Cadaver King

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South by Radley Balko, Tucker Carrington, John Grisham (Foreword), Hatchette Book Group (2018) 

Two Murders in Mississippi

Through the lens of two particular murders in Mississippi, this book describes the corruption of the criminal justice system through good old boy networks, resulting in wrongful convictions. There is a particular focus on junk forensic pathology. There are poorly conducted autopsies by coroners, rather than medically trained personnel, such as forensic pathologists. There is also junk bite-mark analysis by a dentist of limited competence. 

Coroners and Forensic Pathologists

The book delves into the history of coroners, and their gradual replacement by medically-trained forensic pathologists. A forensic pathologist is a graduate of medical school who has a residency in clinical pathology, followed by a fellowship in forensic pathology. 

Racist Criminal Justice System

Besides general corruption in the criminal justice system in Mississippi, there is also a history of racism:

• Black-on-black crime being ignored by the criminal justice system

• White men getting away with lynching black people

Other Journalists

Besides the authors of this book, these problems have also been investigated by other journalists:

• John Stossel of ABC News

• CBS News 60 Minutes

• Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper

Cold Cases

Improvements of forensic science have enabled the learning more detail of past cases, such as:

• The murder of Emmett Till in 1955

• June 1964  murders of 3 Civil Rights Workers