The Man Who Was Convicted by a Bite Mark
In 1990s Mississippi, a self-styled forensic dentist sent innocent men to death row on testimony that teeth marks matched a suspect. This is the story of one wrongful conviction and how bite-mark evidence — never validated by science — survived in courtrooms for decades.
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Eddie Lee Howard spent twenty-six years on death row based on unreliable bite mark evidence.
Human skin is too elastic and unstable to accurately record or preserve unique dental impressions.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology found no scientific foundation for forensic bite-mark analysis.
Forensic odontologists lacked empirical data to prove that human teeth patterns are actually unique.
DNA testing eventually excluded Howard from the crime scene, leading to his twenty twenty-one exoneration.
The Mississippi Supreme Court ultimately ruled that bite-mark comparison is scientifically unreliable for criminal trials.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Trial of Eddie Lee Howard2 min
- 03The Scientific Vacuum3 min
- 04Institutional Failure and the Turning Point2 min
- 05The Path to Exoneration2 min
- 06Outro1 min
- Eddie Lee Howard Is Exonerated After 26 Years on Mississippi ...
- Mississippi Innocence Project and Innocence Project Client Eddie Lee Howard’s Mississippi Capital Murder Conviction and Death Sentence Vacated - Innocence Project
- Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 24, 2020 | Death Penalty Information Center
- POSSIBLE INNOCENCE: Mississippi Inmate Challenges Bite-Mark Evidence | Death Penalty Information Center
- Mississippi Supreme Court Grants New Trial to Eddie Howard, Sentenced to Death by Junk Bite-Mark Evidence | Death Penalty Information Center
- Forensic Bitemark Analysis Not Supported by Sufficient ...
- Forensic bitemark identification: weak foundations ... - PMC
- ABFO-Standards-Guidelines-for-Evaluating-Bitemarks- ...
- Dark tale of ‘The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist’ brings false convictions to light
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