New at Reason

October 8, 2007

In a feature article from our November issue, Radley Balko investigates Dr. Steven Hayne, the rogue medical examiner who has monopolized Mississippi's autopsy system.

Balko also had an op-ed about Dr. Hayne over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal.

Comments

Tingy Wah|10.8.07 @ 3:42PM|#

Great article, but RADLEY DIDN'T MENTION THIS IS ALL ABOUT CORY MAYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEREFORE IT IS ALL FALSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;)

|10.8.07 @ 4:00PM|#

Radley is so rad. How'd his momma know to name him that?

|10.8.07 @ 4:02PM|#

Give 'em hell, Radley!

|10.8.07 @ 4:04PM|#

That guy is so screwed now.

|10.8.07 @ 4:46PM|#

Amazing article Radley. Thanks for working on it.

Paul|10.8.07 @ 6:41PM|#

"public officials surrounding the criminal justice system must remain mindful of who they work for";

What the f**? "who they work for." They work for justice, and that's it.

Radley, great article, but what's the source for the "questions were absurd" comment by Haynes? I'm just curious. Is this on record, or is it something overheard by someone you interviewed for the story?

|10.8.07 @ 7:15PM|#

I was going to say something insightful, then I looked over at the ads on the right. Durrrr....boobies!

|10.9.07 @ 1:22AM|#

Obviously, none of our trolls read this, so they could point out that this is an example of privatization of government services leading to abuse.

Longtime Lurker|10.9.07 @ 9:07AM|#

Not a troll, but I did find that one part of the article (which I enjoyed) appeared to run counter to the usual Reason wisdom. To wit:

"She also proposed that the state office, which handled less than 10 percent of the forensic autopsies performed in Mississippi, take on more of the burden. It was a sensible move: The fees the counties were paying to private practitioners like Hayne could instead go to the state medical examiner's general fund, making the office less dependent on the inadequate budget provided by the state legislature. It would also mean more autopsies would be performed by independent, board-certified forensic pathologists."

This article could have run unedited in the American Prospect. I'm not complaining, just noting that the bit cited above caused this reader some cognitive dissonance.

|10.9.07 @ 12:23PM|#

LEFT MEETS RIGHT

Libertarian magazine pre-empts American Prospect to undertake long overdue journalistic investigation of waste, fraud and abuse, concluding failures in market and government.

Balko recommends inefficient government be replaced with efficient government through credentialed forensic pathologists who operate in centralized, regulated structure designed to minimize cost and preserve quality and independence.

Also pre-empted was Chris Hansen of MSNBC who canceled plans to conduct televised sting operations on the Jimmy Roberts funeral home with a phony corpse chat room designed to lure in pedo-necro philes.