but they did not consult with or retain any expert qualified to review and interpret the CT and MRI scans. On that evidence, Mr. Kaiser was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

GNIP’s investigation illuminates errors in original medical diagnosis, finds alternative cause of death
In 2020, GNIP began investigating Mr. Kaiser's case, collecting the medical records and consulting with a team of experts, including a pathologist, radiologist, neuroradiologist, neurologist, pediatrician, and ophthalmologist. The experts not only concluded that the medical evidence did not support the State's AHT diagnosis, but they identified a non-traumatic medical cause for William's condition: blood clots in his brain veins, known as cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). CVT is a serious medical condition that causes many of the same symptoms often attributed to AHT, including those afflicting William. The jury that convicted Robert Kaiser never heard about CVT. 

A team of volunteer lawyers from Carlson Caspers and Bradford Andresen Norris & Camaratto, along with GNIP Legal Director Jim Mayer, presented this evidence and more over the course of a two-week hearing in October 2021.  

Court finds that Mr. Kaiser is entitled to a new trail
Following extensive post-trial briefing, Stearns County District Court Judge Laura Moehrle issued a 90-page ruling on April 28, 2022. The Court held that Mr. Kaiser's conviction rested on false evidence, namely the testimony that certain medical symptoms could only be explained by abuse. The Court further held that Mr. Kaiser did not receive effective assistance of counsel due to counsel's failure to reasonably investigate the facts that the State alleged resulted in William's death. Significantly, the Court held that without the false evidence, and with effective counsel, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of Mr. Kaiser's trial would have been different, and that he therefore met his burden entitling him to a new trial.  

The decision was later affirmed by the Minnesota Court of Appeals on February 13, 2023, and then by the Minnesota Supreme Court on March 13, 2024.  Rather than dismiss the case, the Stearns County District Attorney’s Office chose to try the case against Ms. Kaiser a second time.

A new trial
In April 2025, a new trial began where Robert, again, faced murder changes in the death of is infant son. He was represented by the Great North Innocence Project legal team, plus pro bono attorneys Mark Bradford and Kevin Riach. The trial spanned four weeks and included dozens of expert and lay witnesses. The defense presented a number of expert witnesses who pointed out that the medical evidence in this case did not support a finding of abuse and to explain the actual causes of Robert son's death. The defense called witnesses including a neuroradiologist, neonatologist, and emergency room doctor, among others.

On May 2, 2025, after deliberating for 13 hours, the jury in Robert’s case rendered a not guilty verdict, acquitting Robert of all charges. Robert is now, finally, free.