Expert Witness

Summary

48 Hours — "Expert Witness"

Date: July 23, 2026
Host: CBS News, Narrator/Host (several correspondents and legal experts throughout)

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Episode Overview

This episode of "48 Hours" explores the pivotal and controversial role that expert witnesses play in the American justice system. Through riveting case studies—including the wrongful conviction of Jim Richardson and the arson trial of Terry Henson—the episode delves into how expert testimony shapes, and sometimes distorts, the administration of justice. The episode also presents a mock courtroom exercise to illustrate the immense influence experts wield over juries—sometimes with life-altering consequences.

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1. The Power of the Expert Witness (01:40–02:46)

• Theme Introduction:
  The episode opens with the host posing a critical question about expert testimony: how can two experts, armed with the same scientific evidence, reach opposite conclusions in court?

  • Quote, Host (01:40):
    “They're the only witnesses who are allowed to give opinions, and most jurors believe them… nearly 90% said the experts are credible. But what are their credentials?”

• Historical context:
  The use of expert testimony in American courts dates back to colonial witch trials, but the proliferation of so-called experts (often for hire) now raises critical issues about credibility and reliability.

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2. Jim Richardson: From Hero to Murder Suspect (02:46–11:05)

Background

• Jim Richardson, a formerly convicted man, recounts his arrest and conviction for a brutal murder and arson in West Virginia:
  • Quote, Jim Richardson (03:23):
    “I didn’t do nothing wrong. I had nothing to do with it.”
  • He was lauded as a hero for rescuing a child from a burning house, only to become the main suspect when the child’s mother was found tortured and murdered inside.
  • Prosecutor Bill Forbes theorizes that Jim set the fire to cover up his crime and staged the rescue to appear innocent.

Flawed Forensic Evidence

• Key Evidence:

  • No blood was found on Jim’s clothing, and no fingerprints on the murder weapon (a baseball bat), but bodily fluids found on the victim become crucial.
  • State “expert” Fred Zane claimed blood evidence excluded 96% of men, but pointed to Jim as part of the remaining 4%.
    • Quote, Jim Richardson (06:33):
      “He’s showing how this matches me and this matches me, and this don’t match her and couldn’t be anybody else. You know, where’s this coming from?”

• Impact of Expert Testimony:
  Jim is convicted solely on Zane’s expert testimony, sentenced to life without parole.

  • Quote, Jim Richardson (08:02):
    “I don’t remember much from that point till the next morning when I woke up in the suicide cell in the old [county] Jail.”

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3. The Unmasking of “Expert” Fred Zane (11:05–16:24)

Discovery of Widespread Forensic Corruption

• A fellow inmate, Glenn Woodall, is exonerated by DNA evidence—his conviction built on Zane’s testimony.
  • State files quietly settle with Woodall for $1 million.
  • The subsequent investigation reveals Zane fabricated results in all examined cases—a massive scandal.
    • Quote, George Castell (11:40):
      “They found that Fred Zane had faked data in virtually every case that has ever been examined throughout his career.”

Exoneration and Aftermath

• With Zane discredited, Jim Richardson’s case unravels:

  • The supposed key genetic evidence is found to be fabricated; crucial materials are missing or tampered with.
  • New DNA tests prove no male could be excluded (contradicting Zane’s testimony), and a previously concealed witness statement from a child suggests the rescuer and attacker were different.
  • Hidden evidence: a blood-soaked flashlight belonging to a third person.
    • Quote, George Castell (13:49):
      “It’s evidence of a third person in that house that was not Jim.”

• Jim is released after eight years, but faces possible re-indictment on lesser circumstantial evidence.

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4. Terry Henson: A Fire, a Death, and Exoneration through Science (18:43–25:24)

Tragedy and Accusation

• Law student Terry Henson is arrested for allegedly setting the house fire that killed her son.
  • Official fire investigators testify it wasn’t accidental; their exclusionary approach points to arson simply by eliminating other causes.
    • Quote, Fire Investigator (21:18):
      “We can eliminate that it was electrical. We can eliminate that it was natural causes. ...It must have been a set fire.”

Turning Case Through Independent Expert Review

• Under house arrest, Terry uses the internet to research her defense, contacting renowned fire expert Gerald Hearst.

  • Hearst reviews the state’s evidence, discovering that the fire likely began in the attic due to faulty wiring and not in the closet as prosecutors insisted.
    • Quote, Gerald Hearst (22:35):
      “If the fire started in the attic, I would expect to find more extensive damage up there than down below. And that turned out to be the case.”

• After an unprecedented meeting between prosecution and defense experts, the prosecutor drops all charges, citing reasonable doubt.

  • Quote, Terry Henson (25:00):
    “If I had not gone on the Internet and found Dr. Hearst, I would be sitting in Raleigh now on death row.”

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5. Fred Zane’s Reckoning (25:46–32:31)

Reputation and Lingering Impact

• Prosecutor Forbes and public defender Castell both express outrage and disbelief that Zane’s lies went unchallenged for years, affecting dozens or more cases.

  • Quote, Prosecutor Bill Forbes (27:20):
    “Everything he touched was tainted with evil.”
  • Quote, Prosecutor Bill Forbes (27:33):
    “He deserves to be incarcerated and locked up. At least as long as any person he did that to. He deserves an eye for an eye.”

• Zane denies intentionally falsifying evidence, attributes problems to a chaotic, underfunded lab, and claims not to remember key cases:

  • Quote, Fred Zane (27:49):
    “I personally know that I’ve never done anything intentionally to harm or hurt anybody in my entire life.”
  • Quote, Fred Zane (30:42):
    “I have no recollection of the case.”

