I've lived in the midwest and west and have always leaned conservative. But after reading THE CADAVER KING AND THE COUNTRY DENTIST, I know I'd be a liberal if I lived in Mississippi. What an eye-opening book this is!

The "cadaver king" is Dr. Stephen Hayne, and the "country dentist" is Dr. Michael West. The two of them acted as expert witnesses in the majority of Mississippi's death investigation court cases for nearly 20 years. Hayne performed an impossible number of autopsies and then claimed to see whatever prosecutors suspected. West gave unscientific bite-mark testimony to suit prosecutors' suspicions and also pretended to be an expert in a variety of other unscientific areas. And Mississippi courts accepted it all for many years and sent many, many people to prison as a result.

THE CADAVER KING AND THE COUNTRY DENTIST concentrates on two of those cases in particular, both affected by Hayne's and West's testimony. In each case, a three-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Mississippi. Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks were accused of the crimes. They were innocent, but, in large part on the basis of Hayne's and West's testimony, they were convicted and spent many years in jail, Brewer on death row.

So much research went into this very interesting book. I highly recommend it.