MACON, Miss. - Lawyers for two men convicted, but later exonerated, of killing and raping two young girls in Mississippi may seek charges against a "bite mark" expert.
Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks each spent more than a decade in jail for the rape and 1991 murder of two 3-year-old girls in separate cases. Forensic odontologist Dr. Michael West told juries in each case that bite marks conclusively matched the dental records of both men, ABC news said Wednesday.
Authorities dropped charges against both men when a third man came forward last week and described in detail the killings of the two girls. DNA evidence linked the man to one of the crimes but he claimed he never bit either one of them.
Lawyers for Brewer and Brooks claim West "deliberately fabricated evidence" to match the prosecution's case. Peter Neufeld, co-director of the non-profit Innocence Project, told ABC News that amounts to "the crime of attempted murder."
A 2002 study by a leading member of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, Dr. Michael Bowers, said bite-mark identifications are wrong two of every three times.
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