Dr. Steven Hayne

Coroner from Hell with Bound to Kill connection

In research for my book Bound to Kill I uncovered the story of Dr. Steven Hayne. The autopsy of Travis Anton that the grand jury never got to see was conducted by Steven Hayne, who can only be described as a clusterfuck of a medical doctor. Unless you’re a professional organization, and then, he’s a stand up guy.

Until 2008, Hayne performed up to 90 percent of criminal autopsies in Mississippi despite not being certified by the state to do so. He performed more than 1,500 autopsies per year, over 5 times the recommended number, and a "Phase II deficiency" according to the National Association of Medical Examiners.

While performing this work, Hayne worked two different hospital jobs, and also regularly appeared in court to testify as a forensic expert.

In August 2008 he was terminated from his position as medical examiner, and was barred for life from practicing as a medical examiner in Mississippi.

Despite all of this, the College of American Pathologists announced the conclusion of their investigation into the accusations against Dr. Steven Hayne, and that no action need be taken against him. 

The committee found that it lacked sufficient evidence on which to base a finding that he was deficient in moral character or professional competence or guilty of professional misconduct. Curiously, the College of American Pathologists claims they began the investigation due to complaints by the Innocence Project, who maintains that they made no such complaints. In fact medical and professional forensic pathology organizations have ignored complaints about Hayne for over a decade according to Reason magazine.

Dr. Steven Hayne has continued to testify in criminal proceedings despite the previous wrongful convictions based on his work, and when he was fired, was allowed to finish up his backlog of 400-500 autopsy reports before he was actually off the payroll.

You can read more about Steven Hayne in The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington, and in Reason Magazine.

You can read the next excerpt here, about Susan’s childhood.