His Conviction Relied on Debunked Bite-Mark Science. Why is He Still Locked Up?
The Intercept_, March 12, 2023: His Conviction Relied on Debunked Bite-Mark Science. Why is He Still Locked Up?
“…. The hearing had begun with a tense exchange between Gwathney and McCrory’s lawyer, Mark Loudon-Brown of the Southern Center for Human Rights, who reiterated a point he’d emphasized in McCrory’s parole application: that prosecutors in Covington County — the same office that convicted his client — had made clear that they no longer considered McCrory a threat to public safety.
“‘In April of 2021, the district attorney made Mr. McCrory an offer to time served that would have allowed him to leave court that very day and go home unsupervised,’ Loudon-Brown said during his own two-minute presentation. The offer, which McCrory rejected because it came with the requirement that he admit to killing his wife, was made on the eve of an evidentiary hearing that would debunk the single most important piece of evidence that sent McCrory to prison for life: a supposed bite mark found on his wife’s body.
“Although a famed bite-mark analyst insisted at trial that the mark conclusively linked McCrory to the murder, that same expert has since recanted, saying he would never deliver such testimony today. In the years since McCrory was convicted, bite-mark analysis has been roundly discredited as junk science. Nevertheless, the judge who presided over the evidentiary hearing was unmoved. He ruled against McCrory, keeping him locked up. McCrory is the last known defendant still imprisoned for a conviction almost entirely based on the faulty forensic practice.
“Regardless of his client’s innocence claim, Loudon-Brown said, the offer from prosecutors reflected a belief that McCrory had been ‘sufficiently punished, that his release would be consistent with the safety of the community … and that his exemplary prison record justifies his release.’ Gwathney bristled at this characterization. ‘Did the district attorney make those statements regarding his reasoning?’ she asked pointedly. Wasn’t it possible he had different reasons for offering such a deal? Loudon-Brown conceded there were likely a number of reasons. But the offer still showed a willingness to free McCrory — the very question now before the parole board.”
Additional reading:
The Intercept_, March 12, 2022: Duty to Correct: A Bogus Bite Mark Sent Him to Prison for Murder. Alabama Wants to Keep Him There.
The Guardian, April 28, 2022: A bite mark, a forensic dentist, a murder: how junk science ruins innocent lives
Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System by M. Chris Fabricant on bookshop.org
