Season 1, Episode 46: The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist

If you’ve been around true crime for very long, you’ve probably heard the legal term “habeas corpus”. Although it sounds like it may have something to do with the body of a victim, it really refers to the procedure by which prisoners can appear before a judge to see if they are being legally detained. After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, many states made changes to their habeas corpus laws that made it harder for prisoners to overturn wrongful convictions. This was not good news for Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks of Noxubee County, Mississippi. Authors Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington argue in this week’s book, The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist, that Mississippi’s early death investigation system developed as a mechanism to hide the areas numerous lynchings. It makes you wonder what these changes in the law might allow the system to hide today.

https://theintercept.com/2018/04/22/junk-forensics-mississippi-cadaver-king-country-dentist-interview/

https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a32225164/the-innocence-files-dr-michael-west/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/08/24/expert-witness-goes-nuts-during-questioning-for-mississippi-death-penalty-case/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/28/the-fifth-circuit-turns-its-back-on-a-huge-forensics-scandal-in-mississippi/

Southern Fried true Crime Episode 27

Coroner Talk

https://www.iheart.com/content/2019-08-13-janie-wards-botched-autopsy-leads-to-serious-questions-on--and-gone/

LA Times 8/14/88

ID Files