"DR. WEST HAS BEEN DOING THIS SORT OF STUFF ALL ALONG," SAID W. TUCKER CARRINGTON, DIRECTOR OF THE STATE'S INNOCENCE PROJECT - THE ORGANIZATION THAT WORKED TO FREE BREWER AND BROOKS. "THIS VIDEO IS AN EXTREME EXAMPLE."
STEPHEN B. SIMPSON, THE STATE'S PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSIONER, SAID HIS OFFICE WAS NOT AWARE OF THE VIDEO OF WEST AND THAT HIS OFFICE IS NOT INVESTIGATING WEST.
SIMPSON ADDED THAT ANY COMPLAINTS AGAINST WEST SHOULD BE MADE TO THE MISSISSIPPI STATE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION;"
REPORTER EARLESHA BUTLER: HATTIESBERG EXAMINER;
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The Hattiesburg Examiner's story by reporter Earlesha Butler ran on February 27, 2009,under the heading, "Video shows dentist marking victim's face."
"A video showing Hattiesburg dentist Dr. Michael West physically pressing a dental impression of a Louisiana murder suspect against his alleged victim's face has brought the former forensic dental examiner back into scrutiny" the story began,
"The video was revealed in a Feb. 19 investigative report by Reason magazine - a monthly publication that features news coverage of politics and culture," the story continued. The article and a clip from the video can be viewed at http://reason.com/news/ show/131527.html.)
"According to Reason, Louisiana native Jimmie Duncan was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in the slaying of his girlfriend's 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux.
The magazine reported that Duncan's conviction was based on a 1993 autopsy by West and Mississippi's former primary forensic pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne.
Hayne was removed from the state's designated list of pathologists last August after his credentials and methods were questioned by the Mississippi Innocence Project. Both West and Hayne testified in Duncan's murder trial that the toddler had bite marks, which they attributed to Duncan.
However, a video of West's initial examination of the victim shows no abrasions or bite marks on Haley's face. Later in the 24-minute video, West is seen pressing a mold of Duncan's dental impression against the child's face, causing red abrasions on her face.
"It's hard to conceive how the bite marks showed up," said Reason editor Radley Balko, who reported the story. "I was shocked. The fact that the marks weren't there. It was really disturbing."
Several forensic experts Balko interviewed said there was no explanation for how the abrasions appeared other than that West put them there.
"There's just no justification for him to push the cast into the skin like that," said David Averill, a dentist and a former president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology. "That isn't an acceptable way to perform a bite mark analysis."
Duncan has been on death row in Louisiana for 10 years, Reason reported. The video was discovered by his post-conviction attorneys last year.
West, a former Forrest County corner and county chief medical examiner, was suspended from the American Board of Forensic Odontology in 1993 - the same year he provided expert opinion in Duncan's murder trial.
West said the board's suspension stemmed from a 1992 murder case in which defense attorneys filed an ethics charge against him - alleging he did not follow the "standards of terminology."
Then, in 1994, an ethics committee from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences recommended that West be expelled. He resigned.
Recently, West has come under scrutiny by the Mississippi Innocence Project. His testimony helped lead to the wrongful convictions of two Noxubee County men in separate child murders. West testified that bite marks on the victims were made by the men.
The men, Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks, were released from prison in 2008 after DNA testing and a confession from another man proved their innocence.
Since that time, the Innocence Project is reviewing received more than a dozen other cases involving West.
"Dr. West has been doing this sort of stuff all along," said W. Tucker Carrington, director of the state's Innocence Project - the organization that worked to free Brewer and Brooks. "This video is an extreme example."
Stephen B. Simpson, the state's Public Safety Commissioner, said his office was not aware of the video of West and that his office is not investigating West.
Simpson added that any complaints against West should be made to the Mississippi State Medical Association.
Meanwhile, Carrington, like Balko, said he didn't think the emergence of the video would spark an investigation by state officials - whom the say have turned a blind eye to West's controversial work.
"I've yet to see a case where I wouldn't question the validity of (West's) testimony," Carrington said.
Calls and interview requests made to West were not returned."
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
