"TEN DAYS AFTER THREE ELDERLY WOMEN WERE STABBED TO DEATH NEAR MERIDIAN, MISSISSIPPI, THE POLICE ARRESTED A SUSPECT NAMED LARRY MAXWELL. WITH NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE LINKING MAXWELL TO THE KILLINGS, THE POLICE CALLED ON DR. WEST TO DETERMINE, THROUGH HIS BLUE LIGHT TECHNIQUE, IF MAXWELL HELD THE MURDER WEAPON. ACCORDING TO THE DENTIST, HIS ULTRAVIOLET EXAMINATION OF MAXWELL'S RIGHT HAND REVEALED PRESSURE POINT IMPRESSIONS LEFT BY THE RIVETS IN THE HANDLE OF THE BUTCHER KNIFE. MAXWELL SAT IN JAIL TWO YEARS AWAITING TRIAL BEFORE A JUDGE ENDED HIS NIGHTMARE BY DECLARING THE KNIFE-HANDLE IMPRESSION IDENTIFICATION UNSCIENTIFIC AND INADMISSIBLE;"
JIM FISHER: FORENSICS UNDER FIRE;
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A previous post set out Mississippi lawyer Jim Craig's perceptive analysis of Dr. Michael West's defence against allegations that he tampered with evidence.
I was particularly intrigued by Mr. Craig's comment that, "In the world where Michael West's blue light shines, anything is possible."
Michael West's blue light?
Needing to know more, I dispatched my 1001 highly trained researchers to the books and they came up with a reference to Michael West's blue light, in a work called "Forensics under fire" by Jim Fisher, which is published by Rutgers University Press and bears the subtitle: Are Bad Science and Dueling Experts Corrupting Criminal Justice?
About the Author:
Jim Fisher is described as having worked as a special agent, conducting criminal investigations for the FBI from 1966 to 1972. He later taught criminal investigation, criminal law, and forensic science at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
Fisher describes West's hocus-pocus techniques in a section of his book called, " Larry Maxwell and the Incriminating Blue Light."
"Dr. West's testimony in a 1990 triple murder case that had nothing to do with forensic ontology marked the beginning of the slow unravelling of his credibility as an expert witness," the section begins;
"Ten days after three elderly women were stabbed to death near Meridian, Mississippi, the police arrested a suspect named Larry Maxwell," the section continues;
"With no physical evidence linking Maxwell to the killings, the police called on Dr. West to determine, through his blue light technique, if Maxwell held the murder weapon. According to the dentist, his ultraviolet examination of Maxwell's right hand revealed pressure point impressions left by the rivets in the handle of the butcher knife. Maxwell sat in jail two years awaiting trial before a judge ended his nightmare by declaring the knife-handle impression identification unscientific and inadmissible;
Outraged by what he considered pure courtroom hokum, Maxwell's attorney filed a complaint against Dr. West with the International Association of Identification, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the American Board of Forensic Odontology. In 1993, facing an ethics investigation, Dr. West resigned from the International Association of Identification. A year later heleft the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Suspended for a year by the American Board of Forensic Odontology, Dr. West accused his colleaugues of professional jealousy. According to Michael West, the other forensicodontologists resented him for hogging all the glory;"
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