• Investigation reveals Zane lacked proper qualifications; he failed organic chemistry and performed poorly in relevant FBI training.

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6. The Jury and the “Science” of Expert Testimony — Mock Trial Exercise (34:10–44:33)

Demonstration: How Experts Shape Verdicts

• A mock case is constructed: a tire track at a murder scene is the only forensic evidence.

• Competing experts (for prosecution and defense) interpret the evidence differently, with each side’s lawyer attacking the other’s credibility.

• Key Quote, Law Professor Carol Henderson (37:12):
  “They have been called liars for hire. There are unscrupulous attorneys as well as unscrupulous experts. And I’m sure someone could be bought to give whatever testimony you’re looking for.”

Profound Results

• Despite scientific disagreements, jurors are swayed by the defense, resulting in a unanimous (but incorrect) verdict that the tire did not match, when in truth it did.

  • Quote, Narrator/Host (42:52):
    “So this tire was the tire that made the marks. The defense expert got it wrong, and as a result, so too did the jury.”

• Discussion focuses on the troubling implications: expert testimony is “inherently credible” to jurors, even when mistaken.

  • Quote, Law Professor Carol Henderson (43:12):
    “So you were fooled... this was an exercise, and I knew that I was going to be working for the defense.”

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7. Concluding Insights — The System on Trial (44:03–44:33)

• The episode closes with legal experts and correspondents debating whether the adversarial system can reliably weed out “bad science” and flawed experts.
  • Quote, Prosecutor Greg Garrison (44:14):
    “This is just one cog in the wheel. …We would never have brought this case based on that tire only.”
  • Quote, Law Professor Carol Henderson (44:33):
    “It really comes down to the credibility of both the evidence as well as the experts. If you have good experts and good lawyers on both sides, you’re going to have the system work the way that it should. Should?”

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On expert credibility:
  • “They’re the only witnesses who are allowed to give opinions, and most jurors believe them.” — Host (01:40)
• On being railroaded:
  • “You talk about somebody being railroaded into prison, I’m one of them.” — Jim Richardson (11:12)
• On the scope of corruption:
  • “They found that Fred Zane had faked data in virtually every case that has ever been examined throughout his career.” — George Castell (11:40)
• On the justice system’s vulnerability:
  • “So you were fooled.” — Narrator/Host to Law Professor Carol Henderson (43:12)
  • “If you have good experts and good lawyers on both sides, you’re going to have the system work the way that it should. Should?” — Law Professor Carol Henderson (44:33)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:40 — Introduction to expert witness credibility
• 02:46–11:05 — Jim Richardson's case and conviction
• 11:05–16:24 — Discovery of fraud, overturning of conviction
• 18:43–25:24 — Terry Henson’s arson trial and exoneration
• 25:46–32:31 — Fred Zane, systemic consequences, and confrontation
• 34:10–44:33 — Mock courtroom, expert witness demonstration, and conclusions

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Episode Takeaways

• Expert testimony can make or break a case—and sometimes sends innocent people to prison.
• The adversarial system relies heavily on the integrity and qualifications of so-called experts, but oversight is often minimal.
• Once expert evidence is introduced—right or wrong—it can overshadow all other facts for jurors.
• Vigilance, skepticism, and true scientific review are essential; the stakes are life and liberty.

This episode is a sobering look at the justice system’s dependence on persuasive “scientific” voices, reminding listeners that expertise—and truth—are too often for sale.

Transcript

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[Narrator/Host]

You're on the jury. An expert is on the stand testifying that the defendant must have done it. Then another expert takes the stand and testifies. There is no way the defendant could be guilty. Just look at the scientific evidence. The record shows the first time expert testimony was used in an American court, a doctor ventured the scientific opinion that the accused had bewitched his victims. Today, some 300 years later, there are literally tens of thousands of experts ready to testify, many for a fee. They're the only witnesses who are allowed to give opinions, and most jurors believe them. In one study, nearly 90% said the experts are credible. But what are their credentials? And what is their record? And how much pressure are they under to present a version of the truth that may not be the whole truth? We begin with Susan Spencer and the story of a man whose conviction for murder could be overturned. Turns out it's the expert witness who is now suspect.

[Jim Richardson]

Every man's fantasy is to meet a good woman, you know, fall in love, get married, have a family, and it's happened for me.

[Reporter]

With a new baby on the way. That's an itty bitty t. Shirt. Jim Richardson, his wife Donna and stepson Josh.

[Jim Richardson]

She comes home flashing his paper to mine.

[Narrator]

We're pregnant. We're pregnant.

[Reporter]

Want only to look forward to a bright future.

[Jim Richardson]

He got a rubber ducky. I wanted to name him Bear, just Bear.

[Reporter]

But their future is haunted always by Jim's past. Jim Richardson once was convicted of a grisly murder.

[Jim Richardson]

I didn't do nothing wrong. I had nothing to do with it.

[Reporter]

He still may be facing a life sentence.

[Jim Richardson]

Every night when you go to bed, you don't know what's in store tomorrow. You don't know if you're going to get up and go to work. You don't know if you're going to get up and go to jail.

[Reporter]

It began a decade ago in the middle of the night outside his father's house in Cross Lanes, West Virginia.

[Jim Richardson]

I'm standing here with my key in the door, unlocking the door.

[Reporter]

He says he heard breaking glass coming from a neighbor's house.

[Jim Richardson]

So I'm standing here looking through the trees.

[Reporter]

The house was on fire.

[Jim Richardson]

You could see the smoke coming up out of the back bedroom of the house.

[Reporter]

Then he heard a more alarming sound, the cries of a child.

[Jim Richardson]

You could hear up there coughing and whimpering and crying, like, you know, not real loud, but you could hear her.

[Reporter]

So he says he sprang into action.

