Chavis Carter Murder Case Exposed - Crime Lab Denies cause of death

Описание: After a month of releasing videos, witness interviews, autopsy reports and investigative summaries about the shooting death of a man handcuffed in the back of a patrol car in Jonesboro, Ark., the police department appears to be wrapping up its case.

Both officers present at the July 28 shooting that ended with 21-year-old Chavis Carter slumped over and bleeding in the back of a squad car are back on the streets, one with a written reprimand.

Only days after an autopsy report concluded that Chavis Carter was killed by a gunshot blast to his head while handcuffed in a police car, the lab that conducted the analysis admits that they did not do all the tests they were ordered to complete.

New questions are now being asked in the case of Carter, the 21-year-old Arkansas man whose mysterious death last month has attracted attention around the country. The Jonesboro Arkansas Police Department maintains that Carter committed suicide on July 28 while handcuffed in the backseat of a patrol car. And while the crime lab results publicized earlier this week confirm that it was indeed a gun shot that ended Carter's life, the officials who oversaw the autopsy say that their report has been misconstrued to suggest that their final ruling pointed towards a suicide.

The autopsy reported that the crime lab claimed Carter "was cuffed and placed into a police car, where apparently he produced a weapon, and despite being handcuffed, shot himself in the head." In an update reports that the crime lab involved in the investigation can no formally declare the death a suicide or homicide.

The crime lab, in fact, never performed a gunshot residue test on Carter, despite the autopsy being performed amid country-wide outrage over the man's death.

Jonesboro Police Chief Michael Yates ordered the lab to conduct a gunshot residue test, but the chief criminalist that oversaw the procedure, Lisa Channell, said the lab doesn't even perform those analyses.

Gunshot residue tests, says Channell, can indicate if a suspect was in the general vicinity of a firearm when the trigger is pulled. "It cannot," however, "tell you whether the person pulled the trigger or not."

Now only days after the lab report led many to suggest that Carter was officially responsible for his own death, his case is yet again attracting criticism.

Jonesboro community members were provided a forum to talk openly about the investigation, Commission on Religion and Racism member Maxine Thomas participated in a march across the city, during which she said "Jonesboro Arkansas stinks with injustice and the world is watching."

Benjamin Irwin, a lawyer representing Carter's family in the case, said "he taken aback after learning that the crime lab didn't complete their police-ordered analysis.