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The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist

Page 46

by Radley Balko


  “most notable” investigations: West, curriculum vitae; see Brazil, “The Show Does Not Have to Go On”; “Crime Expert Says Humphrey Probably Not Serial Killer,” United Press International, Sept. 7, 1990.

  hair-trigger temper: Deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 26, 2012), 148–150, 186, 257, 261–262, 281–282.

  “who paid him the most to say it”: Butch Benedict, interview by David Fechheimer, Feb. 28, 2012.

  “my savior, Jesus Christ.”: Hansen, “Out of the Blue”; “Forensic Evidence; Skepticism Surrounding Dr. Michael West’s Use of Bite Mark Analysis in Murder Cases,” 60 Minutes, Feb. 17, 2002.

  by definition, completely wrong: See Tyler Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 787 (Miss. 2007); Danny Jones v. State of Mississippi, 962 So.2d 1263 (Miss. 2007); David W. Parvin v. State of Mississippi, 113 So.3d 1243 (2013).

  “indeed and without a doubt.”: Letter from Dr. Michael H. West to Don English, Sept. 14, 1992; letter from Dr. Michael H. West to Michael D. Vick, Sept. 13, 1990; Opinion, State of Mississippi v. Larry Costell Maxwell, Cause No. 5139 (Kemper Cnty. Circuit Ct. Dec. 4, 1992); Transcript, Blind Proficiency Test, Oct. 2001.

  his forensic wizardry: Hansen, “Out of the Blue.”

  “plausible deniability”: André de Gruy, interview by Radley Balko.

  “Should I explain that to you?”: See, for example, Michael West deposition, Hayne v. Innocence Project, 150, 182; Michael West deposition, Eddie Lee Howard v. State of Mississippi, No. 2000-0015-CV1H (Lowndes Cnty. Circuit Ct. May 4, 2016), 40, 44–45, 83.

  rounds of drinks: Tommy Ferrell, interview by Radley Balko.

  legislators, and coroners: De Gruy, interview.

  made campaign contributions: Deposition of Cecil McCrory, Hayne v. Innocence Project, 2011 WL 198128, No. 3:09-CV-218-KS-LRA (S.D. Miss. April 24, 2012), 90.

  couldn’t be said about West: Mississippi coroner, interview by Radley Balko.

  “adoring idiots.”: L. W. “Bump” Calloway, interview by David Fechheimer, Feb. 25, 2012.

  CHAPTER 8: ENTRENCHMENT

  certification exam in forensic pathology: Deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project, 2011 WL 198128, No. 3:09-CV-218-KS-LRA (S.D. Miss. April 26, 2012), 253.

  or not exactly, anyway: Jerry Mitchell, “Doctor’s Autopsy Abilities Targeted,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), April 27, 2008.

  commonly associated with death: Ibid.

  “I said that was enough.”: Deposition of Steven Hayne, Vessel v. Alleman, No. 99-0307-CI (Warren Cnty. Circuit Ct. June 26, 2003), 56–57.

  a different set of colors: Ibid., 56–57; Deposition of Steven Hayne, Bennett v. City of Canton Swimming Pool, No. C1-96-0176 (Madison Cnty. Circuit Ct. June 2, 2001), 48–49; Transcript of record, State v. Townsend, No. 2000-127-CR (Montgomery Cnty. Circuit Ct. March 20, 2001), 19; Transcript of record, State v. Williams, No. 2004-048 (Washington Cnty. Circuit Ct. Oct. 18, 2004), 367–368.

  “answer this type of material.”: Transcript of trial, State of Mississippi v. Yolanda Williams, No. 2004-048 (Washington Cnty. Circuit Ct. Oct. 18, 2004), 368.

  “with crap like that”: Jerry Mitchell, “Innocence Project: Delicense Hayne,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), April 9, 2008; Mitchell, “Doctor’s Autopsy Abilities Targeted.”

  they think of certification: Mitchell, “Doctor’s Autopsy Abilities Targeted.”

  to the marks on Oppie’s body: Ross Parker Simons, affidavit, Oct. 6, 2010; letter from Dr. Michael West to Lieutenant Jim McAnally, June 18, 1990.

  do some additional tests: Simons, affidavit; letter from West to McAnally.

  on Mark Oppie’s skin: Simons, affidavit; see letter from West to McAnally.

  discredit West’s conclusions: Marcia Coyle, “Daubert v. Frye: A Defense Lawyer’s Crusade Discredits a Busy Forensic Dentist in Mississippi,” National Law Journal, July 11, 1994, 4; Simons, affidavit.

  plead guilty to manslaughter: Mark Hansen, “Out of the Blue,” American Bar Association Journal, Feb. 1, 1996; Simons, affidavit; Coyle, “Daubert v. Frye,” 4.

  then consulted with West: Letter from Michael West to Michael D. Vick, Sept. 13, 1990; Toni Lepeska, “Hattiesburg Dentist to Help in Slaying Probe,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Sept. 10, 1990.

