Killers go free in Tennessee!

I’m flipping through the Sunday Tennessean (Nashvegas’s only daily paper) and I stumble across this little “gem” of a story. It seems that the medical examiner hired to do autopsies in 37 counties is grossly incompetent.

Thanks to this asshole at least two baby killers were free until the state called in another examiner to review the autopsies performed by this shithole. They found that he’d missed things like multiple skull fractures and broken bones! WTF? How do you miss multiple skull fractures and broken bones?

What’s worse, is that because this asshole didn’t do his job, at least one murder could have been prevented! One woman was killed by a man who’s previous wife died because of a “seizure” according the medical examiner. Her family managed to get the first wife’s body exhumed (only after the shithead had killed his second wife) and examined by another pathologist who found what he said were “obvious signs of blunt trauma” and that the victim had no prior history of seizures.

There’s two other things that really steamed my clams about this asshole. When they interviewed one of his collegues who had testified against this fuckup in a case, he didn’t say, “I think he’s grossly inept.” (Though the guy who started the “Body Farm” did say that.) No, this shitmeister said, “Everyone’s allowed to have a bad day.” Excuse me? Excuse me? Fucking up an autopsy so that a killer is allowed to go free and kill again isn’t “a bad day”, and considering his line of work, he shouldn’t be allowed to have “a bad day.”

The other thing that got me was one of the cases this guy was involved in. About five or six years ago, there were a series of fast food killings. The robber would enter the store right before closing and systematically gun down everyone working there after he got the money. They managed to catch the guy (thanks to an eyewitness who survived and lots of incriminating evidence including blood from the victims being found in his car) and he’s scheduled to die soon. The medical examiner who’s fucked up so royally handled the case. This means that the fucking murderer can go to court and say he needs a new trial! Now, Tennessee’s got several judges who are so opposed to the death penalty that they’ll throw out a death sentence for no reason! (No shit, one of them was told that he’d be disbarred if he threw out another death sentence without any evidence for doing so.) So, this fucker will get to tie up the courts again, by trying to say the medical examiner’s incompetence caused him to get the death penalty!

I know that there’s people on this board who disagree with the death penalty, but that’s not the issue here. This guy did it (and that can be proven without the medical examiner’s testimony), and was sentenced, but because the asshole of an examiner was so fucking stupid, this shithead’s going to get another trial, where all that’s going to happen is they’re going to say, “You did it. Now quitcherbitchin’.” Maybe they’ll throw out his death sentence, maybe they won’t, I don’t really care. What I do care about is that the families of the victims (many of the people killed were high school kids), will have to go through the agony of yet another trial. All on the dime of an already financially strapped state’s dime. (Not to mention all the other cases that will probably have to be reexamined because of this shit for brains!)

And last but not least, this guy has been sued for sexual harassment several times! He’s an all around sleezebag and at least one county official has said that they don’t have a problem with anything the guy has done! Man, I gotta find another place to live!

A few years ago an elderly, alcoholic bachelor in my county was found dead in his partially-burned home. The countie’s former M.E. (finally and at long last mercifully retired) put down “smoke inhalation” on the death certificate.

A month later the deceased’s body was exhumed because of anonymous police tips, and two .22 bullet holes were found at the base of the poor man’s skull. According to those at the scene, the doc didn’t want to get his dress pants dirty and gave his diagnosis from a distance of six feet.

Doesn’t anyone take pride in their work anymore??

This is what has changed my mind on the death penalty. I’m now against it since stupid, evil people like this exist.

IIRC, part of the problem is that in many counties, the coroner/medical examiner is an elected or appointed post. No medical/forensic training needed.

tisiphone that isn’t the case with this guy. He studied at the University of Tennessee and got two medical degrees from there. This fucker is just a plain, out and out shithead. And it really pisses me off that even after the state found out about this guy’s fuck ups, they’ve let him continue to work. That’s just flat fucking wrong.

well, let me start off by saying i’ve been to tennessee (its lovely!) and i have lots of folks there i would call friends…
BUT
…they just don’t seem to focus on the details much. from what i have read in this thread, and my personal dealings with law enforcement and the DMV in this wonderland, this all sounds like bid-ness as usual!

for my brush with the local law-boys, see the thread about stupid liqor laws. heres what happened with the DMV: i was trying to get a copy of a title for a truck last registered in TN. sent off all paper work. came back saying incomplete, but not what was missing. sent off corrected paper work. came back, saying incorrect, but not what was wrong. repeat this over and over till finally i just forged up a bunch of ficticous mish-mash with circles and arrows and 27 8x10 color glossies (you get the point, but i’m waiting till it comes around on the guitar) and BINGO! title comes in the mail a few weeks later.

ah whatever, give me some sweet-tea!

If you like that story, Tuck, then you’ll be amused by this one as well.

In a nutshell, for those too busy to click the link (yet, oddly, not too busy to browse the Pit), a chemist in a crime lab managed to get himself addicted to heroin. To feed his habit, he pilfered small amounts from the test samples sent to the lab by law enforcement officials. In so doing, he has managed to screw up hundreds and hundreds of cases, and put many, many dealers back on the street.

He’s going to jail now, of course, but local prosecutors are pissed.