Legal Commentary

Mississippi's Medical Examiner for Hire: New Probe Underway

By Jeralyn

Dr. Steven Hayne, Mississippi's medical examiner for hire, had his faulty forensic work exposed when two inmates, wrongfully convicted in separate child murders, were exonerated a few weeks ago after serving 15 years in prison. The Innocence Project has more on his background and on the two clients recently released.

There's more news today, as the Innocence Project has filed open records requests on Dr. Hayne.

The Innocence Project and the Mississippi Innocence Project today issued 23 formal Public Records Act requests that will show the extent to which discredited medical examiner Steven Hayne is using state facilities to conduct autopsies – and potentially using federally-funded crime labs for forensic work that is fraught with negligence and misconduct.

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Hayne, who is not properly board-certified, conducts 80% of all criminal autopsies in Mississippi – and contributed to the wrongful convictions of two Innocence Project clients who were recently freed in Noxubee County. Hayne nets well over $1 million a year in taxpayer funds for conducting autopsies and testifying in cases. Technically, he functions as an independent contractor (a “medical examiner for hire”), but autopsies conducted in federally funded state labs are subject to closer scrutiny, the Innocence Project said.

How many more inmates have been wrongfully convicted and are languishing in Mississippi jails?

Responses to these open records requests should help answer that question. And again, Radley Balko is following Haynes closely, so check in at The Agitator for updates.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 05, 2008 (boomark / email).