[Jim Richardson]

You know, I busted ass up the hill, kicked open the door, you know, and there she stood in the doorway of her bedroom.

[Reporter]

He carried three year old Lindsey Gilfilan to safety and called the authorities.

[Jim Richardson]

By the time the fire company come, the flames was leaping through the roof of the house, 20 or 30ft. I mean they were higher than these trees at first.

[Reporter]

Jim Richardson, then a 31 year old unemployed construction worker, was hailed as a hero for saving the life of the young girl.

[Narrator/Host]

Richardson told how he rescued the child.

[Jim Richardson]

I picked her up and ran outside. Didn't seem like nothing. I mean, you know, it all happened so fast. The only time I really had time to feel good about myself was that night.

[Reporter]

But his glory was short lived. Just almost overnight, you went from a hero to being the main murder suspect.

[Jim Richardson]

It was overnight.

[Reporter]

In the bedroom of the burned house, police found the charred body of the little girl's mother, Kelly, bound, brutally raped and beaten to death with a baseball bat. He hit Kelly in the face with a baseball bat. He put a dog collar around her throat and he sexually assaulted her.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

He was a suspect only from the very beginning. He became the focus of the investigation very early.

[Reporter]

Prosecutor Bill Forbes.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

Our theory was quite simply that he Set the fire to cover it up. The little baby starts crying. So he instantaneously turns from being whatever he is into being a hero in case somebody sees him.

[Reporter]

Jim Richardson had had run ins with police, including a burglary charge when he was a juvenile, but nothing as serious as this.

[Narrator]

This is a capital case, and upon conviction, he could spend the rest of his natural life in the penitentiary.

[Reporter]

But prosecutor Forbes had hard evidence against him. So this is the clothing that Jim Richardson was wearing that night. Despite the bloody crime scene, there was no blood on Richardson's clothing. This is a very important bit of evidence. No fingerprints on the baseball bat. The key physical evidence presented at trial, bodily fluids found on the rape victim Kelly Gilfilan. In this highly circumstantial case, one witness was key. Fred Zane, a state police expert. He said that his examination of fluids from the victim essentially ruled out 96% of the male population as the murder suspect. Jim Richardson, he said, was in the other 4%.

[Jim Richardson]

I was in shock. Fred Zane is standing at a chalkboard, you know, and he's got test results on a piece of paper. And I don't know nothing about serology. I don't know nothing about blood testing, and I doubt very seriously that anybody else in the courtroom did.

[Reporter]

Zane once headed the state police lab's serology unit, which analyzes evidence like blood and semen.

[Jim Richardson]

He's showing how this matches me and this matches me, and this don't match her and couldn't be anybody else. You know, where's this coming from?

[Reporter]

For this trial, Zane was flown in from his new job in Texas.

[Narrator]

I had no reason whatsoever to doubt

[Fred Zane]

what he was saying.

[Reporter]

Judge Paul Zakab presided over the trial.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

He was very convincing.

[Reporter]

Jim Richardson never wavered from saying he'd done nothing more than. Than rescue an innocent child.

[Narrator]

Did you kill Kelly Gilford?

[Jim Richardson]

No, sir, I did not.

[Narrator]

Did you set fire to her home in her body?

[Jim Richardson]

No, sir, I did not.

[Narrator]

Did you sexually assault her without her consent?

[Jim Richardson]

No, sir, I did not.

[Reporter]

As testimony continued, he remained optimistic.

[Jim Richardson]

I'm sitting there believing the whole time, you know, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I'm innocent.

[Reporter]

It'll be okay.

[Jim Richardson]

The jury will acquit me.

[Reporter]

He was wrong.

[Narrator]

When the jury found defendant James Edmund Richardson guilty of first degree murder, he

[Reporter]

was convicted on all counts.

[Narrator]

Not only have you shattered this little girl's life, but you also shattered the

[Narrator/Host]

lives of Kelly's husband, her parents, and her relatives.

[Narrator]

And the jury was impressed enough to not recommend mercy.

[Reporter]

That meant life with no possibility of parole. As soon as you heard the word

[Jim Richardson]

guilty, that was it. I don't remember much from that point till the next morning when I woke up in the suicide cell in the old Kanahall County Jail.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

Why'd you kill him?

[Jim Richardson]

I didn't.

[Narrator]

You didn't kill him?

[Narrator/Host]

Not sure I didn't.

[Reporter]

He would serv. Eight long years before his bizarre story took an unexpected twist.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

We began hearing rumors there was a problem with Fred Zane.

[Reporter]

When we come back, the revelations that may give Jim Richardson another chance. This is blood.

[George Castell]

That is blood. Yes. It's evidence of a third person in that house that was not Jim Richardson.

[Reporter]

And why Fred Zane, the expert witness who helped send him to jail, may be heading to prison himself. From the moment his life sentence began, Jim Richardson insisted he was innocent of raping and murdering Kelly Gilfilan. So you were framed.

[Jim Richardson]

Absolutely. I was set up. I was tried and convicted of a crime that I did not commit, to no avail.

[Reporter]

After a failed appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court, I found out the

[Jim Richardson]

they turned my appeal down. That was a crushing blow.

[Reporter]

Richardson was losing hope.

[Jim Richardson]

At that moment, I looked at the penitentiary and I said, I'm home. This is it. I'm screwed.

[Reporter]

But in 1992, a fellow inmate was faring better.

[Jim Richardson]

What got me started was I met Glenn Woodall in prison.

[Reporter]

Glenn Woodall, in prison for rape, was challenging his conviction using DNA.

[Narrator/Host]

It's obvious he cannot be the assailant.

