On Death Row
Hayne’s testimony hasn’t just
sent people to prison. In more than one case, it has helped someone
land on death row.
Consider Jeffrey Havard, convicted in 2002 of killing his then-girlfriend’s six-month-old daughter. Havard claims he was bathing the child when she slipped from his hands and hit her head on the toilet. But Hayne testified at Havard’s trial that bruises, scratches, and cranial bleeding indicated a case of shaken baby syndrome. Hayne also testified that the child’s anus was dilated, indicating sexual abuse. The DNA evidence was inconclusive: Havard’s DNA was not found on the baby, but both his DNA and hers were found on a sheet from the bed where she had gone to sleep that night, which was also the bed Havard shared with his girlfriend.
Because there were no witnesses to the incident, the evidence of sexual abuse was key to securing Havard’s conviction and death sentence; the charge was “murder in the commission of sexual battery.” Havard, who had no money, was assigned a public defender. His lawyer was suspicious of Hayne’s conclusions and at trial asked the court for funds to hire an independent pathologist to review Hayne’s findings. The judge refused, ruling that Hayne, the prosecution’s witness, was qualified and sufficient.
After Havard was convicted, attorneys from Mississippi’s post-conviction relief office, which represents indigent defendants in their appeals, were able to get James Lauridson, Alabama’s former state medical examiner, to review Hayne’s work in the Havard case. According to an affidavit he filed with the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2004, Lauridson found significant problems with Hayne’s testimony. Most notably, factors not related to abuse—e.g., rigor mortis—can often cause the anus to dilate after death.
In February 2006 the Mississippi State Supreme Court nevertheless upheld Havard’s conviction. It refused even to consider Lauridson’s review of Hayne’s work, ruling that any expert testimony refuting Hayne’s conclusions had to have been introduced at trial. Havard’s attorney had tried to do that, of course, but the trial judge denied him the necessary money.
As unfair as this sounds, it isn’t at all out of the ordinary. Indigent defendants by definition can’t afford to hire their own experts. (This is one reason it’s important that state medical examiners and forensic experts retain their independence from prosecutors’ offices.) Post-conviction relief offices, which are usually established at the state level and are better funded, sometimes have the money to hire independent experts, but these offices typically don’t take a case until it’s already in the appeals phase. At that point, courts are extremely reluctant to consider new evidence, particularly expert testimony.
The Havard case is now entering a second round of appeals. Lauridson and Havard’s lawyers wouldn’t discuss the case for this article, citing the ongoing appeal (though Lauridson did call it “a miscarriage of justice”). But according to the court clerk, at press time the case was being delayed because Hayne wouldn’t turn his autopsy records over to Havard’s defense team for review.
Hayne’s Qualifications
According to his
curriculum vitae, Hayne attended medical school at Brown University
from 1974 to 1976 and completed his medical internship in 1976 at
the Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco. After
practicing medicine in California, Kentucky, and Alabama, he came
to Mississippi in 1987. He began doing autopsies for the state’s
county coroners, elected officials who are not necessarily
physicians, shortly thereafter.
Hayne briefly served as Mississippi’s interim state medical examiner in 1987 and 1988 but was forced to step down because he wasn’t qualified for the job. Under Mississippi law, the state medical examiner must be certified in forensic pathology by the American Board of Pathology, the standard certifying organization in the profession. Though Hayne routinely testifies under oath that he is “board certified” in “forensic pathology,” he isn’t, at least as the phrase is understood by most of his peers. Instead, Hayne says he’s certified by other organizations that are considerably less reputable.
“When you say you’re ‘certified,’ it means the American Board of Pathology,” says Joseph Prahlow, NAME’s president. Told that Hayne routinely testifies that he is “certified” even though he never passed the American Board of Pathology exam, Prahlow replies, “That is very disturbing to me. There’s definitely a problem with that.”
