Cyril H. Wecht - Mortal Evidence: The Forensics Behind Nine Shocking Cases

THE CASES YOU'VE JUST READ OFFER a glimpse into the power and limitations of forensic science. You've seen how forensics can help ensure that justice is served and sometimesdespite the advances of forensicshow justice can be denied.

I highly doubt Joanne Curley would have ever admitted killing her husband had it not been for the powerful evidence against her provided by the sequential hair analysis. The same holds true for the deaths in Miracle Valley. Prosecutors probably would have continued to pursue charges against the church members had it not been for the forensic evidence regarding the entrance point of bullet wounds.

Other cases showed that the official story may not be the most accurate. Who knows for how long Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson may have gone to prison had questions not been raised about the baby's grave congenital defects and about Amy's serious medical condition associated with delivery? In the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard, modern forensics was able to reach back in time and point to the most probable killer of Marilyn Sheppard. But science can do only so much. The vast preponderance of juries are composed of individuals who are dedicated to finding out the truth. However, when all is said and done, justice still is determined by men and women, who are not infallible.

Most important here, however, is that these cases have one thing in common: what initially may seem to be the obvious solution to a death may in fact be partially or completely wrong. The revelations achieved through forensic evidence can change the entire context and understanding of a crime, not to mention who did it. I hope readers enjoyed this book and perhaps learned something new. Lastly, I trust they will come away from it with a better understanding of how forensic science fits in with crime solving and within the justice system.

Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D.

CYRIL H. WECHT, M.D., J.D., one of the world's leading pathologists, is the author of Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?, Grave Secrets, Cause of Death, and hundreds of professional publications. He has served as president of both the American College of Legal Medicine and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and has appeared on numerous nationally syndicated television programs, including Dateline, Larry King Live, 20/20, Burden of Proof, and many others.

GREG SAITZ is a reporter for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey, where he has written about crime and the courts for several years. He has won numerous awards and currently is working on a true crime book.

MARK CURRIDEN, ESQ., is senior communications specialist for Vinson & Elkins, LLP, and the formal legal writer for the Dallas Morning News and the Atlanta Constitution. He is coauthor with Leroy Phillips Jr. of Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched 100 Years of Federalism as well as coauthor with Dr. Wecht of Cause of Death and Grave Secrets.

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. Grave Secrets: A Leading Forensic Expert Reveals the Startling Truth about O. J. Simpson, David Koresh, Vincent Foster, and Other Sensational Cases. New York: Penguin, 1996.

ON NOVEMBER 12, 1996, AMY GROSSBERG and Brian Peterson were just two anonymous college freshmen, two teenagers with promising futures from upper-middle-class homes in northern New Jersey. Eighteen-year-old Grossberg, in her first semester at the University of Delaware, was a pretty brunette who liked art. Peterson, her boyfriend since high school, was handsome and athletic and attending Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. But less than a week later, they were the talk of the nation, and much of the worldbranded as heartless baby killers. They also were the subjects of an aggressive team of prosecutors seeking a murder conviction and a death sentence.

Eventually, what happened in room 220 of the Comfort Inn in Newark, Delaware, was debated not only by those involved in the criminal case, but also by newspaper columnists, television talk-show hosts, and millions of everyday citizens. Were Grossberg and Peterson two unfeeling animals who, after delivering their infant son in the hotel, viciously murdered him and tossed his tiny body into a nearby Dumpster? Or were they scared and confused young people who panicked after Grossberg gave birth to a blue and seemingly lifeless baby?