[Reporter]

And DNA testing proved Woodall was innocent. After five years in prison, he was freed and paid a million dollars by the state. Woodall's release was a bombshell and would be a turning point for Jim Richardson. Prosecutor Bill Forbes took notice.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

We realized we had not only a serious problem, but we had people in jail wrongfully.

[Reporter]

48 hours has obtained a confidential letter from the state's insurers advising officials to settle with Woodall as quickly and quietly as possible.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

They obviously paid a bunch of money to keep this thing quiet.

[Reporter]

Why? They feared an avalanche of lawsuits because the state's expert witness, who had testified in hundreds of cases, was utilizing test results which were fabricated.

[Fred Zane]

I had no reason to believe that the hair could not have originated from Mr. Woodall.

[Reporter]

That witness, the expert who testified so convincingly against Woodall, is Fred Zane, the same Fred Zane whose testimony was pivotal in convicting Jim Richardson.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

What was his reputation in the business of prosecuting crime among state police and as far as anybody knew, among other lab people? He was a God.

[Reporter]

My God.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

He was a good witness, a competent witness, an Unchallengeable witness, an infallible witness.

[Reporter]

But as the West Virginia Supreme Court launched its investigation, a very different Fred Zane emerged.

[Jim Richardson]

You talk about somebody being railroaded into prison, I'm one of them.

[Reporter]

The court found that Zane routinely falsified evidence in examining 36 of thousands of cases he handled. It found he lied about, made up or manipulated evidence to win convictions in all of them.

[George Castell]

When they examined the actual records, they found that Fred Zane had faked data in virtually every case that has ever been examined throughout his career.

[Reporter]

Public defender George Castell is representing Jim Richardson and a dozen other prisoners who now have a chance to have their convictions thrown out.

[George Castell]

I was stunned because nobody had any sense of magnitude of it. As the details began to be explored, it just continued to get worse.

[Reporter]

From his prison cell, Jim hoped this would be the answer to his prayers.

[Jim Richardson]

I did not have nothing to do with setting the fire. I did not have nothing to do with harming or killing the girl. I looked him square dead in the eye and I said, I want a DNA test. I said, whatever it takes, I want a DNA test.

[Reporter]

So Richardson's lawyers sent Fred Zane's notes to an independent lab for analysis. Remember Zane's testimony that only 4% of the male population could have committed this crime? The lab came to a very different conclusion.

[George Castell]

In truth, no male could be excluded. 100% of the male population could have been the source of the fluids based on Fred Zane's testing because he found nothing that matched any male. No male could be excluded.

[Reporter]

But when the lab finally retested the forensic evidence in Jim Richardson's case, there was a big problem. When you tested the evidence, what did you find?

[George Castell]

Well, we found nothing when we received it. The vaginal swab that Fred Zane claimed to have tested was totally blank. In other words, all the cotton had been removed. It was just a blank stick with no DNA on it at all.

[Reporter]

Without DNA, Richardson could not prove his innocence.

[Jim Richardson]

I'm looking around at the yard at the penitentiary and I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to be here for the rest of my life. I'm going to be here forever. And that's hell of a thought, but

[Reporter]

George Castell would not give up. This is all stuff that you had tested. Can we look at that? He won access to every box of evidence from the crime scene and he made a shocking discovery.

[George Castell]

Included in that, to our surprise, was a blood soaked flashlight.

[Reporter]

Where was this flashlight? Where had it been?

[George Castell]

The flashlight had been in the sheriff department evidence locker with the rest of the Evidence.

[Reporter]

It was critical new evidence. This was all tested. And this is blood.

[George Castell]

That is blood. Yes.

[Reporter]

And it's not Jim Richardson's blood. It's not Jim Richardson's, it's not the

[George Castell]

victim's blood, it's not the victim's. It's evidence of a third person in that house that was not Jim.

[Reporter]

Andy found a provocative statement from the only eyewitness, three year old Lindsay Gilfilan. She describes her rescuer and her mother's murderer as two different people. What happened to that statement?

[George Castell]

It was concealed. It had been withheld all those years.

[Reporter]

The prosecution says the statements were there all along. That question aside, Judge Zakab could not ignore the other mounting evidence.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

I set aside his conviction.

[Reporter]

After reviewing all the evidence, Jim Richardson finally was free to go home.

[Jim Richardson]

Oh, God. You know, after eight years, I come in and everybody's crying and hugging me.

[Reporter]

You finally believe me.

[Jim Richardson]

Oh, God. You know, just grinning from ear to ear, you know, just loving every minute of it because I was home. I was there, you know.

[Reporter]

But he is not yet out of the woods. A new special place prosecutor could indict Richardson again based on the remaining circumstantial evidence.

[Jim Richardson]

The greatest moment for me will be to hear that the prosecuting attorneys have decided not to reconvene a grand jury. That'll be the greatest moment in my life because at that time I can sit down and take a breath.

[Reporter]

It'll be over.

[Jim Richardson]

It'll be over.

[Reporter]

So Jim waits for a decision, but

[Jim Richardson]

his wife, Donna, you don't know the meaning of the word.

[Reporter]

Can no longer wait.

[Narrator]

Okay, Dolph.

[Fred Zane]

Ok.

[Reporter]

It's time.

[Narrator]

There he is. There he is.

[Reporter]

And life begins for Isaac Castell Richardson, named after Jim's lawyer, George Castell.

[Jim Richardson]

You gotta think looking down at some cute little smiling face hearing, daddy, I love you, Daddy, will you teach me how to ride a bicycle?

[Fred Zane]

There it is.

[Jim Richardson]

There he is. I mean, it's the greatest thing in the world. He's just beautiful.

[Reporter]

Later on 48 Hours, what does Fred Zane deserve?

