We get flooded with letters from all over the country … We are the court of last resort … We can only take on about 1% of the cases. The Innocence Files I: The Evidence: Indeed and Without Doubt, Netflix 2020
Because of these unreliable methods, innocent people are going to prison. ibid.
The crime scene was less than a hundred yards from her residence. She was about ten feet out there [pond]. She actually was found partially clothed … ibid. rozzer
Some of the wounds on Courtney Smith’s body were made from bite marks. ibid. forensics guy
Bite-mark evidence was new at the time. ibid.
I said I was in the club that night. ibid. Levon Brooks, suspect
I just held my head down in disbelief … I didn’t do this. ibid.
Christine Jackson: They said that the little girl had bite marks exactly the same as in my case. ibid.
I knew they got me wrong. They got this all wrong. I didn’t commit no crime like this. ibid. Kennedy Brewer
This is so outrageous. You’ve got to be kidding me. ibid. expert dentologist
I was in prison in Parchman on death row for killing a three-year-old girl. The Innocence Files s1e2: The Evidence: The Truth Will Defend Me, Kennedy Brewer
Forensic dentology really began in the 1970s … The first really big case that put bite marks on the map nationally was the Bundy case. ibid. expert dentology
2001: Christine Jackson’ DNA testing: Kennedy Brewer had not contributed to the DNA. ibid. defence
We went to the house where Christine Jackson was abducted … Any adult male could have easily lifted Christine Jackson through the window and into the darkness. It was that easy. ibid.
Crawfish could have caused the marks on Christine’s Jackson’s body. ibid.
Courtney Smith: 1990; Christine Jackson 1992: a couple of miles away in the same community: both are abductions of three-year-old girls, both are abductions in the middle of the night from their beds, both of them are sexually assaulted, and both of them are deposited in bodies of water. ibid.
If not Levon then who? … Justin Albert Johnston, 35-year-old black male, who was brought in and arrested and samples were collected; he had already been convicted of one home invasion/sexual assault … ibid.
I was out of control. I went to the house … Them demons in my head … to hurt the little girl … I reached through the window and got her … I throwed her in that creek … ibid. Johnston’s confession
Justin Albert Johnston confessed to both murders. ibid. legal dude
The much more pressing question to answer is, How did they get in prison in the first place? The Innocence Files s1e3: The Evidence: The Duty to Correct, Innocence Project dude
Part of my job is to highlight the areas where forensics have never been established as reliable evidence. ibid.
National Academy of Science: Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States. ibid.
We decided to start there: with bite-mark cases. ibid. Innocence Project
In 1989 a carpet was found buried in a garden. At the time of the burial the identity of the bones was a mystery. Robbie Coltrane’s Critical Evidence s2e1: Little Miss Nobody, 2018
‘That was the most amazing breakthrough in terms of the world of forensic science and genetics.’ ibid. lady in the know
The pathologist estimated the age at between 15 and 20 years old. But who was this young woman? How did she come to be buried in a back garden? And how did she die? ibid.
The entomologist estimated the body had been buried for at least 5 years. ibid.
She was buried in the garden between 1981 and 1984. ibid.
She was killed and left at least a few days before being buried. ibid.
Detectives were particular interested in people who had lived in the basement flat. ibid.
Detectives tracked one former resident to a pub in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay where he worked as a bouncer. His name was Alan Charlton. ibid.
‘We knew that the forensic artist could potentially put a face to the skeletal remains that we had.’ ibid. rozzer
Death Mask of Little Miss Nobody. ibid. headline
It was recognised by two social workers. ibid.
Investigators quickly tracked Karen Price’s partents. ibid.
And this breakthrough led them to a witness who led them to a killer. ibid.
This technique of copying sufficient DNA for analysis was used for the first time in the Karen Price case. And it worked. ibid.