Crime Scene Staging: A Denial of Justice

• Author: Samson D. Su
• Position: J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (expected May 2023); B.B.A., Middle Tennessee State University (2015)
• Pages: 1135-1150

Crime Scene Staging: A Denial of Justice

SAMSON D. SU*

INTRODUCTION

While mass media makes access to information more attainable than ever

before,

1

See M. A Mughal, Mass Media and its Influence on Society, THE DAILY JOURNALIST, https://

thedailyjournalist.com/pen-and-pad/mass-media-and-its-influence-on-society/ [https://perma.cc/X3PM-87SH]

(last accessed April 22, 2022).

it also provides equal information access to criminals and can expose

investigative techniques via forensic science television programs and publica-

tions.

2

Claire Ferguson, The Defects of the Situation: a Typology of Staged Crime Scenes, Bond University

(Sept. 2010), https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/18275117/The_Defects_of_the_Situation.pdf [https://

perma.cc/JF24-EBZM].

As a result, crime scene staging is on the rise due to the phenomena known

as the “CSI Effect,”

3

which impose unprecedented challenges for death scene

crime investigations.

4

Additionally, a large number of case studies have revealed

the prevalence of police misconduct in death crime investigations, including

inappropriate and reckless suicide rulings based on insufficient or contrary evi-

dence. This not only has severe societal impacts from a public policy standpoint,

but also undermines the proper functioning of the entire criminal justice system.

This Note will survey a series of death crime case studies that were wrongfully

decided, using the high-profile Cobain case as the main case discussion, in addi-

tion to proposing possible remedies.

Part I of this Note will briefly describe the historical development of crime

scene staging, its detrimental impact on crime investigations as illustrated by the

Casey Anthoney and Rebecca Zahau case, and the introduction of the “CSI

Effects” along with an apparent suicide case study that largely resembles the

death scene described in the main case discussion section. Part II will dive into a

detailed Cobain case analysis by applying the “Seven Major Mistakes in Suicide

Investigation” technique to reveal ample evidentiary inconsistencies that resulted

from improper police investigative conduct. It then will draw parallels to a more

recent Andreacchio case to demonstrate the prevalence of such ongoing reckless

suicide rulings. Part III will propose a set of comprehensive recommendations to

reform death scene investigation procedures as well as advocating for a change in

law for the Exemption Clause of The Freedom of Information Act. The Note

concludes by examining the responsibilities of the legal communities and why

* J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (expected May 2023); B.B.A., Middle Tennessee State

University (2015). © 2022, Samson D. Su.

1.

2.

3. Id. at 73-74.

4. See id.

1135

lawyers may have an ethical obligation to propose and advocate such reforms in

order to address the current investigative defects.

I. THE INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF CRIME SCENE STAGING

Deception is an innate feature of life with deep evolutionary roots in the devel-

opment of all species.

5

It is an attribute that is vital to the reproductive success of

living organisms and can take a variety of forms ranging from the smallest bacte-

rial molecule interaction to insects and animal camouflage,

6

all of which share

the common goal of self-preservation—a crucial element that goes to the heart of

the primary motive for crime scene staging.

7

Or, as the famous Austrian criminol-

ogist Dr. Hans Gross defines it in his 1924 seminal writing on criminal investiga-

tion handbook:

[T]he defects of the situation are those contradictions, those improbabilities,

which occur when one desires to represent the situation as something quite dif-

ferent from what it really is, and this with the very intentions and in the purest

belief that one has worked with all the forethought, craft, and consideration

imaginable.

8

Crime scene staging has a deep root in history and dates back to ancient

Biblical times. The story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is perhaps one of the

earliest documented accounts dealing with crime scene staging. In the story,

Joseph’s brothers conspired to remove Joseph from the family by selling him into

slavery because they were angry and jealous of him being the favorite son of their

father, Jacob. In order to cover up their act, they slaughtered a goat, dipped

Joseph’s coat into the blood, and convinced their father that his beloved son

Joseph had been devoured by wild animals.

9

Further, in the early 1600s, William

Shakespeare wrote the famous play The Tragedy of Macbeth in which the

Scottish General Macbeth and his wife, lady Macbeth, stabbed the King of

Scotland to death in his sleep and then smeared the blood of the dead king on the

clothes of the sleeping guards to avoid the detection of their involvement.

10

Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, (April 22, 2022), http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html

[https://perma.cc/S6TH-5QKV].

In

other words, the essence of crime scene staging is to manipulate and modify the

surroundings at the scene in order to make it look like something else might have

happened in an attempt to mislead and redirect an investigation off course.

11

5. ROBERT TRIVERS, DECEIT AND SELF-DECEPTION, 374-75 (2011).

6. Id.

7. Robert Hazelwood & Michael Napier, Crime Scene Staging and Its Detection, INT’L J. OFFENDER

THERAPY & COMPAR. CRIMINOLOGY 746-47 (2004).

8. HANS GROSS, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION: A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK FOR MAGISTRATES, POLICER OFFERS,

AND LAWYERS 643 (1906).

9. Genesis Chapter 37.

10.

11. Hazelwood & Napier, supra note 7, at 751.

1136 THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS [Vol. 35:1135