August 2, 2007
Crime and Punishment Department
The Itzhak Perlman of Forensic Analysis
Over at Reason, Radley Balko has written a piece about Mississippi dentist Dr. Michael West, who bills himself as a forensic odontologist or bite mark analyst. He has testified at dozens of trials, many leading to convictions.
Bite mark analysis is not exactly the most trusted of forensic disciplines:
Forensic odontology is an imprecise field. It often draws heavy scrutiny from other forensics experts. There's a troublingly long list of cases in which someone convicted on the word of a bite mark expert was later exonerated with improved DNA testing. In 1999, one forensic odontologist tested his colleagues with a sample crime scene bite mark during a conference workshop. Six of 10 wrongly traced the bite mark back to an innocent person.
In 1995, West's testimony helped convict Kennedy Brewer of the rape and strangulation murder of Christine Jackson, and Brewer has spent the last 12 years on death row. However, that conviction has just been overturned based on DNA evidence. The DNA left at the scene belongs to two other people.
West responds that the absense of DNA only means that Brewer didn't do anything that left DNA behind, but that he must have still been at the scene to leave the bite marks behind.
He might have a point if he were doing anything resembling a valid scientific investigation, but he's not. As a matter of fact, he essentially admits he's not doing science, but he seems not to realize it.
But even in an already imprecise field, Dr. Michael West has taken forensic odontology to bizarre, megalomaniacal depths. West claims to have invented a system he modestly calls "The West Phenomenon." In it, he dons a pair of yellow goggles and with the aid of a blue laser, he says he can identify bite marks, scratches, and other marks on a corpse that no one else can see—not even other forensics experts.
Conveniently, he claims his unique method can't be photographed or reproduced, which he says makes his opinions unimpeachable by other experts.
That's the ballgame right there: If it can't be reproduced, it's not science.
I don't deny that some people have unique talents. In fact, according to the article, "Dr. West has compared his virtuosity in bite mark analysis to the musical talent of Itzhak Perlman." It's true that no one else can play violin like Itzhak Perlman. What seems to have escaped Dr. West's notice is that Itzhak Perlman is not a scientist.
Based on what I've read about him, neither is Dr. West.
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