The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist

by Radley Balko

  “near-total speculation.”: Letter from Harry J. Bonnell to Dan W. Duggan, Nov. 24, 2004.

  his work in the case: Deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 26, 2012), 168–170.

  the defendant was acquitted: Robert Evans, interview by Radley Balko; “Jury Finds Eric Jones Not Guilty of Murder,” Prentiss (MS) Headlight, Feb. 5, 1999; Jane Doe autopsy report, Feb. 15, 2008.

  done so in self-defense: Tavares Antoine Flaggs v. State of Mississippi, 999 So.2d 393 (Miss. Ct. App. 2008).

  hadn’t been defending himself: Ibid.

  National Academy of Sciences: National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009), 177; see also President’s Council of Advisors of Science and Technology, Report to the President—Forensic Science and Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature-Comparison Methods, Sept. 2016.

  only as a pathologist: Flaggs v. State of Mississippi.

  “defensive posturing injury.”: Ibid.

  “whose blood it was.”: Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, Tavares Antoine Flaggs v. State of Mississippi, No. 2012-M-1848, Nov. 2012, 23.

  even examined those: Ibid., 61.

  to find Flaggs guilty: Response Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, Tavares Antoine Flaggs v. State of Mississippi, March 6, 2013, 12–13.

  one of Flaggs’s later appeals: Jonathan Turley, “Fifth Circuit Dismisses Challenge of Conviction Based on the Testimony of Discredited Mississippi Pathologist,” Res Ipsa Loquitor, March 6, 2014, https: //jonathanturley.org/2014/03/06/fifth-circuit-dismisses-challenge-of-conviction-based-on-the-testimony-of-discredited-mississippi-pathologist.

  “about the law each day.”: Letter from Kennedy Brewer to Thomas Kessler (undated).

  “would highly appreciated.”: Letter from Kennedy Brewer to Mrs. Greene, Oct. 26, 2000.

  CHAPTER 13: THE UNRAVELING

  to accommodate Hayne’s schedule: Former Jimmy Roberts employee, interview by Radley Balko.

  parted ways with Roberts: 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), 154–158.

  It was invented: See generally Deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 26–27, 2012).

  classes to coroners: Designated Pathologist Agreement, June 19, 2006; see deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 27, 2012), 59–60.

  his private autopsy practice: Designated Pathologist Agreement, June 19, 2006. This allows Hayne to accept fees for county autopsies, plus pay $100 to use the lab for private autopsies for parishes in Louisiana.

  professional life: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne,” calendar prepared by Mississippi Crime lab; list of cases in which Steven Hayne gave expert testimony.

  eighteen-month period in 2007 and 2008: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony.

  in Jackson and performed four autopsies: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony; Stewart v. City of Jackson, et al.

  performed three more: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony; State of Mississippi v. Robert McKinley.

  and completed five: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony; see State of Mississippi v. Johnathan Jones.

  four more autopsies: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony; see State of Mississippi v. Kendal McCray; State of Mississippi v. Antonio Knowles.

  six more autopsies: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne.”

  Clarksdale in the Delta: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony; see State of Mississippi v. Dewayne Earl.

  Magnolia: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony, see State of Mississippi v. Eric Williams.

  Columbia in the far south: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony; see State of Mississippi v. Ralph Luter Jr.

  Forest in central Mississippi: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony, see State of Mississippi v. Isaac Jermaine Nelson and Craig Leshoun McBeath.

  knocked out seven autopsies: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne.”

  he testified in Jackson, Hazlehurst, Tunica, and Yazoo City: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne gave expert testimony; see State of Mississippi v. Harvey Williams; State of Mississippi v. John Ray Newell; State of Mississippi v. Jarvis Hill; and State of Mississippi v. Micah Ruffin.

  nine autopsies: “Number of Autopsies Performed by Steven Hayne”; list of cases in which Steven Hayne provided expert testimony.

  over $100,000 per year: Deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 26, 2012), 80.

