dueling doctors

Compared to other medical examiner experts who from a distance have weighed in on the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, Dr. Michael Baden's opinion rings more level headed than most others, although troubling in his claim JonBenet's case can never be solved for the incompetency that began at the crime scene.

"...The worst of them, Jon Benet Ramsey. They call up (ph) a kidnapping. The police come, and they don't protect the scene. They muck up the scene. They never solve it properly..."

Now Baden is facing off in the courtroom against the notorious Cyril Wecht (who was factually retained in this case unlike the investigation of JonBenet's murder) in a 43 years-old homicide of a Philly police officer. --

Barnes trial: Clash of the celebrity medical experts
Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer
By Joseph A. Slobodzian

"In this corner, for the defense, from Pittsburgh, coroner of choice in the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey, and Vincent Foster: Cyril H. Wecht.

And in the opponent's corner, for the prosecution, from New York, star of the HBO series Autopsy and expert for the congressional probes of the murders of President Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Michael Baden.

With just seven weeks until trial, the case of William J. Barnes - accused of murdering Philadelphia Police Officer Walter T. Barclay Jr., who died 41 years after he was shot - is shaping up as a battle royal of medical experts..." [read more]