It’s not surveillance film from a bank or gas station hold-up — it’s guys in lab coats who seem to be helping the police and prosecutors by making evidence “fit” a murder charge.


This particular case is not for the faint of heart. The film shows an autopsy of a young girl whose parent claims she drowned in the bath tub. Prosecutors say it was murder. The forensic “experts” appear to be putting bite marks on the child’s dead body using a plaster mold of the defendant’s teeth.


Assuming that’s right, how perverse is that? The government’s scientists put the marks on the child, snap some photos of the marks, and then show those pictures to the jury and declare, “The bite marks match the defendant.”


You might think that once the film is brought to the attention of the District Attorney, he’d disavow the case against the parent and have the “scientist” arrested for tampering with evidence. Sadly, it doesn’t work like that. The authorities are probably hiding under their desks, hoping this story will just go away. Because if this is not an isolated incident and someone takes a serious look at all the cases these “experts” have been involved in, lawsuits will be filed, careers will end, and grand juries may be convened. Super-sleuth Radley Balko has been on the trail of these junk scientists for the past year or two.


60 Minutes should investigate this thing further.