Ray Krone and Ricky Amolsch are two men who were wrongfully convicted of terrible crimes involving human bite mark evidence. Both were later released.

Bite marks are often compelling forensic evidence and they certainly led to the capture, conviction and capital punishment of Ted Bundy. But others innocent people have not been so lucky. This controversial branch of forensic science seems to allow for grave injustices.

In the forensic science armory bite mark evidence is subject to interpretation and the experience of the forensic dentist, which means that although it can be very exact, in the right hands it does not have the degree of accuracy that fingerprint analysis or DNA profiling enjoy.

According to The Innocence Project: “For years, bite mark evidence has been seen as an unreliable science. It has led to at least four wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing and processes of accreditation and peer review have been wildly inconsistent”.

Innocent Man Looses Everything Because of Bite Mark Testimony

In 1994, before DNA profiling was the first stop for forensic investigators, Ricky Amolsch, 38, ended up in jail for ten months over a mistake that a forensic dentist made.

His girlfriend, Jane Marie Fray was gruesomely stabbed twenty-two times and an electrical cord was wrapped tightly around her neck. She was also bitten near her left ear.

Forensic Dentist Makes a Mistake

Amolsch was arrested, photographed and fingerprinted. The chief forensic odontologist for Wayne and Oakland Counties, Dr. Allan Warnick’s claims of a bite mark match persuaded the district judge to sign a capital warrant. The preliminary hearing relied on this evidence alone with the forensic dentist, Dr Warnick giving compelling testimony. Since Amolsch was not eligible for bond, he had to stay in jail until his trial, and during that time, he lost his home, his savings and his children.

When one of Warnick's other cases was challenged, officials re-examined Amolsch's case. Dr. John Kennedy gave a second opinion that it was someone else, not Amolsch, who had bitten Fray's face. Two other forensic dentists agreed and Amolsch was released.

West Memphis Three, Ongoing Case

A case, which is ongoing, in which a bite-marks and other forensic evidence play a pivotal role is that of the West Memphis Three from Arkansas - Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin. They were convicted as teenagers in 1994 for the savage slaying of three young boys from West Memphis, second graders Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore.

Human Bite Mark Not Examined

The defense claimed that they did not get funding to have a forensic odontologist examine a human bite mark on the face of one of the victims. They said that the police had knowledge of the bite mark, but it was not brought forward in the trial because it would exonerate the accused.

Five years after the fact, an odontologist, a pathologist, and a certified medical examiner looked at the autopsy photos and testified in an appeal that dental impressions obtained by the three defendants indicated that none of the accused had made the mark. However, all three remain behind bars.

DNA Evidence Overturns Bite Mark Conviction

It was 1991 and Ray Krone, a former letter carrier without a criminal record, honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force was charged with taking the life of a Phoenix cocktail waitress, Kim Ancona whom he knew by sight.

She had been stabbed eleven times. An examination of the body also revealed that she had been bitten on the left breast through the tank top she was wearing and on her neck. Forensic evidence, or lack of it, indicated that there were no fingerprints and other bodily fluids although there was indication that she had been sexually assaulted. The blood was Type O, the same as Ancona, Krone, and some 43% of the population. Forensic DNA technology was not generally available at the time of the prosecution.

Testimony by State Forensic Odontologist

There was little evidence that tied Krone to the atrocity except for evidence of the bite mark on the victim's breast, which a state forensic odontologist said matched his very distinct teeth (He was named Snaggletooth in the media). Krone maintained his innocence from the day of his arrest.

The bite mark testimony of Dr. Raymond Rawson, the State's dental expert, convinced the jury that Krone was guilty and he was convicted.

Wrongful Conviction for Ray Krone; Cleared by DNA

Ray Krone was proved innocent of the crime in the same test that not only established that he was not involved in the fatal stabbing, but that also identified the true perpetrator – a person already incarcerated on another unrelated offense. After being cleared by DNA, Ray Krone walked out of the Arizona State Penitentiary at Yuma on Monday, April 8, 2002, a free man.

More Wrongful Human Bite Mark Cases

• Dr. Michael West -The Kennedy Brewer Case
• Dr. Allan J. Warnick - The Moldowan Case
• Dr. Allan Warnick - The Carol Ege Case
• Dueling Bite-Mark Experts - The Steven Fortin Case

Sources

See, State v. Krone, 182 Ariz. 319, 897 P.2d 621 (en banc, 1995).

Whose Bite is it anyway by Katherine Ramsland

Jim Fisher - Forensics Under Fire