Allegations continue to grow against Mississippi pathologist

In the wake of the Feb. 15 hearings that cleared two Innocence Project clients after a combined three decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit, more allegations of misconduct have been raised against medical examiner Steven Hayne and forensic dentist Michael West. An attorney for a New York woman charged with manslaughter in the death of her daughter has asked for a state review of Hayne’s finding that the victim was suffocated. But since Mississippi has lacked a state medical examiner since the mid-1990s, there is not an official avenue to review Hayne’s findings. The Innocence Project sent a letter Feb. 14 to the commissioner of the Mississippi Dept. of Public Safety, asking him to appoint a State Medical Examiner immediately.

Read today’s article here

. (Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 02/25/08)

And Reason Magazine Senior Editor Radley Balko has continued to report the results of his extensive investigations into Hayne’s conduct. Balko’s post Thursday on the Reason Magazine blog examined a Louisiana murder case in which Hayne and West testified regarding bite marks and sexual assault, leading Jimmie Christian Duncan to be sentenced to death. Duncan’s lawyers at the Louisiana Capital Post-Conviction Project have said there is evidence pointing to Duncan’s innocence and more misconduct by Hayne and West.

Read more here

. (Reason, 02/21/2008)

Read Balko's post today on the "The Bite-Marks Men: Mississippi's criminal forensics disaster"

Watch television news coverage of Hayne’s controversial autopsies

. (WLBT, Jackson, MS)