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The Oz Illusion: The Expert Behind the Curtain

By David A. Martindale
June 28, 2006

Notwithstanding all the criticism of baseless opinions expressed in courts by experts, more often than we would wish to contemplate, case outcomes are dictated by expert witnesses ' and some of those witnesses have no empirical bases for the opinions that they express (Eaton, L., 2004. For Arbiters in Custody Battles, Wide Power and Little Scrutiny. The New York Times, 5/23, p. 1).

In what is, perhaps, the most famous case, Andy Barefoot was sentenced to death based largely on predictions of his future propensity for danger, offered by two psychiatrists, neither of whom had examined him. In 1978, Barefoot was convicted by a Texas jury of capital murder. Subsequently, the same jury had to determine whether or not the death penalty should be imposed. The state called two psychiatrists, John Holbrook and James Grigson, both of whom, in response to hypothetical questions, opined that Barefoot was likely to commit further acts of violence. On the basis of the experts' testimony, the jury imposed the death penalty.

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