One of the lessons of the Goudge Inquiry was the ease with which innocent persons could be convicted of murder strictly on the basis of the pathological evidence on questions such as the time and cause of death - which all too often was wrong.
Many Canadians reacted in horror to the spectre of innocent parents put through the horror of being charged with murdering their own children because of faulty pathological evidence.
That sense of horror is compounded where there is the possibility that an innocent person is being executed by the state in circumstances where there are strong suggestions that the pathologists got it wrong.
The Larry Swearingen case is very much in point;
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An Associated Press story indicates that Larry Swearings prosecutor's have fired back with a forensic salvo of their own;
"It's a battle of dueling scientists in the case of Texas death row inmate Larry Swearingen," the AP story out of Houston begins, under the heading: "Forensics back Swearingen as killer of college student, DA says;"
"The Montgomery County district attorney today released forensic findings that show a 19-year-old college student was slain a decade ago -- when Swearingen was not in jail," the story, published on Tuesday January 27, continues;
"The data is from Neal Haskell, who's a professor of forensic science and biology at St. Joseph's College in Indiana.
Prosecutor Brett Ligon says the findings should end the debate over decomposition of the body of Melissa Trotter.
Swearingen won a reprieve this week after his lawyers cited forensic science in their questions about the timing of Trotter's death.
Swearingen says he was jailed on traffic warrants when Trotter disappeared. Her body was found Jan. 2, 1999, in the Sam Houston National Forest.
The discovery came 25 days after Trotter was seen leaving the library at Montgomery College."
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