  The victim was male: J. Stewart Parrish, interview by Tucker Carrington.

  removed four years earlier: Complaint, Estate of Randy Lynn Cheney v. Wanda Collier et al., No. 4:09-CV-00111-P-S (N.D. Miss. Oct. 26, 2009); Steven T. Hayne, final report of autopsy, AME# 8-Q5-07, Aug. 30, 2007; Northern Mississippi Medical Center, Department of Pathology, tissue examination for Randy Cheney, Nov. 28, 2003; deposition of Dr. Steven Hayne, Hayne v. Innocence Project (April 26, 2012), 238–239. When confronted with this discrepancy, Hayne explained in a 2012 deposition that a new spleen must have grown in place of the old. Ibid. (“Well, you know, an accessory spleen can go in the size of the original spleen. So that would be my interpretation of what occurred.”).

  a company official said: Elizabeth Crisp, “Camden Mother Wants Kids Back,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), May 28, 2008.

  eighteen months in jail: Crisp, “Camden Mother Wants Kids Back”; Elizabeth Crisp, “Murder Charge Dropped Against Camden Mother,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), May 24, 2008; Andrew Nelson, “Woman Charged in Death of Her Baby,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Aug. 10, 2006.

  shared with her husband, Joey: Donna Ladd and Valerie Wells, “Rush to Judgment: Trying Kids as Adults,” Jackson (MS) Free Press, Dec. 1, 2010; Tyler Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 787 (Miss. 2007); Tyler Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 864 (Miss. Ct. App. 2006).

  from getting the death penalty: Tyler Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 787 (Miss. 2007); Tyler Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 864 (Miss. Ct. App. 2006); Ladd and Wells, “Rush to Judgment.”

  “want to see me fry”: Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 787.

  “found in Mr. Fulgham?”: Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 864.

  “of anybody’s expertise”: Ibid.

  hold a hearing: Ibid.

  “with the facts that I saw.”: Ibid.

  “positioning of the weapon.”: Ibid.

  psychiatrist or social scientist: Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 787 (Diaz, J., concurring).

  sentenced to death: Kristi Fulgham v. State of Mississippi, 46 So.3d 315 (Miss. 2010). Fulgham was later resentenced to life in prison.

  Edmonds would have missed: Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 864.

  “killed Joey Fulgham.”: Ibid. (emphasis added).

  evidence from Allison Redlich: Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, 955 So.2d 787.

  testify in Mississippi’s courts: Ibid. (Diaz, J., concurring) (“this Court should not qualify Dr. Hayne as an expert in forensic pathology”; “This Court cannot qualify Dr. Hayne as an expert”).

  Edmonds’s taped confession: Ibid.

  reversed their vo
tes: Oliver Diaz, interview by Radley Balko.

  quickly acquitted: Sources for Edmonds narrative: “Edmonds Acquitted of Killing Brother-in-Law,” Enterprise-Journal (McComb, MS), Nov. 2, 2008; Tyler Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, No. 2004-CT-02081-SCT (May 10, 2007); Tyler Edmonds v. State of Mississippi, No. 2004-KA-02081-COA (April 25, 2006).

  saw as a maternal figure: Ladd and Wells, “Rush to Judgment”; Donna Ladd, “Tyler Edmonds Says He’s ‘Dusting Off’ After 5th Circuit Loss,” Jackson (MS) Free-Press, March 27, 2012.

  second comment: Forrest Allgood, email interview by Radley Balko. Allgood’s complete answer: I have no recollection of refusing to meet with the lawyers if Brewer was present, but candidly, that sounds right. In spite of what you see on TV, meeting with the defendant is not a good idea. He can say you said anything, and the only people you can rely on to refute it is the defense lawyers who may not be your friend and have agendas of their own. It’s bad practice and I rarely did it. I did so on occasion only when I knew and trusted the defense lawyer.

  The conversation you relate is a case in point. I did not say, “You really believe in this science stuff, don’t you?” I did say, “Everybody’s got to believe in something.” My recollection is that they made an initiating comment. People hear/perceive largely what they expect to hear and perceive. That’s colored by their past experiences. That’s why if you stand 5 people on a street corner you’ll get at least 3 different versions of how the car wreck occurred. Somebody isn’t always lying when there are contradictory versions of events. They just remember things differently.

  I have never “disbelieved” in DNA. I used it in trials before Brooks and Brewer, if I recall correctly. At the time, it could only test the allele at DQa and wasn’t much more discriminating than an ABO blood test. That said, there are different ways to interpret what you find. Just because Brooks’s or Brewer’s DNA wasn’t found in the victim’s vaginal vault doesn’t mean they didn’t participate in the kidnapping/killing. The Mississippi Supreme Court observed as much when they refused to render Brewer’s case and sent it back for retrial. Then too, DNA can give you a false negative, but it can never give a false positive. That said, Justin Albert Johnson’s profile was developed, and I have no doubt that he engaged in intercourse with both victims.

