Why is a single doctor doing nearly every homicide autopsy in Mississippi?

By RADLEY BALKO

In January, Mississippi's Supreme Court took an unusual step. In the murder trial of 13-year-old Tyler Edmonds, the court tossed out the testimony of the medical examiner who had conducted the autopsy of the body.

The reason? The medical examiner in the case, Dr. Steven Hayne, had testified under oath that he could tell from the bullet wounds in the body that Edmonds and his sister simultaneously held the gun to fire the fatal shot. Of course, as the court concluded, it is impossible to make such a determination from examining bullet wounds.

Former Columbus, Miss., Police Chief J.D. Sanders has been trying for years to draw attention to Dr. Hayne. "There's no question in my mind that there are innocent people doing time at Parchman Penitentiary due to the testimony of Dr. Hayne," he says. "There may even be some on death row."

In addition to state Supreme Court justices and police officers, defense lawyers, crime lab experts and state medical examiners have all made public their concerns with his practice, and with the testimony he has contributed to hundreds of cases over a 20-year career.

Although Dr. Hayne refused to speak with me, the concerns about him start with his own words. According to his comments on the stand, he performs anywhere from 1,500 to 1,800 autopsies a year. The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) says a medical examiner should perform no more than 250 autopsies per year. After 325, the organization refuses to certify an examiner's practice.

"You can't do it," says Vincent DiMaio, author of Forensic Pathology, widely considered the profession's guiding textbook. "After 250 autopsies, you start making small mistakes. At 300, you're going to get mental and physical strains on your body. Over 350, and you're talking about major fatigue and major mistakes."

For much of his career Dr. Hayne, 67, has conducted autopsies as well as held two research and hospital positions and testified in court two to four times per week. After reviewing one Hayne autopsy in a 2003 homicide case, Dr. Harry Bonnell, who sits on NAME's ethics committee, sent a strongly-worded letter to the defendant's attorney describing Dr. Hayne's conclusions as "near-total speculation," the quality of his report "pathetic." As a result of Dr. Bonnell's letter, the prosecutor dropped the murder charge and the defendant pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Another medical examiner reviewed Dr. Hayne's autopsy in a 1998 homicide and characterized his work as "near complete malpractice." In that case, Dr. Hayne had determined that a woman had died of "natural causes." The diagnosis was later changed to homicide by blunt force to the head. According to the medical examiner who performed the second autopsy, Dr. Hayne hadn't even emptied the woman's pockets, a standard autopsy procedure. No one has been prosecuted in the case. Dr. Hayne declined repeated requests from me to comment.

Dr. Hayne isn't a board-certified forensic pathologist, at least as the term is understood by his peers. The American Board of Pathology is considered the only reputable certifying organization for forensic pathology. Dr. Hayne failed the board's exam in the 1980s. He still testifies in court that he's "board certified." But that's a reference to his membership in the American Academy of Forensic Examiners, which he has said publicly certified him without requiring him to take an exam.

Part of the problem in Mississippi is a lack of oversight. Elected county coroners and district attorneys shop out autopsies to private-practice medical examiners. The county pays doctors $550 for each autopsy, plus extra for other tests and services. Dr. Hayne has dominated these referrals for years, a strong indication that coroners and district attorneys are happy with his work. And the state Supreme Court, although it tossed out his testimony in the Edmonds case, didn't stop him from testifying in other cases. But a medical examiner should be independent and find facts irrespective of their value to the prosecution.

Mississippi law calls for a certified state medical examiner to oversee the process of shopping autopsies out, to ensure that they are conducted by reputable physicians. But Mississippi hasn't had a state medical examiner since 1994. The last two people to hold the office actually tried to rein in Dr. Hayne, but met with considerable resistance. The most recent, Dr. Emily Ward, left after the state's county coroners petitioned for her resignation. The state legislature has refused to fund the examiner's office ever since.

"Dr. Ward came in here and tried to clean up the system," says Andre de Gruy, who directs Mississippi's Office of Capital Defense Counsel, the public defender office for death-penalty cases. "Hayne and the coroners got together and chased her out."

Consider Jeffrey Havard, convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder his girlfriend's infant daughter. The indigent Havard asked the trial court for money to hire his own expert to review Dr. Hayne's findings -- a crucial part of the state's case. He was denied. Havard's attorneys were able to get former Alabama state medical examiner James Lauridson to review Dr. Hayne's autopsy for his appeal. Though the second autopsy raised real doubts about Havard's guilt, Mississippi's Supreme Court declined to even consider it, ruling that it was new evidence, and should have been introduced at trial.

That's not an uncommon ruling from an appellate court, but it illustrates just how important it is that state expert witnesses be reputable, credible, and accountable before ever stepping onto the witness stand.

Mississippi's leaders, including Gov. Haley Barbour, should put an immediate end to Dr. Hayne's autopsy operation. The state also needs to revisit every criminal case in which Dr. Hayne has testified. Finally, Mississippi needs to implement significant reforms as to how it conducts autopsies -- it could start by requiring all contracted medical examiners to at least meet the profession's minimum standards. Until then, a cloud of suspicion hangs over every murder conviction that comes out of the state's courts.

Mr. Balko's feature article on Steven Hayne appears in the November 2007 Reason magazine, where he is a senior editor.