Mississippi Inmate Faces Execution Despite Questionable Evidence from Overworked Medical Examiner

Jeffrey Havard (pic­tured) is fac­ing exe­cu­tion in Mississippi despite the fact that key evi­dence against him came from a med­ical exam­in­er who has been harsh­ly crit­i­cized by experts in his field. Havard was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing his girlfriend’s 6‑month-old daugh­ter, based pri­mar­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Steven Hayne, a state pathol­o­gist. Dr. Hayne tes­ti­fied he found symp­toms of ​“shak­en baby syn­drome” and sex­u­al abuse on the infant. Recent inves­ti­ga­tions into Hayne’s cre­den­tials indi­cate he had nev­er been cer­ti­fied in foren­sic pathol­o­gy by the American Board of Pathology. He took the exam in 1980, but failed it. Dr. Hayne acknowl­edged per­form­ing as many as 1,700 autop­sies in a year, far more than the num­ber rec­om­mend­ed by experts, in addi­tion to hav­ing his own pathol­o­gy prac­tice. According to Dr. David Fowler, chief med­ical exam­in­er in Maryland and a for­mer chair­man of the stan­dards com­mit­tee for the National Association of Medical Examiners, that num­ber is ​“beyond defen­si­ble.” Hayne’s autop­sy in Havard’s case has been reviewed and dis­cred­it­ed by oth­er expert pathol­o­gists. Mississippi stopped work­ing with Dr. Hayne in 2008. Other cas­es in which he had pro­vid­ed piv­otal pros­e­cu­tion tes­ti­mo­ny have been over­turned through DNA test­ing. However, Havard’s appeal has been denied by the state Supreme Court.

One of the groups work­ing on Havard’s case and inves­tigt­ing Dr. Hayne’s back­ground is the Innocence Project, based in New York. In 2009, Dr. Hayne sued the Project for defama­tion, and was paid a $100,000 in settlement. 

(R. Balko, ​“Despite Evidence From Discreted Medical Examiner, Mississippi’s Jeffrey Havard Nears Execution,” Huffington Post, January 8, 2012; C. Robertson, ​“Questions Left for Mississippi Over Doctor’s Autopsies,” New York Times, January 7, 2013.) See Arbitrariness.