320 Forensic dentistryremarkably determined defense team still refuse to give up, and in September
2009, over fifty years after his original conviction, there is still an active effort
to obtain a new trial.^1314.1.3.2 Richard Milone, 1976
A 1972 murder victim, Sally Kandel, had a bitemark on her inner right
thigh. It was the opinion of some that the bite had been inflicted after
her death (Figures 14.14 and 14.15). Richard Milone was charged with the
crime and initially tried in 1976. Three prosecution forensic odontology
experts, Drs. Lester Luntz, Harold Perry, and Irvin Sopher, testified that
Milone was “without doubt” the biter. Four defense experts, Drs. Lowell
Levine, Curtis Mertz, Paul Stimson, and Duane Devore, disagreed.14,15
This case was the first of several that involved a “battle of the experts”
among forensic odontologists. There were appeals, but all of Milone’s
petitions were denied.^16 An executive clemency petition prompted the
governor to ask for a review of the bitemark evidence. Three additional
forensic odontologists, none of whom was involved with the initial trial,
gave a joint opinion that Richard Milone inflicted the bitemark on the leg
of Sally Kandel. Drs. Steven Smith, Raymond Rawson, and Larry Pierce
brought the tota l number of forensic odontologists in this case to ten. They
further opined that “there were distinguishing irregularities between
the bitemarks found on Macek’s victims [more on this below] and Sally
Kandel.” Although Drs. Smith and Rawson were asked on many occasions
to disclose the bases for their opinions, the information has never been
presented publicly or to forensic odontology groups.^15 The appeals court
stated, “When coupled with the positive identification of the defendant
as the perpetrator of the bite on the victim’s thigh, we conclude and hold
that the defendant’s guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt” and “we
therefore affirm the judgment.”^16 The defense had attempted to offer the
testimony of Dr. Homer Campbell to bolster the claim of their client’s
innocence to no avail. This brought the total number of forensic odontolo-
gists in this case to eleven, six stating that Milone made the bitemark and
five opining that he did not.
The case had been further complicated by the introduction of evidence
that a convicted serial killer, Richard Macek, may have also killed Sally
Kandel. Many of the features of the case were similar, including the slitting
of eyelids and the presence of a bitemark, but Macek had, unfortunately, had
his teeth removed before he became a suspect. In the presence of a psychi-
atrist and the chief jailer Macek made a written confession to the murder
of Sally Kandel, giving details that, according to the psychiatrist who later
wrote a book containing the information, he could not have known if he
were not present when Kandel was murdered. These details included what
Sally Kandel wore the day of the murder, the position in which the body was