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
- D.C. medical examiner releases cause of death for four people who died during Capitol riot
- Two civilians who died during the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol died of natural causes, and a third succumbed to amphetamine intoxication, according to the D.C. medical examiner’s office. A fourth person, 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer inside the Capitol, was struck by a bullet to her front left shoulder, the medical examiner said in a statement. The cause of death for a fifth person, Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who collapsed after confronting rioters and died Jan. 7, remains pending. Two people have been charged with assaulting Sicknick by spraying him with a chemical irritant.
- How 'remorseless' rapist Paul Wardle's lies were exposed by science
- Forensic evidence from a victim's medical examination helped detectives pinpoint the exact date of a sex attack, and prove a vile rapist was lying.
- State medical examiner to reopen northern Kentucky office
- FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Funding has been appropriated to reopen the northern Kentucky office of the State Medical Examiner, Gov. Andy Beshear announced.
- Death Row Inmate Should Get New Trial After False Testimony by Tarrant Medical Examiner: Judge
- Westfall focused largely on Peerwani’s testimony that the victim was suffocated, which Peerwani later acknowledged was just a possibility and may not have happened at all, according to the judge's finding. Peerwani also failed to disclose that he found a pacemaker in Tomlin’s chest during his autopsy, which could have suggested he died of a cardiac issue instead of a respiratory one, the judge said. The judge also said Peerwani confused the terms abrasion and contusion and gave faulty testimony about teeth marks on the victim's lips, concluding in the trial that the marks were evidence of suffocation, but admitting at a hearing later that that wasn't necessarily the case. “There is at least a reasonable likelihood that the false testimony could have affected the judgment of the jury,” the judge said.
- Ex-Macomb medical examiner's investigator sues officials, claims harassment, retaliation
- Apr. 5—MOUNT CLEMENS — A former investigator with the Macomb County Medical Examiner's Office is suing the directors of multiple county agencies, claiming they allowed a work environment that was "sexually charged and tainted by racial animus."
- 'very unusual' Fife footie fan believed to have killed himself 14 years ago may have been murdered, claims forensic pathologist
- Dr Nat Cary has cast doubt on cops’ suicide verdict over the stabbing death of Colin Marr, 23. He believes it would have been difficult for the lad — said to have knifed himself in the sternum — to self-inflict the wound as it takes “severe force” to penetrate the dense bone.
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