Framing Mississippi: Balko Nails the Real Perps

Steven Hayne and Michael West, forensic examiners for the state of Mississippi and beyond, have been the subject of alarm and criticism for close to two decades. No man has gone after the deadly duo with more tenacity than Reason's Radley Balko. His sleuthing has turned up a sheaf of damaging information over time, producing an ugly picture of two incredibly shoddy, corner-cutting, defendant-framing good ol' boys whose "expert" testimony was anything but.

Today, Radley produced a piece of evidence so damning that I can only imagine it must end at least West's forensic career, and possibly Hayne's too.

If the wheels of justice work at all, it should also bring about a thorough review of scores of murder cases that most likely ended in wrongful convictions.

What's the evidence? It's way better than a smoking gun. It's a video of what we're told is Michael West, repeatedly using a cast of a suspect's teeth to create "tell-tale" marks and abrasions on a deceased child's previously unblemished cheek. He presses the dental mold into the girl's dead flesh more than fifty times. It's so brazen and out-there, it has to be seen to be believed.

You can guess what happened next.

[E]ven though the only physical evidence directly linking him to the girl was the bite-mark analysis, Jimmie Duncan was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He has been on death row in Louisiana for 10 years.

It's not just Duncan. These lab-coat-wearing sickos may have done essentially the same thing to hundreds if not thousands of other people.

The only thing I just can't figure out: Why did West or one of his associates videotape the creation of the false evidence? With exquisite close-ups, no less? They must have understood the terrible risk involved in documenting that clearly illegal, ghoulish act. And why did they not destroy the tape after it had served whatever purpose it was intended to serve?

When I e-mailed him, Radley would only speculate off the record, saying that as far as the making of the video goes, he simply can't prove what he believes might have gone on in the minds of West and his accomplice. Fair enough, though that saddles the story with a bit of an unsatisfying mystery. For now.

Regardless: I now believe West will eventually have to stand trial himself, which is delicious. I hope, despite everything, that he'll enjoy the benefit of a truth-seeking justice system that relies on bona fide, non-manufactured evidence to weigh the matter of his guilt or innocence.

Comments

[Phelps]

It looks to me like he was trying to create video that shows how he "matched up" the cast to the "injuries". He probably intended it so that he only showed the second part, and didn't think that there would be video from the day before with no marks whatsoever.

And both men should have been thrown under the jail long ago.

[burt hoovis]

Radley Balko is THE MAN.

Thanks,
Burt

[hermesten]

I remember years ago the cops in the part of the country where I lived video taping themselves beating up illegal immigrants. They did it because it makes them feel powerful, superior, and untouchable. These guys may simply feel immune from any consequences, and apparently, such a feeling is not unreasonable. After all, they have been getting away with it, haven't they? You think the cops and the prosecuting attorneys and judges don't know what these guys are doing? If so, I've got a really great treasure map I can sell you.