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Book Review
Autumn 2005
Cracking More Cases
The Forensic Science of Solving Crimes
By Dr. Henry C. Lee
with Thomas W. O'Neil
Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY: 2004, 313 pp.
Bloodsworth
The True Story of the First Death
Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA
By
Tim Junkin
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, NC: 2004, 294 pp.
Forensic science and the autopsy room and
the crime lab have seized the public favor as entertainment. There are
even summer camps emphasizing crime scene investigation. So this season
we review two true crime books that
emphasize this genre, the real CSI
and Crossing Jordan. The first is by Dr. Henry Lee, America's crime
scene
investigator, famous for the O.J. Simpson case among many others
and for his frequent appearances on TV talk shows.
Fortunately he had
help writing this memoir, a follow-up to the initial volume entitled
Cracking Cases, by Mr. O'Neil, a
professor of English and professional
writer. Along with the case material we learn some facts about Dr. Lee:
he was a
policeman in Taiwan before coming to the United States, his
prominence in the forensic sciences (he holds a doctorate
in biochemistry from NYU), and
that he is
currently professor of forensic science at the University of New Haven
and
formerly chief of the Connecticut state crime lab in Meriden.
Two of the cases in which Dr. Lee
participated and are covered in this book received national press
attention, the
murder of Martha Moxley in Greenwich Connecticut in 1975
for which Michael Skakel was finally convicted in 2002, and
the JonBenet
Ramsey case in Boulder, Colorado that remains unsolved. Several less
well known but none the less
fascinating cases are the murders of Penney
Serra in New Haven, Connecticut, Lisa Peng in Orange County, California
and of Stephen Haines in Port St. Lucie, Florida. While the facts,
investigation and ultimate resolution of each case are
well presented,
perhaps even more interesting is the background information of the
community in which the crime
occurred and of the life of the victim and
of the accused.
Not surprisingly, JonBenet Ramsey's is
the longest chapter. The authors describe all its inconsistencies,
twists and turns
and especially the errors in the investigation. The personalities and
motives of the major players: police, district
attorneys, defense,
private detectives and not the least the Ramseys themselves are all
taken into account. The
sloppiness and infighting among the Boulder
police personnel and the warfare between police and district attorney's
office give us insight into the failure to resolve the case. Another
major player, of course, is the press and TV talking
heads that
inundated the case and the authors speculate on their influence over the
investigation. In the end we are
left to ponder our own whodunnit:
was it one or both the parents or a member or friend of the family or a
business
associate of Mr. Ramsey or some random stranger who gained
access to the lavish Ramsey home?
The other cases have a more definite if not
always satisfying conclusion. Paradoxically, for a book that ostensibly
champions high tech forensic science, it is usually old fashioned police
work, fingerprints and informants and witnesses
that carry the burden of
proof.
The second book shows how the lack of
good old fashioned police work and irrelevant or misleading forensic
material at
a crime scene can lead to the conviction (twice) of an
innocent man. It reminds us that police and prosecutors are
subject to
remarkable public and media pressure to solve particularly heinous
crimes quickly. In this case, the police
honed in on one suspect based
mostly on an incomplete (and ultimately erroneous) identification by an
11 year old boy.
Evidence that did not fit the preconceived notions of
the authorities were conveniently discarded, or not investigated
and not
turned over to the defense as exculpatory. The author, a journalist as
well as a lawyer takes his former
colleagues in both professions to
task. Much of the book presents the legal difficulties in death penalty
cases and
results that appear due more to happenstance and quality of
lawyering than actual facts and hard evidence.
Bloodsworth tells the fascinating tale
of Kirk Bloodsworth, convicted of the rape-murder of a nine year old
girl in
Baltimore in 1984, and finally released by DNA evidence after
two trials and nine years in prison, some of it on death
row. The use of
DNA to exclude presumed felons both before and after conviction is
rather commonplace today but
Bloodworth was the first on death row. Amazingly he
proposed the idea to his lawyer, based on reading Joseph
Wambaugh's
landmark book Blooding that told the story of the successful
capture of a double murder suspect in
Leicester, England with the
initial use of Professor Alec Jeffrey's RFLP technique for DNA in criminal
identification.
Bloodworth's exoneration would require the newer PCR
technique that replicates tiny amounts of DNA resulting in
enough
material to be analyzed.
Mr. Junkin takes us through Kirk
Bloodworth's life, as a discus throwing marine, as a waterman on
Chesapeake Bay, and
as the victim of a rocky marriage doomed from the
start by drugs, alcohol , infidelity and erratic behavior...by the wife
as well as husband. Still, if he was no choirboy, he had no criminal
background and no history of violence or pedophilia.
And he came from a stable family...both parents stood by him throughout his incredible
ordeal until his mother's
untimely death before his vindication. We
learn of the factors leading to his initial conviction and sentence to
death
by the judge (this would not be permitted these days due to a
recent supreme court sentencing in death penalty
cases). His appellate lawyers were able to get his conviction
reversed by the high court of Maryland based on some
trial errors by the judge and the prosecution but he was again convicted in a second trial despite
a new and
skilled lawyer and flimsy circumstantial evidence. This time a
different judge commuted his sentence to life imprisonment
on both
counts.
His nine years in the Maryland
penitentiary make for graphic and shocking reading: the brutal and
violent inmates, the
filthy conditions and inedible food, the brutish
and largely absent guards, the in-prison trade in drugs, cheap wine and
tobacco. Except for a short period of drug addiction, Bloodsworth was
able to sustain himself by maintaining his
innocence and working
tirelessly to prove it. Then he finally caught a break: Bob Morin became
his lawyer. A talented
death penalty attorney, now a judge, Morin
emerges as a co-hero along with Bloodsworth. The details of what it
takes
to gain an exoneration and the details of the DNA analysis of
semen on the victim's panties that was overlooked by the
FBI are
fascinating. Ultimately, the DNA fit the profile of a known sexual
predator and fellow prisoner of Bloodworth
during his long
incarceration.
Both books offer a peak at real crime
scene investigation. One gets the feeling that, despite the TV hype, it
may not
be ready for prime time.
©
Copyright 2005-2006 by MedicoLegal Consultants. All rights reserved.
This page updated September 21, 2005
