Forensic Pathology News
Dr. Young will post links to news articles that interest him about
forensic pathology, medical examiners, coroners and death
investigation in this section.
Pathology in the News
- Unprecedented review after medical examiner fires doctor who missed a murder
- One pathologist has an opinion and another disagrees. How do we know which one is right? Or if any of them is right?
- Medical examiner suing counties - including Escambia and Santa Rosa - over to keep salary private
- The district’s medical examiner is suing four counties – including Escambia and Santa Rosa – claiming what she does with a hefty professional fee is not public record as it’s largely her own income. The legal question arose after Okaloosa, Walton, Escambia and Santa Rosa counties voiced concerns about Dr. Andrea Minyard’s contracts with each of them and Okaloosa requested documents to conduct an audit.
- Former Medical Examiner Pleads Guilty to Trading Opioids for Sex
- Dr. Joseph L. Burton, a former county medical examiner and forensic pathologist, pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally distribute opioid painkillers in exchange for sexual favors, Pak said. Burton was indicted along with others in February 2018. Pak said five of those individuals also have pleaded guilty to similar charges.
- Volusia officials respond to medical examiner's 'extreme concern' over morgue
- DELAND, Fla. — Volusia County officials say a letter written to a state agency by the county's departing chief medical examiner was blindsiding.
- Medical examiner: 1-year-old's death possibly accidental, mother granted bond
- Example of ACCPE (the Sherlock effect).
- Forensic science still snares innocent
- Don't blame forensic science. Blame doctors, lawyers and investigators who reason backwards like Sherlock Holmes.
- John Stossel: The Innocence Project
- Innocence Project attorney M. Chris Fabricant needs to read The Sherlock Effect.
- Medical examiner: Volusia morgue ‘potentially dangerous’
- “The office has been neglected to the point that daily work is at times not possible and the risk of critical error is uncomfortably high,” Zydowicz, who also handles autopsies for Seminole County, wrote May 10. “I have repeatedly voiced my concerns about the critical and potentially dangerous state of affairs and have not received a satisfactory response. Staying in this office is, for me, untenable; I do not wish to tarnish my reputation staying in a situation I didn’t create and I don’t wish harm to my well-being.”
- Bodies piling up in the morgue, medical examiners spread thin
- Doctors in the profession of performing autopsies are often over-worked and underpaid, especially in Kentucky.
- John Stossel: Junk science locks up innocent people
- John Stossel, why don't you read The Sherlock Effect (#1 new release in forensic medicine on amazon.com)?
- Twelve Questions with forensic pathologist Simon Stables: The case of the handless body
- Top forensic pathologist Simon Stables identified bodies after the Thailand tsunami and the Christchurch earthquake. He appears in the new season of Forensics NZ on Prime.
- Murder trial: Pathologist says blunt force trauma led to girl's death
- Dr. Patrick Lantz, a smart doctor with long experience in forensic pathology, is ensnared by the Sherlock Effect.
- Coroner's salary increases apparently violate state law
- County Attorney Sam Clymer explains the discovery of a 1954 state statute that disallows any salary increase for a county coroner after the first Monday of May in an election year. That statute means several of Coroner Dan Sims' salary increases would be void. Amanda Melton, the unopposed candidate for coroner, listens intently.
Pathology Links
- ACCPE means Affirming the Consequent for Complex Past Events. It is The Sherlock Effect.
- Whenever an expert states the past events that occurred on the basis of looking only at the physical evidence without reference to eyewitness statements, he or she is Affirming the Consequent for Complex Past Events. This is not only logically invalid and unsound, it never works in practice, Sherlock Holmes, CSI and Bones notwithstanding. Whenever ACCPE is listed in my comments to a news article, recognize one more tragic example of how this fallacy can destroy lives. ACCPE can also be understood as "backward reasoning,""effect-to-cause reasoning," or "abductive inference."
- American Academy of Forensic Sciences
- ForensicScienceDegree.org
- For further information on forensic science.
- National Association of Medical Examiners