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

He deserves to be incarcerated and locked up. At least as long as any person he did that to. He deserves an eye for an eye.

[Jim Richardson]

I want to see him go to jail. I want to see the state of West Virginia say, yeah, we're sorry, you were screwed.

[Terry Henson]

We admit it.

[Reporter]

Fred Zane gives his first television interview.

[Fred Zane]

I have never thought in any case that I've ever testified on that anything that I said would be the turning point. Never, never meant it to be, never wanted it to be.

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[Jerry Lefcourt]

Joshua

[Terry Henson]

Terri Henson had hoped that someday when her children were grown, they would enjoy watching these old home movies of childhood milestones like her daughter Brittany's fourth birthday.

[Narrator]

Happy Birthday.

[Terry Henson]

But her son Joshua's first birthday.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

He's just a real happy child.

[Terry Henson]

Would turn out Josh to be his last. Terry was a criminal law student living in Tabor City North Carolina, when her life changed abruptly one chilly night in October 1996. When did you know something was wrong?

[Terry Henson's Husband]

When Brittany cried out, mommy, I'm scared.

[Terry Henson]

Asleep downstairs on the couch, she says she awoke to a nightmare.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

I glanced up and saw an orange

[Terry Henson]

globe, a fire raging upstairs where her children slept.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

And I saw that it was in Joshua's room. As soon as I hit that doorway, I mean, I didn't get past the door at all. It just like exploded.

[Narrator]

Hello, 911? Help. What's the problem?

[Terry Henson]

Frantically, she called 911.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

He cried out, mama, I know. I yelled and told him I was

[Terry Henson]

coming when it was over.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

As dumb as it sounds, I remember it going through my mind. You know, the kids are just going to come out of the house and run to me.

[Terry Henson]

Brittany was in the hospital, badly hurt.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

She's not breathing, she's not awake. She can't talk to me.

[Terry Henson]

And Joshua was dead. And this is the little rabbit he had with him?

[Terry Henson's Husband]

Yeah. He held this every night when he went to sleep. When I saw this is when I realized that he didn't come out of the fire.

[Terry Henson]

At first it was reported as a tragic accident.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

They found 15 month old Joshua Henson in his crib.

[Terry Henson]

But authorities soon suspected something far more sinister. Investigators said that the patterns left by the fatal fire showed that it started in Joshua's closet, which is located just underneath this blue tarp. Since they could find nothing in the closet that could have caused the fire, investigators concluded that it must have been set by human hand. Terry Henson was the only adult home that night. Terry Henson was taken to jail and charged with first degree murder, attempted murder and arson.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

Every time that door closed, it goes through your mind, am I ever getting out?

[Terry Henson]

And her daughter Brittany was taken away.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

They took her out of the hospital and put her in a foster home.

[Terry Henson]

The evidence seemed overwhelming. State authorities and insurance company experts all agreed.

[Fire Investigator]

They qualified the case as being a set fire.

[Terry Henson]

Prosecutor Lee Bollinger we.

[Fire Investigator]

We can eliminate that it was electrical. We can eliminate that it was natural causes. We can eliminate that it was an accidental cause. Since we can eliminate all those things, it must have been a set fire.

[Terry Henson]

Although she faced the death penalty, the judge gave Terry Henson one crucial break. While awaiting trial, she would be placed under house arrest instead of jail.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

Actually, I couldn't even leave the front door.

[Terry Henson]

That gave her two unusual opportunities. Supervised home visits with Brittany and access to a life saving tool.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

I said, well, the only thing I know to do is buy a computer and get on the Internet. I hit the search button and it led me to thousands of pages of things that people have written about fires.

[Terry Henson]

She eventually found her way to Austin, Texas. And Gerald Hearst.

[Gerald Hearst]

A lot of people investigate fires as though they were reading tea leaves.

[Terry Henson]

A fire and explosives expert see that? Critical of the way many fires are investigated.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

He was interested real quick. He told me to send him a copy of the file.

[Terry Henson]

He and a colleague, Ken Gibson, offered their services for free. We asked them to come back here to show us what they discovered. The key question, did the fire actually start in Joshua's closet? Hearst suspected something else.

[Gerald Hearst]

If the fire started in the attic, I would expect to find more extensive damage up there then down below. And that turned out to be the case.

[Terry Henson]

And he had a logical explanation for those fire patterns seen in the closet.

[Gerald Hearst]

When an attic catches on fire and burns through a ceiling, all that burning material falls down and starts burning down below and leaves patterns that look like it started down below.

[Terry Henson]

But how then did the fire start?

[Gerald Hearst]

It's a textbook case.

[Terry Henson]

The clue, they say, is in the state's own pictures.

[Gerald Hearst]

This is the ceiling over the closet. And if you look carefully right there, you can see a wire passing over there.

[Terry Henson]

Test confirmed the wire had been connected to a heater plugged in for the first time that chilly November night.

[Gerald Hearst]

So there's your culprit right there.

[Fred Zane]

And it wasn't Terry Henson.

[Gerald Hearst]

It was not Terry Henson.

[Terry Henson]

In a lab, Gerald Hurst demonstrated what he says happened that night.

[Gerald Hearst]

Now, the flame you're seeing there would be more than adequate to set the insulation on fire.

[Terry Henson]

Overheated wires could have come in contact with leaking rainwater from the attic and ignited the surrounding flammable insulation.

[Gerald Hearst]

In the Hanson attic, there was a sea of this material.

[Terry Henson]

While Terry's experts studied her case, her visits with Brittany continued, sometimes painfully.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

And it's hard to sit back and watch your child scream and kick and fight and cry. I mean, just everything you could imagine. Begging to stay with her mom, and you can't do anything.

[Terry Henson]

She would still have to face the prosecution experts.