  In short, they believed in DNA. I believed in my case. The circumstances of the child’s disappearance were powerful, and I would have retried Brewer had I been able to remain in the case. When the initial post-conviction filing was made on Brewer, I could have fought the DNA testing. I didn’t, something else you falsely reported about me. In fact, I agreed to it. That is not the action of a reckless, glory seeking prosecutor just seeking to convict anybody, which is how I’ve been painted.

  “he just isn’t going to stop.”: André de Gruy, interview by Radley Balko; Peter Neufeld, interview by Tucker Carrington.

  “to the rule of law.”: Sources for James Ford Seale narrative: Donna Ladd, “I Want Justice, Too,” Jackson Free Press, July 20, 2005; “The Dee and Moore case,” Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, Northeastern University School of Law, www.northeastern.edu/law/academics/institutes/crrj/case-watch/dee.html; “Cold Case: James Ford Seale: A Sheriff’s Election, Nine Deaths and a Silver Dollar,” Concordia (Parish, LA) Sentinel, Oct. 2, 2009; FBI Memo, Nov. 6, 1964, #JN 62-5, http://lsucoldcaseproject.com/blog/tag/monroe; Donna Ladd, “James Ford Seale: A Trail of Documents Tells the Story,” Jackson (MS) Free Press, Jan. 31, 2007; Trial transcript, United States v. James Ford Seale; Shaila Dewan, “Push to Resolve Fading Killings of Rights Era,” New York Times, Feb. 3, 2007; Reply Brief for Appellant, United States v. James Ford Seale, 2008 WL 7909282 (5th Cir. March 31, 2008); Harry N. Maclean, The Past Is Never Dead: The Trial of James Ford Seale and Mississippi’s Struggle for Redemption (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2009); United States v. James Ford Seale, No. 07-60732 (Fifth Circuit Ct. of Appeals March 12, 2010) (DeMoss, J., dissenting and concurring in part).

  CHAPTER 14: REDEMPTION AND INSURRECTION

  “hurt him with a jury,”: André de Gruy, interview by Radley Balko.

  mentally disabled: Motion to Preclude from Seeking the Death Penalty Due to Mental Retardation, State of Mississippi v. Kennedy Brewer, Cause No. 5999 (May 11, 2005).

  “given it up a long time ago?”: de Gruy, interview.

  never apologized to Brewer: Ibid.

  “to grieve for that little girl”: Ibid.

  “then he may be released.”: Transcript of record, State of Mississippi v. Kennedy Brewer, No. 94-16-CR1 (Lowndes Cnty. Circ. Ct. March 21, 1995) (hereinafter “Brewer trial transcript”), 1081–1082.

  thinking about oligonucleotides: Kary B. Mullis and Michael Smith, “The Polymerase Chain Reaction,” Nobel Prize Lecture, Dec. 8, 1993.

  “Ed Blake is Ted Williams.”: Peter Boyer, “DNA on Trial,” New Yorker, Jan. 17, 2000.

  consistent, conclusive results: See Kelly M. Pyrek, Forensic Science Under Siege: The Challenges of Forensic Laboratories and the Medico-Legal Investigation System (Boston: Elsevier Academic, 2007).

  starving him to death: Stephen G. Michaud, “DNA Detectives,” New York Times, Nov. 6, 1988.

  two other men had raped Christine Jackson: Reliagene Technologies Inc., report, June 22, 2001.

  “killing ground.”: Brewer trial transcript, 991–993.

  finished having sex: Forensic Science Associates, report (July 17, 2007), 72–75.

  There was only one: Ibid., 72–75.

  DNA couldn’t therefore exonerate him: Shaila Dewan, “Despite DNA Test, a Case Is Retried,” New York Times, Sept. 6, 2007.

  up and running for years: Ibid. In a 2017 email interview, Allgood again said that the state did not have its own state DNA database at that time, but he was able to access the FBI’s, though he was unaware of this at the time.

  took over as special prosecutor: Forrest Allgood, “District Attorney Offers Comments on Brewer, Brooks Cases,” Macon (MS) Beacon, Aug. 7, 2008.

  belonged to Justin Johnson: Dr. Edward Blake, interview by Joe York and Tucker Carrington, June 26, 2009.

  and took a left: See Justin Albert Johnson, interview by Danny Welch, Feb. 7, 2008; interview by Ronnie Odom, Feb. 5, 2008.

  green clapboard cottage: Johnson, interview by Danny Welch.

  knocked on the front door: Ibid.

  to the crime scene: Ibid.

  still alive, into the creek: Ibid.

  parking near a pond: Ibid.

  entering the bedroom: Ibid.; Justin Albert Johnson, interview by Ronny Evans, Clay Baines, and Danny Welch, Feb. 4, 2008.

  never bit either girl: Johnson, interview by Evans, Baines, and Welch, Feb. 4, 2008.

