12. John Mark Karr: DNA Trumps the Graphologists in the Ramsey Case

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. Preface ix
4. Acknowledgments xi
5. Introduction 1
6. PART ONE. Diagnosing Death: Problems in the Science and Practice of Forensic Pathology
7. Introduction 9
8. 1. Forensic Pathologists from Hell: Bungled Autopsies, Bad Calls, and Blown Cases 13
9. 2. A Question of Credibility: Bad Reputations and the Politics of Death 29
10. 3. The Sudden Infant Death Debate: Dr. Roy Meadow, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, and Meadow’s Law 47
11. 4. Infants Who Can’t Breathe: Illness or Suffocation? 67
12. 5. Swollen Brains and Broken Bones: Disease or Infanticide? 79
13. PART TWO. Crime-Scene Impression Identification: Forensic Science or Subjective Analysis?
14. 6. Fingerprint Identification: Trouble in Paradise 101
15. 7. Fingerprints Never Lie: Except in Scotland 123
16. 8. Shoe-Print Identification and Foot Morphology: The Lay Witness and the Cinderella Analysis 139
17. 9. Bite-Mark Identification: Do Teeth Leave Prints? 153
18. 10. Ear-Mark Identification: Emerging Science or Bad Evidence? 169
19. PART THREE. Hired Guns, Smoke Blowers, and Phonies: The Expert Witness Problem
20. Introduction 179
21. 11. Expert versus Expert: The Handwriting Wars in the Ramsey Case 182
22. 12. John Mark Karr: DNA Trumps the Graphologists in the Ramsey Case 206
23. 13. Hair and Fiber Identification: An Inexact Science 218
24. 14. DNA Analysis: Backlogs, Sloppy Work, and Unqualified People 231
25. 15. Bullet Identification, FBI Style: Overselling the Science 244
26. 16. The Celebrity Expert: Dr. Henry Lee 253
27. Conclusion 275
28. Notes 287
29. Sources 291
30. Index 317
31. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 325