[Gerald Hearst]

They have credentials. They have a parent training. It's formidable.

[Terry Henson]

But Gerald Hearst suggested a bold move,

[Gerald Hearst]

pretty much like an offer to meet

[Terry Henson]

with the prosecutor and his expert before trial.

[Gerald Hearst]

If. If we failed in our attempt to get him to drop the charges, we would have telegraphed our case to him.

[Fire Investigator]

We basically took a jury room that wasn't being used. We sat down at a table and we had a discussion. It was just the lawyers and the experts sitting down, talking face to face.

[Terry Henson]

Three weeks later, Terry got a phone call from her lawyer. With astounding news. In a stunning about face, the prosecutor agreed to drop all charges against her. And why do you think the prosecutor dropped all the charges?

[Terry Henson's Husband]

He had an open mind and he was willing to listen to the truth.

[Terry Henson]

After 18 long months, she was free.

[Terry Henson's Husband]

If I had not gone on the Internet and found Dr. Hearst, I would be sitting in Raleigh now on death row.

[Terry Henson]

Although an official with the State Bureau of Investigation says it stands by its report, the prosecutor is not actively pursuing the case.

[Fire Investigator]

Our decision was not that she was an innocent person necessarily. Our decision was basically we can't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

[Terry Henson]

For Terry, this reunion with her experts is a reminder that her victory is bittersweet. A lot of things went wrong that night.

[Gerald Hearst]

Yes, they did.

[Terry Henson]

She is free. Her daughter came home to stay. But her son Joshua is gone forever.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

Just ahead, everything he touched was tainted with evil.

[Narrator/Host]

The expert witness who may have helped to convict dozens of innocent people.

[Reporter]

Did you ever invent things that seemed to fit?

[Fred Zane]

Never.

[Narrator/Host]

Now will he be going to prison.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

If there is a hell, Fred James should be in it.

[Jim Richardson]

You know, it's like I've had two different lives. One life ended the day I went to jail. Another life began the day I came home.

[Reporter]

Jim Richardson, once convicted of rape and murder, spent eight years in prison. Does it in any way make up for the years that you lost?

[Jim Richardson]

Yeah, in some ways it does. In some ways it does.

[Reporter]

And has spent the past decade trying to clear his name.

[Jim Richardson]

I can see why the jury came back with a guilty verdict. You know, who you going to believe? You know, you going to believe a state police officer who sworn to uphold the law and the constitution. Or are you going to believe some guy sitting over accused of murder.

[Reporter]

The man he blames for his ordeal is former West Virginia State Police expert Fred Zane. How important was Fred Zane's testimony to the conviction of Jim Richardson?

[George Castell]

Oh, it was vital to the conviction.

[Reporter]

Richardson's lawyer, George Castell. So without Fred Zane, you don't think Jim Richardson ever would have been convicted?

[George Castell]

No.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

Everything he touched is muddy. Everything he touched was tainted with evil. And everything he touched becomes a great troubling mass.

[Reporter]

Strong words from prosecutor Bill Forbes, the very man who arranged for Zane to testify.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

He deserves to be incarcerated and locked up. At least as long as any person he did that to. He deserves an eye for an eye.

[Reporter]

The West Virginia Supreme Court threw out Fred Zane's entire body of work, deeming it completely unreliable, at times even fabricated.

[Fred Zane]

I personally know that I've never done anything intentionally to harm or hurt Anybody in my entire life. They're simply unjustified accusations.

[Reporter]

He agreed to sit down with 48 hours for his first television interview. The West Virginia State Supreme Court issued this absolutely scathing review of you throwing out testimony, saying it was totally unreliable. Did you ever invent things that seemed to fit?

[Fred Zane]

Never. Why jeopardize a career, family, criminal proceedings, civil proceedings? There was no benefit in any avenue to ever do anything like that.

[Reporter]

That's exactly what the people who criticize you want to know. Why would he do this?

[Fred Zane]

Because I didn't do it. You know, it's a very simple answer.

[Reporter]

And Zane never has been convicted of anything. In fact, he was acquitted in one perjury case, and the statute of limitations has largely run out for any other perjury charges. But the tide may be about to change. How does it feel to be back

[Narrator]

in West Virginia, Mr. Zane?

[Reporter]

The state has brought him back from his new home in Florida, hoping to convict him of fraud. He says he's a political scapegoat. He blames any problem with his results on the underfunded, poorly equipped state crime lab.

[Fred Zane]

We were pretty much working out of a closet space doing serology work. And when I first started working in serology, there was evidence stacked up on every table a foot to two foot high.

[Reporter]

Besides, he says, as a trooper in charge of the serology unit, he had many other pressing duties.

[Fred Zane]

We weren't considered really scientists. If there were funeral details, disaster details, we were policemen first.

[Reporter]

But you're the same person out there in the funeral detail who the next day may be called in to give very specific scientific evidence in a case.

[Fred Zane]

Absolutely.

[Reporter]

But was Fred Zane even qualified to testify as an expert in the first place? Investigators were stunned to learn he had failed organic chemistry in college and performed well below the class average in an FBI course. But jurors clearly found him convincing, and the defense rarely challenged him.

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

During the 10 or 12 years Fred Zane ran the state police lab, there's only a handful of occasions where any defense lawyer ever hired a witness to come in and look at anything Fred Zane did.

[Reporter]

Incredibly, Zane claims to have no idea how much power he had.

[Fred Zane]

I have never thought in any case that I've ever testified on that anything that I said would be the turning point. Never, never meant it to be, never wanted it to be.

[Reporter]

But it was critical testimony in Jim Richardson's case. How important do you think your testimony was in the Jim Richardson case?