  “the butcher knife in question”: State of Mississippi v. Larry Costell Maxwell, opinion, Cause No. 5139 (Kemper Cnty. Circuit Ct. Dec. 4, 1992); Appellant’s Opening Brief, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al., no. 96-60525 (U.S. Ct. of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Nov. 4, 1996).

  “particular knife wound.”: Affidavit of Robert H. Kirschner, MD, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al., April 20, 1992; Appellant’s Opening Brief, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al.

  “was used in the murders.”: Appellant’s Opening Brief, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al., 35–36.

  “would have been of great intensity.”: Letter from Michael West to Michael D. Vick, Sept. 17, 1990.

  relying only on his memory: Ibid.; letter from Michael West to Michael D. Vick, Sept. 21, 1990; State of Mississippi v. Larry Costell Maxwell, opinion; Appellant’s Opening Brief, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al.; Hansen, “Out of the Blue.”

  submitted affidavits denying that: Appellant’s Opening Brief, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al., 37–38.

  “regional police circular,”: Affidavit of Thomas Krauss, April 21, 1992.

  “accepted by most of his peers”: State of Mississippi v. Larry C. Maxwell, opinion.

  “West was a fraud,”: John Holdridge, interview by Radley Balko; State of Mississippi v. Larry C. Maxwell, opinion; affidavits of Robert H. Kirschner, April 20, 1992; William E. Alexander, April 14, 1992; Thomas C. Krauss, April 21, 1992; Appellant’s Opening Brief, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al.

  in support of West’s claims: Steven Hayne: Appellant’s Opening Brief, Larry C. Maxwell v. Lauderdale County et al.

  “to do them effectively,”: Beverly Pettigrew Kraft, “Texan Chosen to Face ‘Challenge’ of State Medical Examiner Post,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), April 14, 1989.

  “It simply is not physically possible.”: “State’s New Medical Examiner to Face Same Problems His Predecessors Did,” Meridian (MS) Star, April 21, 1989, reprinted, Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), April 22, 1989.

  “fix something that is broken,”: Kraft, “Texan Chosen to Face ‘Challenge’ of State Medical Examiner Post.”

  “more wrong than that, could I?”: Lloyd White, interview by Radley Balko.

  he was general manager: “Mississippi Mortuary Services,” Mississippi Better Business Bureau, www.bbb.org/mississippi/business-reviews/funeral-related-services/mississippi-mortuary-services-in-pearl-ms-183142889/reviews-and-complaints.

  nothing of the sort: Deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 26, 2012), 91–92; see Adam Lynch, “Shipping Off Bodies,” Jackson (MS) Free Press, March 18, 2005.

  “no safety precautions.”: Former Mississippi official, interview by Radley Balko.

  “sausage factory.”: J. D. Sanders, interview by Radley Balko.

  “barely bend his fingers.”: Ken Winter, interview by Radley Balko.

  “that is just outrageous.”: Deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 27, 2012), 134.

  “concerned about cross contamination”: J. D. Sanders, interview by David Fechheimer, Oct. 27, 2011; Sanders, interview by Balko.

  “claims to have followed.”: L. W. “Bump” Calloway, interview by David Fechheimer, Feb. 25, 2012.

  by Jimmy Roberts’s wife: Deposition of Michael West, Hayne v. Innocence Project (March 13, 2012), 174.

  “the Stinker Room.”: Ibid., 178–179.

  advertisement for their services: Grace Simmons, “Special Photo Technique Can Expose Child Abuse,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Dec. 8, 1991.

  West resigned instead: Andrew Murr, “A Dentist Takes the Stand,” Newsweek, Aug. 19, 2001.
/>   “outside the field of forensic odontology.”: ABFO Ethics Committee Report, Complaint 93-B, March 25, 1994, contained in letter from Dr. Richard Souviron, chairman ABFO Ethics Committee, to Gary L. Bell, president American Board of Forensic Odontology, March 25, 1994.

  suspended him for one year: Ibid.

  “in order to support his testimony”: AAFS Ethics Committee Report, Case No. 143, April 13, 1994; Murr, “A Dentist Takes the Stand.”

  before he could be expelled: AAFS Ethics Committee Report, Case No. 143; ABFO Ethics Committee Report, Complaint 93-B; Murr, “A Dentist Takes the Stand.”

  “draw these kinds of distinctions.”: Sources for Larry Maxwell narrative: Larry Maxwell v. Lauderdale County, 119 F.3d 3 (5th Cir. 1997); Hansen, “Out of the Blue”; letter from John Holdridge to Arkansas Post Prison Transfer Board (undated); Levon Brooks v. State of Mississippi, 748 So.2d 736 (Miss. 1999) (McRae, J., dissenting); Holdridge, interview.