Hayne has testified that he did attempt to take the American Board of Pathology’s certification test in the 1980s but failed the exam after walking out in the middle of it. (He said the questions were “absurd.”) So he can’t serve as state medical examiner because he failed the certification exam, but he has spent the last 20 years doing most of the state’s forensic autopsies anyway.
One of the groups Hayne lists on his C.V., the American Academy of Forensic Examiners, doesn’t seem to exist. Some forensic experts interviewed for this article say it is an alternate name for the American College of Forensic Examiners, which has been criticized by legal experts as a mail-order outfit where the only necessary qualification is a check. Consistent with that reputation, Hayne has testified that the American Academy of Forensic Examiners “grandfathered” him into certification without an exam.
In the past Hayne has listed another certifying group, the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons. It no longer offers specialty certifications in forensic pathology. The forensic experts I interviewed for this article had never even heard of it. The doctor the group sent to proctor Hayne’s exam for the organization has since been indicted on felony charges and no longer practices medicine.
An Absence of Oversight
In Mississippi, as
in many states, elected county coroners are in charge of death
investigations. Traditionally such systems include a state medical
examiner’s office to make sure the coroners are referring bodies to
reputable, board-certified forensic pathologists. But while
Mississippi law calls for a board-certified state medical examiner
to oversee the process, the office has been vacant since 1995. The
legislature refuses to fund it. Autopsy fees come from individual
counties, not the state treasury. So there’s no one at the state
level assessing the quality of the autopsies done in
Mississippi.
With so little oversight, underqualified Mississippi coroners and politically driven district attorneys can shop autopsies and the fees that come with them to their favorite medical examiners, such as Hayne. Hayne charges about $550 per autopsy. According to several sources, Hayne receives fees for other services, such as drawing fluids or sending tissue to a lab for testing. He then gets $195 per hour for trial preparation and testimony. That’s just for state cases. If a county coroner brings a body to him at the request of a plaintiff’s attorney for a private tort action, Hayne has said in depositions, he charges $1,500 or more, plus $375 per hour for trial preparation and testimony.
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ftyert
|7.1.11 @ 5:56PM|#
This is unbelievable. How can they let Hayne get away with this? I blame the District Attorney's Office in Mississippi.
|7.1.11 @ 11:54PM|#
I blame the whole goddamned state of Mississippi. Honestly, that entire area is a mess, crooked politicians, crooked cops, promoted segregation, resisted the civil-rights act, one of the worst slave states, one of the most regressive tax systems next to Alabama, lowest educational standards, highest percentage of minimum-wage jobs per capita, I could go on and on. The whole state needs to be taken over by the federal government, all of its citizens forcibly educated into the 21st Century, mostly the white cracker dipshits to get rid of the racists, fundies, crooks, good-ole-boys, rednecks, and other idiots.
Cynthia Henley|8.10.11 @ 11:46PM|#
It is this kind of crap that leads to the imposition of the death penalty against innocent people, and allows guilty people to continue to remain free. This man should be prosecuted and put in prison for life. Not only did he affect the people in whose cases he testified or provided opinions, but he has caused a negative effect on the entire criminal "justice" system - creating more suspicion and fear among people. People need to also understand that he didn't bamboozle the prosecutors who used him - they knew what he was all about but they did not care. As with many prosecutors, these people were at the "win at all costs" time of their lives - caring more about themselves and their stats than truth, justice, and the protection of the community. THEY should be prosecuted, too. As a criminal defense lawyer, I can tell you that this type of crap, and these people, are not isolated. It happens everywhere. And, unless the defendant is filthy rich, the defense does NOT have access to good experts who can help reveal these imposters. This crap and this jerk cost tons - not only in money but in lives. PROSECUTE HIM!!!
قبلة الوداع|8.12.11 @ 11:15PM|#
thank u man
Air Jordan Ol School|8.14.11 @ 9:27PM|#
That's cool!
|8.21.11 @ 3:08AM|#
ditto stentor. it kills me to live in the same country as this...