[Fred Zane]

I have no recollection of the case.

[Reporter]

Jim Richardson would be very surprised to hear that you actually have no recollection of this case at all.

[Fred Zane]

The only thing that I recall about it is it was out in Cross Lanes and a trailer burning down.

[Reporter]

However, Zane's testimony is not all that disturbs Richardson's attorney.

[George Castell]

What's equally disturbing is on the basis of what in reality was nothing, Fred Zane falsely, erroneously eliminated two key suspects. Suspects who, unlike Jim Richardson, have a history of the kind of sexual bondage that was performed in the case.

[Reporter]

Instead of dwelling on the past, Richardson says he is concentrating on the future.

[Jim Richardson]

Oh, goodness, yeah.

[Reporter]

Do you think you'll ever really clear your name?

[Jim Richardson]

I'll never clear my name. Never. There's always going to be someone that thinks she got off on a technicality.

[Reporter]

It's a feeling he shares with the expert witness now facing trial.

[Fred Zane]

I don't believe that my name will ever be cleared. The biggest hardship, the burdens it has placed on my family and my wife especially has supported me from day one.

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

Still does.

[Reporter]

What do you think now should happen to Fred Zane?

[Prosecutor Bill Forbes]

If there is a hell, Fred Zane should be in it.

[Reporter]

But Richardson is convinced Zane never will pay the same price that he has paid. Will you feel better in any way about this whole thing if Fred Zane is finally convicted?

[Jim Richardson]

Fred Zane will never be convicted of a crime in the state of West Virginia. Take my word for it.

[Reporter]

Why are you so sure of that?

[Jim Richardson]

Because he is a former West Virginia state state police officer. He helped put innocent men in prison and then the state would have to admit wrong.

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[Sally Helm]

Sometimes it feels like the news is full of things that have never happened before. And that is not exactly true. In fact, it may have happened this very week, hundreds or thousands of years ago. I'm Sally Helm, host of the podcast History this Week from the History Channel. Trade embargoes. Thomas Jefferson tried them rent too high. We've been arguing about that for a while. Each episode is proof the past isn't that far away. Listen to History this week, available now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

You don't know what size tire made that, whether it was a 14 or 15, correct?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

Not exactly, right?

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

Not at all.

[Narrator/Host]

You're watching a made for TV trial where two expert witnesses are being grilled by warring attorneys.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

It's on its way. It's like the check is in the mail, correct? You don't have it, do you?

[Narrator/Host]

48 hours brought together two of the country's leading lawyers. Greg Garrison.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

You can't make a silk purse out of this sow's ear, can you?

[Narrator/Host]

Who successfully prosecuted Mike Tyson for rape in 1992?

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

I'll ask the questions.

[Narrator/Host]

And Jerry Lefcourt, who has defended clients ranging from the Black Panthers to real estate tycoon Harry Helmsley. Both lawyers have served as CBS News consultants. We asked them to help demonstrate how expert witnesses are used in court.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

So it's a little bit of a stretch, isn't it, Mr. McDonald, to go to the point of saying it ain't there because I can't find it in

[Narrator/Host]

the middle of those rocks in this mock courtroom. The arguments are genuine.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

I think he was.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

Well, let him do the thing.

[Narrator/Host]

But the case is Hypothetical, created by 48 Hours and taped to illustrate the use of expert witness testimony. A man and woman get into an argument, shouting, let me in. Escalates into a shooting. The man makes a fast getaway, but his car leaves behind a crucial piece of evidence. A tire impression in the dirt. He's later arrested and charged with murder. Prosecutor Greg Garrison will have to prove that this tire track came from the suspect's vehicle.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

Which is my direction to travel. Am I doing this right or am I backwards?

[George Castell]

No, you're right.

[Narrator/Host]

While defense attorney Jerry Lefcourt will have to convince our three member jury that the tire track may have come from some other vehicle.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

This document may not be good for us. Am I right?

[Narrator/Host]

The prosecution and defense in our case will each use expert Witnesses, scientists who will study the evidence will provide them. Like you, I don't know whether the tire tracks were made by the suspect's car. It's now up to the expert witnesses and their attorneys to make their case.

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

Let me put some paper underneath this so we catch any trace evidence.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

David. David Brundage to the stand.

[Narrator/Host]

The prosecution will rely on David Brundage.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

How are you employed, sir?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

I'm a forensic scientist with the Indianapolis Marion County Forensic Services Agency, better known as the Crime Lab.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

The Defense calls Peter McDonald for the

[Narrator/Host]

defense, tire expert Peter McDonald, former design director for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

And indeed he is known in the industry as the Sherlock Holmes of tires, if you will.

[Carvana Advertiser]

I think I'm defer my ruling and I think we need to look at the prosecution's report first.

[Narrator/Host]

Law professor Carol Henderson will act as a referee. She teaches law students how to use expert witnesses. One issue that people are concerned about is this notion that you can buy your version of the truth. You can hire an expert that will basically testify for your side. What about that?

[Carvana Advertiser]

Well, they have been called liars for hire. There are unscrupulous attorneys as well as unscrupulous experts. And I'm sure that someone could be bought to give you whatever you wanted in terms of the testimony you were looking for.

[Narrator/Host]

Pete, can you be bought?

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

Definitely no.

[Narrator/Host]

This is the suspect tire. This is the plaster cast photograph of the imprint and the rollout. The two sides begin.

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

This is a dental stone material.

[Narrator/Host]

By examining the evidence 48 hours has provided them, it doesn't take long for the defense expert to find an opening.

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

Look at here, how much flat there is.

[Fred Zane]

Are you suggesting that.

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

That this was made by somebody else's tire? Based on wear?

