Medical: July 2009 Archives

While a person's DNA holds billions of genetic markers, criminologists look at only 15 markers to show the molecular difference from one person to the next. They then create a statistic that shows how likely it is that someone else might have the same DNA profile.  "If it's a nice clean profile, then the numbers are pretty incredible," indicating it's a probable match, says Ruth Ballard, California DNA expert and professor in biology at California State University, Sacramento. 

But many experts agree that a partial DNA profile is much harder to evaluate. "It's those kind of samples that really end up being argued in court," says Ballard, who has served as an expert witness for prosecutors and defense attorneys on DNA evidence. "It's a rational disagreement; it's an area where experts can't decide yet."  On the other hand, "If you have a full profile, and you're looking at all 15 of these markers, when you run the numbers on that, they are so incredibly low, the probability of another person having the same markers as you do is so unlikely, the crime labs are reporting it as a match," Ballard said.

Excerpted from TheSacramentoBee.com.

Defense attorneys and law professors agree that the insanity defense is difficult and jurors are skeptical.  It comes down to a “battle of the experts.” The defense’s medical expert testifies that the accused has a mental disease, the state counters with an expert who finds the person sane and the jury has to decide which diagnosis is credible.   “Jurors don’t like the insanity defense,” said Robert Rigg, associate professor and director of the Criminal Defense Program at Drake University Law School in Des Moines.  

This is what Mark Becker, 24, accused of shooting Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas to death, faces in his first-degree murder trial set for September.  He filed this week his intent to claim insanity and/or diminished responsibility as a defense.  Becker’s is the latest in a recent string of insanity defenses.

Excerpted from GazetteOnline.com.

A Lehigh County, PA, judge says five wrongful death suits filed against St. Luke's Hospital by families of patients former nurse Charles Cullen has confessed to killing can proceed to trial.  In a series of rulings last week, Judge Edward Reibman threw out 10 lawsuits filed by the families of patients Cullen has not admitted to killing.  In those cases, Reibman granted the hospital's motions for summary judgment primarily because the plaintiffs' medical expert, Dr. David Fowler, could not link their deaths directly to Cullen.  ''[Fowler] notes in his report that he 'cannot exclude or include them as victims within a reasonable degree of medical certainty,''' Reibman wrote.

Cullen, now serving a life sentence at Trenton State Prison, NJ, worked at St. Luke's Hospital as a nurse from 2000 to 2002. He pleaded guilty to killing 29 people and attempting to kill six others at hospitals in Pennsylvanic and New Jersey.  St. Luke's and four New Jersey hospitals where Cullen worked reached an undisclosed settlement in February 2008 with families of New Jersey patients who had been killed by Cullen, a former Bethlehem resident.
Excerpted from TheMorningCall.com.

Allegheny County judge Anthony M. Mariani Wednesday acquitted a South Hills, PA, oral surgeon of all charges related to allegations he molested 17 female patients. Dr. Robert John Boyda was cleared of charges that he assaulted patients in his offices from 2002 through late 2007, when two patients went to police.

Anesthesiology expert Dr. Edward Dench, past president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, testified that the women's stories were consistent with dreams. He said it would be possible to wake up abruptly after being administered drugs and remember events. Once awake, however, patients would not fall unconscious again.

(Judge) Mariani said he believed the women were truthful about what they thought happened. But the judge said he found compelling the testimony of defense experts who said the women could not have remembered anything because of drugs used to anesthetize them — and the fact that the drugs can cause sexual hallucinations.

"Across the street in civil division, my verdict might be different, but I must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt," he said. In a civil trial, the burden of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, a lesser standard.

Excerpted from TribTotalMedia.com.

The author of a study to be published in the next issue of the medical journal Lancet said swine flu could devastate indigenous populations around the world due to their sensitivity to infectious disease. Dr. Michael Gracey, a medical expert and adviser to Unity of First People of Australia, an aboriginal non-profit organization, suggests that the world's almost 400 million indigenous peoples — including about 1.2 million in Canada — are particularly at risk for contracting swine flu because they often live in remote, impoverished communities with limited access to medical infrastructure.

First Nations communities in Manitoba and northern Ontario have already been hit by the highly communicable H1N1 virus. Despite comprising just 10 per cent of the population in Manitoba, natives make up about a third of the 685 swine flu cases in that province.

The spread of the virus on reserves prompted aboriginal leaders around Manitoba to declare states of emergency last week to help free funds for federal assistance. The expert said the lack of hospitals and medical workers in isolated aboriginal communities means that while they are often introduced to viruses later than the rest of the population, the effects can be quick and punishing.

Excerpted from VancouverSun.com.

A Bexar County jury on Thursday found that a San Antonio woman used the water in a swimming pool as a deadly weapon in the drowning death of her 3-month-old granddaughter in 2005.  Gabriella Sigler was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the June 16, 2005, death of Melody Sigler. Because a deadly weapon was used, Sigler must serve at least half of the 18-year sentence before she would be eligible for parole.

Sigler sought probation after pleading guilty to injury to a child resulting in serious bodily injury.  Forensic psychology experts testified for the defense that Sigler was suffering from a manic episode caused by bipolar disorder.

Sigler was watching the baby for her son and his girlfriend at her friend's home. The son warned her to never put the baby in the pool, according to court records. Three days before the drowning, the son found the baby floating in the pool with the grandmother standing nearby. Sigler told her son she was teaching the infant to swim like children she saw on a television show about “water babies.”

Excerpted from MySanAntonio.com.

Neuropsychology expert Stephen Maccioccihi, director of the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, attempted to save a convicted hit man from a death sentence in a Fulton County, GA, jury trial Wednesday.  The expert testified that Cleveland Clark is “mildly mentally retarded” and functions at the level of a 12-year-old. Maccioccihi testified Clark scored low when he was tested in jail for mental competency.  As a result, Clark has not been able to hold a job, is impulsive and has difficulty with everyday activities.  The defense hopes the expert's testimony will persuade jurors to vote for life in prison, rather than death, for the April 26, 2000, contract murder of 22-year-old Sparkle Rai.

That same jury convicted Clark on Friday a year to the day that another jury convicted Chiman Rai, 68, of paying $10,000 to have his daughter-in-law killed. Chiman Rai, a native of India, objected to his son marrying Sparkle Rai because she was African American. Sparkle and Rajeeve “Ricky” Rai had been married a month when Clark strangled and stabbed her. 

Excerpted from ajc.com.

Pediatrics expert Dr. Janice Ophoven testified Tuesday in the defense of Amy Dierks.  Daycase provider Dierks is charged with aggravated assault on a six month old boy. The expert argued against the prosecution’s case, stating that child was having a stroke with preexisting conditions with symptoms for nearly a week.

“I don’t know why this case is even here” she said on the stand, and also points out that the scientific information is not adequate. She also stated that recent studies show that in “shaken baby syndrome” it is slamming that does the injury, not shaking. She said that Henry was “stroking” and she can say “for certain he was not” a healthy baby and had “abnormal bones”.

Excerpted from KSFY.com.