Funding for the state medical examiner’s office, approved in aDepartment of Public Safety appropriations bill Wednesday by theMississippi House of Representatives, could be cut if the officedoes not hire a medical examiner certified by the American Board ofPathology.

The bill, Senate Bill 3124, passed the House on a vote of 74-47after Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello, proposed an amendment requiringthe medical examiner’s office to seek a certified examiner. Withthe changes, differences between the two chambers’ versions willhave to be worked out in conference.

“State law requires that we have a board-certified medicalexaminer and, unfortunately, we haven’t had one for more than 10years,” Evans said Wednesday. “This gets specifically into mypracticing of law – that’s why I was on it today and why I willcontinue to beat that drum.”

Evans said that around 90 percent of autopsies done in the statefor criminal deaths – one of the state medical examiner’s chiefduties – are performed by Dr. Steven Hayne, a Brandon pathologistwho has been filling in the long-vacant post of state medicalexaminer for many years. But, Evans said, Hayne is not certified bythe American Board of Pathology, and his work for the state is doneoutside of statute requirements.

“Unfortunately, Dr. Hayne has had some problems in the legalcommunity because of his lack of credentials,” Evans said. “TheCriminal Defense bar in Mississippi has been doing a lot ofresearch on Hayne. There has been many problems with him in court -questions about his credibility and bona fides.”

Evans discussed one incident involving Hayne and his involvementin a murder case against Tyler Edmonds. Edmonds, then 13 years old,was convicted of murdering his brother-in-law and sentenced to lifewithout possibility of parole after Hayne testified that the fatalbullet was fired by two fingers on the trigger – Edmonds being anassistant murderer.

“You don’t have to be a forensic pathologist, you don’t evenhave to be of average intelligence to know that’s bogus science,”Evans said. “There’s no way you could look at a bullet hole andconclude how many fingers pulled the trigger. That’s patentlyridiculous.”

On May 10, 2007, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturnedEdmonds’ conviction by a vote of 8 to 1.

Evans said he has also dealt with Hayne in his own trialsbefore.

“I was involved in a case where a body was skeletonized – I meanthat’s all that was left from the waist up was bone – and Haynetestified in court that the person had died as a result ofstrangulation,” Evans recounted. “I’ve had forensic pathologists -board certified pathologists – tell me that was ridiculous. Thecase ended in acquittal.”

Evans said instances such as these were the reasons why he,along with Rep. Brandon Jones, D-Pascagoula, sought to amend thebill to require the state medical examiner’s office to hire aboard-certified examiner. Evans said that if the state were goingto fund the office, then a full-time examiner should be in placeand that examiner should be in full compliance with state law.

“Since we do have the office and we’re funding it, we ought touse it,” Evans said. “We should not be having to depend on someonelike Dr. Hayne, who is not board-certified, doing these autopsieson which people’s freedom – and sometimes their lives -depend.”