  “which one they believe.”: Holdridge, interview.

  strap on the victim’s purse: Arnold Lindsay, “Coldwater Slaying Victim, 28, Raped, Strangled, Officials Say,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), May 27, 1991; letter from Dr. Michael West to Robert Williams, District Attorney (May 29, 1991); law enforcement notes, capital murder investigation, Grace Ford Wiseman, May 24–25, 1991.

  used to threaten the victim: Stacie Lynn Waltman v. State of Mississippi, 734 So.2d 324 (1999).

  which exonerated his client: Simons, affidavit; Amanda L. Myers, “Men Wrongly Convicted or Arrested on Bite Evidence,” Yahoo! News, June 16, 2013; Hansen, “Out of the Blue.”

  openly about killing his wife: Traces of Guilt, BBC, Oct. 8, 1995; Hansen, “Out of the Blue.”

  “by the teeth of Tony Keko”: Keko v. Hingle, 1999 WL 508406.

  “where he had bit her at.”: John Stossel, “Junk Science: What You Know That May Not Be So Scientific: Theories That May Be Wrong,” ABC News, Aug. 28, 1997.

  “such a nice guy?’”: Murr, “A Dentist Takes the Stand.”

  judge ordered a new trial: Judgment, Defense Motion #55, Motion for New Trial for Newly Discovered Evidence, State of Louisiana v. Anthony Keko, case no. 92-3292, Twenty-Fifth Judicial District Court, Parish of Plaquemines, Louisiana (Dec. 14, 1994); “Reasons for Judgment,” State of Louisiana v. Anthony Keko, case no. 92-3292, Twenty-Fifth Judicial District Court, Parish of Plaquemines, Louisiana (Nov. 27, 1996).

  only dental mold West analyzed: Steve Cannizaro, “Murder Witness’ Fairness Questioned,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), May 10, 1996.

  Louise Keko’s murder remains unsolved: Judgment, Defense Motion #55, Motion for New Trial for Newly Discovered Evidence, State of Louisiana v. Anthony Keko; “Reasons for Judgment,” State of Louisiana v. Anthony Keko.

  on ABC News: Murr, “A Dentist Takes the Stand”; Hansen, “Out of the Blue”; Coyle, “Daubert vs. Frye”; Traces of Guilt; Stossel, “Junk Science.”

  “one heck of a witness.”: Hansen, “Out of the Blue.”

  “ACLU types.”: James Gill, “Was the Right to a Fair Trial Denied?” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), June 12, 1994. Sources for Anthony Keko narrative: Hansen, “Out of the Blue”; Anthony G. Keko v. I.F. Hingle, 318 F.3d 639 (5th Cir. 2003); “Judgment, Defense Motion #55, Motion for New Trial for Newly Discovered Evidence,” State of Louisiana v. Anthony Keko; “Reasons for Judgment,” State of Louisiana v. Anthony Keko; letter from Michael West to Chuck Bowles, Oct. 12, 1992; Cannizaro, “Murder Witness’ Fairness Questioned”; Gill, “Was the Right to a Fair Trial Denied?”; Stossel, “Junk Science”; Traces of Guilt: The Verdict, BBC, Jan. 4, 1996; Coyle, “Daubert vs. Frye”; Joanna Weiss, “Forensic Tests Are Questioned in Murder Trial,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Sept. 30, 1994; Carlos Campos, “Buras Oysterman Heading to Trial in Wife’s Murder,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), April 17, 1993; Carlos Campos, “Husband Is Guilty in Killing—Jury to Decide Keko’s Sentence,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Oct. 11, 1993; Steve Cannizaro, “Buras Man May Beat Murder Rap a Second Time,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Dec. 21, 1996; Appellant’s Brief, Anthony G. Keko v. I.F. Hingle et al., case no. 01-30622 (U.S. Ct. of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Sept. 4, 2001).

  disciplined him were a “joke”: Coyle, “Daubert vs. Frye.”

  “vastly ignorant.”: Ibid.

  since perfected the technique: Ibid.

  “ahead of his time.”: Ibid.

  different law enforcement publications: Dr. Michael West, curriculum vitae, March 30, 2006.

  address and phone number: Dr. Michael H. West and Dr. Steven Hayne, “Alternative Light Sources for Trace Evidence Can Lead to Higher Conviction Rates,” Kodak Publications 1 (1992): 911.

