From 1999 to 2004, Dr. Johnny Glenn was the only foren­sic pathol­o­gist per­form­ing autop­sies in the poor­est part of Alabama. He was assist­ed only by lab tech­ni­cians as he per­formed hun­dreds of autop­sies annu­al­ly, includ­ing at least one death penal­ty case. After his abrupt depar­ture, it was dis­cov­ered that Glenn rou­tine­ly put aside his notes and often failed to fin­ish final reports or dia­grams that are cru­cial to death inves­ti­ga­tions. Two of his for­mer col­leagues say that Glenn was increas­ing­ly depressed dur­ing his tenure, that he was bat­tling health prob­lems, and that he was trou­bled by his inabil­i­ty to pass the exam to become cer­ti­fied by the American Board of Pathology, a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that is not required to be a pathol­o­gist in Alabama, but is high­ly desir­able.

​“There were sev­er­al hun­dred cas­es unfin­ished by Dr. Glenn. Some of these dat­ed back as far as 4 years, to 2001,” said Dr. Jim Lauridson, a for­mer state pathol­o­gist who was briefly hired to com­plete some of Glenn’s cas­es. Among the cas­es was that of Devin Moore, a teenag­er who was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die for the killing of two police­men and a radio dis­patch­er. During Moore’s tri­al, a for­mer Glenn assis­tant strug­gled to explain the doc­tor’s notes, and at one point while try­ing to describe the wounds of a vic­tim, the assis­tant dis­cov­ered that Glenn’s notes in the file were actu­al­ly about anoth­er body.

Michael Sparks, who now heads the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, is try­ing to hire two addi­tion­al pathol­o­gists and a chief med­ical exam­in­er in an effort to pre­vent sim­i­lar prob­lems from hap­pen­ing again. Though Sparks has stat­ed that he no longer wants any state pathol­o­gist work­ing on his own, fund­ing for addi­tion­al staff is tight and Alabama’s start­ing pay for pathol­o­gists is low. Alabama faces a back­log and incom­plete autop­sy file prob­lem that can be found across the nation. Bruce Goldberger, pres­i­dent of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, not­ed, ​“Unfortunately, it’s more com­mon than you’d think, the lack of fol­low-through when it comes to the final report.”
(Associated Press, April 4, 2007). See Arbitrariness.

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