For the first time since 1995, Mississippi will have a full-time medical examiner who is not Dr. Steven Hayne.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson announced that the Department of Public Safety is advertising a full-time medical examiner position. The state Legislature recently appropriated $500,000 for the position from the sale of NASCAR car license plates. That money normally funds maintenance of the Governor's Mansion and state Capitol.
Hayne, who has performed the bulk of the state's criminal autopsies for the past 20 years, did his last autopsy Monday morning. Simpson notified Hayne midday Monday of his removal from the list of state-approved medical examiners.
Reporting by Radley Balko of Reason magazine raised doubts about Hayne's competence in fall 2007, citing gross oversights like failing to empty a victim's pockets. Hayne has since come under fire from the Innocence Project, among others, for his alleged sloppy work and unsubstantiated "expert" testimony. He performed the original autopsies in the murder trials of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks, wrongfully convicted Mississippians who were both exonerated in February on DNA evidence.
Nevertheless, Simpson commended Hayne for his work and said that he had not fired Hayne for any alleged incompetence. "Dr. Hayne has provided a tremendous service under very, very difficult circumstances," he said.
Hayne's contract with the state requires 90 days' notice for termination. Simpson said that he expects Hayne to spend that time completing protocol reports for 400 to 500 autopsies he has already performed.
To cover autopsies until they hire a medical examiner, MDPS has contracted five certified forensic pathologists from Forensic Medical Inc. of Nashville.
Simpson said that the Department of Public Safety is not investigating any of the cases that used Hayne's autopsies.
"It remains to be seen, but I hope that it's the first step in the process," Mississippi Innocence Project director Tucker Carrington told the JFP Tuesday.
"It's one thing to stop him from doing additional autopsies.
Are they really going to be willing to go back and dig up some bodies, so to speak?"
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