  “what the state told us.”: Tommy Ferrell, interview by Radley Balko.

  they have often gone unenforced: Lloyd White, interviews by Radley Balko; Radley Balko, “CSI: Mississippi,” Reason, Oct. 8, 2007.

  quickly embalmed and buried: Lloyd White, interviews by Radley Balko; Lloyd White, “‘Nightmare’ in the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office,” letter to the editor, Advocate (Jackson, MS), July 8–14, 1993.

  “roughshod over people’s civil rights.”: Balko, “CSI Mississippi.”

  fight-the-battles-you-can-win approach: White, interviews by Balko; Lloyd White, interview by Tucker Carrington, Sept. 2016.

  it was an internal matter: Grace Simmons, “State Medical Examiner Placed on Leave,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), April 1, 1992.

  fired the following month: Grace Simmons, “Ex-Medical Examiner Says ‘Disagreement’ Cost Him His Job,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), May 6, 1992.

  wanted Hayne to have White’s job: Lloyd White, Jim Ingram, and unnamed former state officials in Mississippi, interviews by Radley Balko.

  “banish him from the state.”: Charles Tisdale, editor’s note to White included in, “‘Nightmare’ in the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office.”

  “the most firebombed newspaper in America.”: Jocelyn Y. Stewart, “Charles Tisdale, 80; Used Mississippi Newspaper to Fight Bias,” Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2007; Hazel Trice Edney, “Charles Tisdale, Black Publisher, Passes at 80,” St. Louis American, July 19, 2007.

  “None.”: Peter Applebome, “Death in Jailhouse: The Ruling, a Suicide; The Fear, a Lynching,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 1993.

  “state employees and officials.”: White, “‘Nightmare’ in the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office.”

  black man who had died in police custody: Beverly Pettigrew Kraft, “Ex-Medical Examiner: Method of Probing Jail Deaths ‘Sham,’” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Aug. 18, 1994.

  $125,000 per year in salary and benefits: Letter from Jim Ingram, Mississippi Public Safety commissioner, to Ronald Crowe, executive director, Mississippi Ethics Commission, July 2, 1992.

  the certification requirement: White, “‘Nightmare’ in the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office.”

  just on state-referred autopsy fees: Letter from Ingram, to Crowe. According to Ingram’s letter, Hayne was doing about 80 percent of the state’s autopsies at the time, at $500 per autopsy. Ingram wrote that there were 1,263 autopsies in the state in 1991. If Hayne did 80 percent, he performed over 1,000. At $500 each, he grossed over $500,000.

  “state and local government.”: Ronald Crowe, executive director, Mississippi Ethics Commission, “Advisory Opinion No. 92-132-E,” Mississippi Ethics Commission, July 10, 1992.

  “perform the public duty.”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 9: THE TRIAL OF LEVON BROOKS

  birthed a black, loamy soil: Roy B. Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, “The Mississippi’s Curious Origins,” Scientific American (Jan. 2007): 75–82B; John A. Barone, “Historical Presence and Distribution of Prairies in the Black Belt of Mississippi and Alabama,” Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, April 1, 2005.

  any other county in the belt: Barone, “Historical Presence and Distribution of Prairies.”

  the Delta or the Black Prairie Belt: Stuart Bruchey, Cotton and
the Growth of the American Economy, 1790–1860 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967), Table 3-C; see Report on the Statistics of Agriculture, Eleventh Census: 1890 (Washington, DC: Census Office, Department of the Interior, 1895).

  three times the size of its white population: Dunbar Rowland, ed., Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (Atlanta: Southern Historical Publishing Association, 1907); Eugene R. Dattel, “Cotton in a Global Economy,” Mississippi History Now, Oct. 2006, http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/161/cotton-in-a-global-economy-mississippi-1800-1860.

  “negro problem.”: David M. Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice (New York: Free Press, 1996), 20.

  labor in the form of prison inmates: Ibid., 20–21.

  meant returning to the plantation: Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (New York: Anchor, 2008), 66.

  worked for decades: Levon Brooks, interviews by Tucker Carrington.

  “Just old enough.”: Tom Blake, transcriber, “Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches for Native Americans on 1870 Census in Noxubee County, Mississippi,” 2001, http: //freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ajac/msnoxubee.htm; Levon Brooks, Annie Brewer, and Kennedy Brewer, interviews by Tucker Carrington.

  “followed by their murder.”: United States Congress, Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, 73 (2d Sess. 1872).

  murders in Noxubee County alone: Ibid.

  “outside world would at least care”: Daniel J. Singal, Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union Papers, 1934–1970 (Glen Rock, NJ: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1971).

  “cutting the whole sack off”: Letter from J. R. Butler to Walter White, March 27, 1940, microfilmed on Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union Papers 1934–1970, Fiche 14, University of Southern Mississippi.

  Their names are lost to history: John R. Steelman, “A Study of Mob Action in the South” (PhD diss., University of North Carolina, 1928), 203, 263.

 

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