Spring Break
Forensic scientist uses blood to solve crime
Son Hoang
Issue date: 2/1/05 Section: News
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02/01/05 - Herbert MacDonell discussed the techniques he developed for blood spatter analysis as part of the Forensic Science Seminar Series, which is located in Pastore Chemical Lab on Friday evenings.
"I use people to aid in the reconstruction of what could've happened in a criminal or civil case," MacDonell, director of the Lab for Forensic Science in Corning, NY, said. "It's more important that I show what couldn't have happened anatomically, than what did happen."
MacDonell, who is an expert on blood spatter analysis, has testified as a witness in many cases such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial and has analyzed the Robert Kennedy and the Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations.
"People commit crimes, and people commit crimes with things," MacDonell said. "And every now and then you will have a case where the people involved cannot see what has transpired before them because of their point of view or their involvement."
MacDonell cited as an example of this a case he worked on in Tampa, Fla., in which a woman committed "suicide by cop." She threatened law enforcement officers for the sole purpose of having them shoot her. He said that by aiming her own handgun at two police officers, she had forced them to shoot her through the heart.
Some time later, the woman's family sued the state of Florida and MacDonell was called in to prove that the woman's death was a justifiable homicide.
"This was a very simple thing to do. No chemistry. A little bit of physics, but 98 percent common sense," MacDonell said.
He explained how with the help of some live human models, he was able to recreate the scenario and prove that based on the angle in which the bullet passed through the woman, that she must have been leaning forward in a "combat posture." The woman's family dropped their case against the state.
MacDonell used two volunteers to recreate the scene for the audience so that they could see the process he went through.
"I use people to aid in the reconstruction of what could've happened in a criminal or civil case," MacDonell, director of the Lab for Forensic Science in Corning, NY, said. "It's more important that I show what couldn't have happened anatomically, than what did happen."
MacDonell, who is an expert on blood spatter analysis, has testified as a witness in many cases such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial and has analyzed the Robert Kennedy and the Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations.
"People commit crimes, and people commit crimes with things," MacDonell said. "And every now and then you will have a case where the people involved cannot see what has transpired before them because of their point of view or their involvement."
MacDonell cited as an example of this a case he worked on in Tampa, Fla., in which a woman committed "suicide by cop." She threatened law enforcement officers for the sole purpose of having them shoot her. He said that by aiming her own handgun at two police officers, she had forced them to shoot her through the heart.
Some time later, the woman's family sued the state of Florida and MacDonell was called in to prove that the woman's death was a justifiable homicide.
"This was a very simple thing to do. No chemistry. A little bit of physics, but 98 percent common sense," MacDonell said.
He explained how with the help of some live human models, he was able to recreate the scenario and prove that based on the angle in which the bullet passed through the woman, that she must have been leaning forward in a "combat posture." The woman's family dropped their case against the state.
MacDonell used two volunteers to recreate the scene for the audience so that they could see the process he went through.
