View full sizeThe hiring of outside forensics experts by prosecutors in the murder trial of former Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine (above) has led some to speculate that the autopsy is damaging to the state's case.Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb’s decision to hire a pair of outside forensics investigators suggests that the state’s official autopsy is damaging to the murder case against former Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine, according to legal experts.
The state has hired Dr. James Downs, a Georgia state medical examiner who once served as Alabama’s chief medical examiner, to testify about the shooting death in May of victim Angel Downs. Prosecutors also have hired Paulette Sutton, a bloodstain pattern expert from Tennessee.
Nodine is accused of shooting Downs, a Gulf Shores real estate professional with whom he had had an affair. Newcomb said testimony from Dr. Downs, who is not related to the victim, would “supplement,” not refute the autopsy. Newcomb declined to say how much her office is paying for the testimony but insisted it is not unusual.
But legal experts said prosecutors rarely hire outside experts to testify about an autopsy. Robert Goodwin, a professor at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, said such a move could indicate that the state’s medical examiner has offered an “inconclusive or shaky opinion” about the victim’s death.
“It’s highly unusual, assuming that the medical examiner is available and able to testify,” Goodwin said.
Nodine’s lawyers have objected to Dr. Downs and Sutton on grounds that prosecutors have not given them enough notice about what the witnesses will say during their testimony. Circuit Judge Charles Partin will hear arguments on the matter today.
Goodwin said it is far more common for defense lawyers to hire outside experts to challenge autopsy findings.
In the Nodine case, though, defense lawyer Dennis Knizley said he is satisfied with the autopsy. He declined to divulge the autopsy’s findings, but said he has subpoenaed state medical examiner Dr. Eugene Hart to testify if the prosecution does not call him to the stand.
“I have absolute faith in our medical examiner,” he said.
View full sizeBaldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb ... insists use of outside experts is not uncommon.Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said the Department of Forensic Sciences sometimes has brought in private medical examiners to help with backlogs. And he said his office has hired private examiners when they have specialized expertise that the state lab lacks. He recalled one case in which the time of death was a big issue. But he said his office rarely used an expert to simply testify about an autopsy.
“Most of the time in my years, the Department of Forensic Sciences was able to do what needed to be done,” he said.
Former Baldwin County District Attorney David Whetstone said an “extra set of eyes” can be useful in a case that hinges on forensics analysis.
“It would be rare, but it would not be beyond the pale,” he said. “It’s unusual for that to happen, but it’s not unprecedented.”
Whetstone, now an attorney in private practice in Baldwin County, said the last capital murder case he tried as DA involved similar circumstances. A forensic pathologist hired by the Jackson County Coroner’s Office in Mississippi concluded that a Foley man whose body had been dumped near Gautier in 2003 died as a result of strangulation.
The pathologist, Paul McGarry, later testified under questioning from Whetstone that he could not rule out the possibility that the victim had been shot. The jury convicted the defendant, Murray “Bubba” Lawrence Jr.
“I proved that he was shot. I had to disprove the medical examiner,” Whetstone said.
Whetstone said the body was too badly decomposed for a new autopsy. But he said he would have hired an outside expert if a new autopsy had been possible.
Baldwin prosecutors have told Nodine’s lawyers that Dr. Downs is prepared to testify that Angel Downs died from a gunshot and that her death was a homicide, but they have not given defense attorneys a detailed report from the medical examiner. Reached by phone, Downs said he could not comment without permission from Baldwin authorities.
Knizley said prosecutors have given even less information about Sutton’s planned testimony. He said he presumes, based on her résumé, that she intends to testify about the angle, direction and velocity of the bullet, based on how and where the blood fell.