[Narrator/Host]

It could be enough evidence to create reasonable doubt in the minds of a jury.

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

It looks like it might be more consistent with another tire that had more wear in the shoulder.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

That would be great.

[Narrator/Host]

The prosecution's expert spots the same problem with the tire track.

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

What I'm looking at is the, is the left to right placement. This one fits exactly. This is a little bit low, and this is way off.

[Narrator/Host]

But the prosecution team isn't giving up.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

Looky here.

[Narrator/Host]

In fact, they believe their spin on the evidence can still get a conviction.

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

I definitely can include this tire as possibly making this tire Track.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

And I'm 100% that a tire like that one did make it.

[Narrator/Host]

But the defense is 100% sure they have something to attack.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

Just go to court, kick some butt.

[Narrator/Host]

Next, the jurors decide which expert they Believe and we find out which expert got it right.

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[Narrator]

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[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

This is the suspect tire that was submitted in the case.

[Narrator/Host]

Expert witness David Brundage testifying for the prosecution in our fictional murder case.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

Is this exhibit here the ink print made from this tire?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

That's correct.

[Narrator/Host]

Brundage and prosecutor Greg Garrison are trying to convince the three people we asked to serve as a jury that a tire imprint found at the murder scene could have come from the suspect's car. The jurors all work at the Criminal Justice Institute in Florida where we conducted the exercise. None of them had any advanced knowledge of the evidence or findings.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

Based upon the comparison of size and the tread design, were you able to determine whether or not the tire that made this track was of the same manufacture and design as the tire that's before you today?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

Yes, I did make that determination. That is my opinion, sir.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Studies have shown that jurors are very influenced by expert testimony.

[Narrator/Host]

Law professor Carol Henderson.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Jurors are quite taken with experts and in fact find them very believable. Inherently credible is that a ruler.

[Narrator/Host]

Garrison and Brundage build their case by pointing out strong similarities between the tire track and the suspect tire.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

The size is the same.

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

Yes.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

And the tread design.

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

Yes.

[Narrator/Host]

But their case is rapidly losing error over one critical point.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

Were you able to determine whether or not in fact this tire made that print?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

I was not.

[Narrator/Host]

Since David Brundage can't say for sure it's the same tire. Defense attorney Jerry Lefcourt sees an opportunity to attack.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

Your measurements could be off as much as 3,8 of an inch, correct?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

Yes.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

You can't say that it's an identical match with the tire that made that mark in the sand. Correct?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

You're correct.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

You don't know, do you?

[Forensic Scientist David Brundage]

No, I do not.

[Narrator/Host]

What just happened in there? Was it devastating to the prosecution's case?

[Carvana Advertiser]

I think so.

[Narrator/Host]

Brundage has almost been made a witness for the defense. Left court now puts his own expert on the stand, Peter McDonald.

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

Did you do an examination in this case of crime scene evidence and a suspect tire?

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

Yes, I did.

[Narrator/Host]

Left Court hopes to convince the jury that the prosecution's case has gone flat.

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

My opinion is that the imprint left at the crime scene, it's highly probable that it did not come from the tire in question.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

In your experience, and being the Sherlock Holmes that you are, I want you

[Narrator/Host]

to tell me what Prosecutor Garrison attempts to salvage his case by attacking McDonald.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

It seems like at one moment you want to complain that we don't have enough, and the next moment you tell me that we got plenty.

[Narrator/Host]

Our jurors listen and then reach a unanimous conclusion.

[Narrator]

No, I don't believe the tire made

[Reporter]

the imprint, not that tire. It's too much doubt.

[Narrator/Host]

Kevin Lothridge. You have the envelope? The man with the envelope. Kevin Lothridge, was the only person who knew if the suspect tire had actually made the crime scene imprint. At this point, we asked him to reveal the truth. A truth we thought was obvious.

[George Castell]

Tire A was the left front.

[Narrator/Host]

So this tire was the tire that made the marks. The defense expert got it wrong, and as a result, so too did the jury. They all three unanimously believe that this tire did not make that imprint. And it turns out this tire did make that imprint. So what lesson have we learned here that expert testimony can be wrong?

[Defense Attorney Peter McDonald]

I mean, I think that the jurors are saying they can't say that it made the mark. In other words, they have a doubt.

[Narrator/Host]

You are the foremost tire expert in the world, and you thought it was highly probable that this wasn't the tire that made the mark. Is that right?

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

That's correct. So you were fooled. Well, again, this was an exercise, and I knew that I was going to be working for the defense. I did find characteristics that look to be different.

[Carvana Advertiser]

There's a lot of studies that have shown that experts have inherent credibility.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

This tire was not at that scene.

[Carvana Advertiser]

And they're able to convince the juries that their opinion is the correct opinion.

[Narrator/Host]

Even in our case, when the expert's opinion is wrong, which raises a fundamental question. Is there something wrong with the system?

[Fire Investigator]

No.

[Narrator]

No.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

I mean, you know, they get to win some of these.

[Narrator/Host]

Besides, says Garrison, in a real world trial, there would be much more evidence available to the prosecution than just a tire track.

[Jerry Lefcourt]

This is just one cog in the wheel. Pardon the pun, but we're looking at a big case. We would never have brought this case based on that tire only.

[Carvana Advertiser]

It really comes down to the credibility of both the evidence as well as the experts. If you have good experts and good lawyers on both sides, you're going to have the system work the way that it should.

[Law Professor Carol Henderson]

Should?

[Reporter]

They're completely cut off from the outside world.

[Narrator]

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[Jim Richardson]

The narrative is we are a cult.

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[Fire Investigator]

I'm doing this out of my own free will.

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Wrong things have occurred.

[Jim Richardson]

They do not define who we are.

[Reporter]

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