Summary
The Innocence Files episode 3, “The Evidence: The Duty to Correct” continues to discuss the flawed scientific evidence and the case of Keith Harward.
This recap of Netflix series The Innocence Files episode 3, “The Evidence: The Duty to Correct” contains information regarding the subject matter. The episode discusses Keith Harward, a man accused of murder and sexual assault. The Innocence Project took the case to set him free.
What’s the subject matter of The Innocence Files episode 3, “The Evidence: The Duty to Correct“?
There’s a lot riding on bite mark analysis in The Innocence Files episode 3. It opens up with Dr West harping on how they shouldn’t remove Confederate monuments and using that as an example of how they are trying to remove his science.
We get it, Dr West, you are racist.
Peter Neufield from the Innocence Project wanted to tackle how people got into prison wrongfully in the first place, which brings the attention to Keith Harward — a man accused of murder and rape. His conviction was an incredibly weak case.
The Innocence Files episode 3, “The Evidence: The Duty to Correct” shows how the victim had bite marks all over her and at the time, bite mark analysis was completely new and exotic.
What is the basis that Keith Harward was innocent in The Innocence Files episode 3?
Keith Harward’s case was extremely weak and the bite mark analysis was feeble. Even the wife of the murdered husband could not identify Keith as the culprit and the Innocence Project found another suspect, who she felt was identifiable.
What was the outcome of episode 3?
Keith Harward was freed, but there as more work to be done in this area. A survey was carried out on bite marks across a hundred professionals and the results came back inconclusive — experts could not agree what a bite mark is. The Innocence Files episode 3 shows how bite mark analysis is extremely flawed, even though it was famously used in the Ted Bundy case.
Also Dr. West was purposefully obstructive when asked to look back at his cases — no surprise whatsoever.
Keith Harward vowed to help the wrongfully convicted, putting forward a bill to the senate for flawed forensic science that puts people in prison — the bill got far but ultimately it did not pass.
Any other observations?
- The episode discusses how it is difficult to gain employment after being convicted for years, despite being proven innocent.
- Levon Brooks unfortunately got sick and died.
- District Attorney Forrest Goodall was voted out in 2015.
- Half the cases that the Innocence Project takes on are based on flawed forensic science.
In the end, The Innocence Files episode 3, “The Evidence: The Duty to Correct” explains how bite mark analysis is used, despite the flaws that have been raised in this episode.
