Error of Judgment: The Consequences of Mistakes in Pathology

The human mind is capable of making mistakes. This is an issue that affects people of all walks of life but few disciplines are more reliant upon accurate, infallible judgment than medical science. Whilst it is an indisputable fact that forensic medical examiners have carried out outstanding work which has determined the causes of deaths of countless individuals and helped bring immeasurable numbers of criminals to justice, over the decades whilst forensic medicine has been in use there have been a number of huge errors which should bring shame upon many members of the profession. Their findings have occasionally caused law enforcement agencies to waste a great deal of time and resources. For example in 1988 a murder investigation was initiated when the remains of a black girl were found buried in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Dr David Wolf believed the skeletal remains to have dated from the mid 1970s. However, sixteen years later the truth was determined, and the case closed, when it was shown the bones were at least a century old. However, examiners have also reached conclusions that have resulted in law enforcement agencies not investigating cases where they should have. What has been believed to be an exact science, performed by experts who determine the truth, is often a cause of immeasurable heartache and injustice.

The case of Vickie Bertram is a good example of the errors pathologists have made in the past, errors which might conceivably have resulted in a murderer evading justice simply because the autopsy was performed by an inept examiner.