  “Without DNA, He’d Be Dead”: Jerry Mitchell, “Brewer Cleared in ’92 Slaying of Child,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Feb. 16, 2008.

  “back the time and loss.”: Ibid.

  “free to go.”: Jerry Mitchell, Ibid.

  without the possibility of parole: State of Mississippi v. Justin Albert Johnson, No. 2008-026 (Noxubee Cnty. Circuit Ct. April 9, 2012).

  “had to be done”: Blake, interview.

  “strength of our system.”: Ibid.

  “daughter of time.”: Allgood, “District Attorney Offers Comments on Brewer, Brooks Cases.”

  “truism, not a revelation”: Kansas v. Marsh, 548 U.S. 163 (2006) (Scalia, J., concurring); Joshua Marquis, “The Myth of Innocence,” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 95 (2005): 501.

  “Just go on with your life.”: Mississippi Innocence, directed by Joe York, Center for Media and Documentary Projects at the University of Mississippi, 2011.

  “in the kidnapping/killing”: Forrest Allgood, email interview by Radley Balko.

  “remain in the case”: Ibid.

  “No one died.”: Mississippi Innocence.

  NASCAR-themed license plates: Richard Fausset, “Mississippi Moves to Fix Autopsy System,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 6, 2008.

  autopsies in the state lab: S
teve Simpson, letter to Steven Hayne, Aug. 4, 2008.

  “he has not been terminated.”: Radley Balko, “Mississippi Official Fires Dr. Hayne, Then Praises Him,” Reason, Aug. 5, 2008.

  he’d be doing none: Jerry Mitchell, “State to Hire Autopsy Expert,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Aug. 6, 2008.

  National Association of Medical Examiners: Ibid.

  false evidence in a number of cases: Mark Hansen, “Crime Labs Under the Microscope After a Sting of Shoddy, Suspect, and Fraudulent Results,” American Bar Association Journal (Sept. 1, 2013).

  as many as 134 people: Paul C. Giannelli and Kevin C. McMunigal, “Prosecutors, Ethics, and Expert Witnesses,” Fordham Law Review 76 (2007): 1493.

  on drug charges: Brian Haas, “Dr. Levy Moves Beyond Arrest,” Tennessean, Dec. 12, 2010.

  respected medical examiner: Ibid.

  and a state lab in Ohio: Brian Rogers, Cindy George, and Keri Blakinger, “Crime-Scene Errors Put 65 Cases Under Review, Audit Finds,” Houston Chronicle, April 12, 2017; Tony Plohetski, “2,200 Convicted Persons to Be Notified of Austin DNA Lab Problems,” Austin American-Statesman, Feb. 9, 2017; Caitlin Doornbos, “Personnel File Shows Extent of Orange County Fingerprint Examiner’s Alleged Mistakes,” Orlando Sentinel, March 19, 2017; Jonathan Quilter, “Questions About Ex-BCI Scientist May Cast Doubt on Convictions,” Columbus (OH) Dispatch, Oct. 30, 2016; “Another Oregon State Police Crime Lab Is Under Investigation,” Associated Press, March 10, 2016; Justin Zaremba, “Lab Tech Allegedly Faked Result in Drug Case; 7,827 Criminal Cases Now in Question,” NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, March 2, 2016; Vic Lee, “Whistleblower: San Francisco Crime Lab Scandal Dates Back Years,” ABC 7 News, April 6, 2015; Tracey Kaplan, “Santa Clara County: Doubts About Forensic Test Could Undermine Dozens of Sex Cases,” San Jose Mercury-News, Dec. 3, 2016; R. Scott Moxley, “Orange County’s Crime Lab Accused of Doctoring DNA Analysis in Murder Cases,” OC Weekly, Sept. 27, 2017; Antonia Noori Fazan, “Approximately 2,000 Closed Cases Could Be Reopened Due to BSO Crime Lab Flaws,” Broward–Palm Beach (FL) New Times, Sept. 30, 2016; Lynh Bui, “Pr. George’s Police Investigating DNA Lab Operations, Suspended Employee,” Washington Post, April 1, 2017.