This article was written over a year ago. It outlines the current status of erroneous bitemark testimony, to the tee. I am independently going to contact the author, a man I respect, and offer theoretically, the dental basis for which bitemark testimony will never meet the standard of care in its claim to be an “identification science”.
by M. Chris Fabricant and Karen Newirth
The Innocence Project is seeking partners to litigate test cases involving unreliable forensic sciences and eyewitness misidentification. Attorneys with cases of potential interest should contact the IP directly at the email address provided below.
On the morning of November 3, 1984, 63-year-old Ione Cychosz was found dead in a vacant lot behind her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She had been raped, stabbed and beaten to death. Bite marks were discovered all over her body, eight in total. The spermatozoa cells discovered in a vaginal wash were too few for identification purposes and investigators had little other evidence that might lead to the identity of the perpetrator. However, Dr. Lowell Thomas Johnson, a forensic dentist (or “forensic odontologist”), examined the body and determined that the bite marks had to have been inflicted by someone missing a front tooth. Based on this information, police questioned…
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Eye of the beholder 