STORY: "Bite me," by Jeff Gamso, published by "Gamso - For the Defence: Commentary by an Ohio Criminal Defence Lawyer," on August 9, 2012.
GIST: "I don't know where he stands on most of his alleged specialties (or how it happens that being a dentist tends to make him an "expert" on, say, crime scene reconstruction or ultraviolet photography or most of that stuff; except bite marks, I suppose). But I know something about the bite mark thing. It is, as those of us who blog with foul mouths (or foul typing fingers) like to say, the most fragrant of bull shit. Like fingerprints and shoe tread comparisons and ballistic matches and all the other forensic techniques that pretend to be science but are really just the meaningless declarations of trained lookers, there is (sorry) far less to bit mark comparison than meets the eye. Really, the "expert" is just someone who sounds convincing when he says "I looked at this guy's teeth and at something or other on the body and by-golly they look the same to me, so it's 100% certain that he bit that body." Except, well, no. It's not. It could be true, of course. It could be false. One study said the so-called "matches" are wrong more often than they're right. The truth is that there's no telling. None. Zip. Worthless. Dr. West, on the other hand,declared in one case that his error rate was "something less than my Savior, Jesus Christ." Which may or may not say something about his relationship with his Savior, but surely tells us something about West."
The entire post can be found at:
http://gamso-forthedefense.blogspot.ca/2012/08/bite-me.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmithThe Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
