‘The Innocence Files’ Episode 3 Recap and Breakdown – Careless Science

By Daniel Hart - April 15, 2020 (Last updated: February 7, 2024)
A still image from The innocence Files Episode 3

Photo: Netflix
By Daniel Hart - April 15, 2020 (Last updated: February 7, 2024)
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WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

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Summary

“The Evidence: The Duty to Correct” continues to discuss the flawed scientific evidence and the case of Keith Harward.

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. Episode 3 shows how the victim had bite marks all over her, and at the time, bite mark analysis was completely new and exotic. 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, whom she felt was identifiable. Keith Harward was freed, but there was 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 on 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. Episode 3 highlighted a few more things:
  • The episode discusses how it is challenging to secure employment after being convicted, 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 Evidence: The Duty to Correct” explains how bite mark analysis is used, despite the flaws that have been raised in this episode. Read More:

Article by Daniel Hart

Daniel is the co-founder of Ready Steady Cut and has served as Editor-in-Chief since 2017. Since then, Dan has been at the top of his game by ensuring that we only produce and upload content of exceptional quality and that we’re up to date with the latest additions to the streaming and entertainment world.

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