CYRIL WECHT

Role of Forensic Pathology in Modern Day Society

March 21, 2005 at 7:30pm · Mountainlair Ballroom

You might call Cyril H. Wecht the renaissance man of forensic science. After earning degrees in both medicine and law, Wecht began an extensive career, serving as everything from chief forensic pathologist and coroner of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, to professor.

Wecht has written more than 500 professional publications, served as an editorial board member of more than 20 national and international medical-legal and forensic scientific publications and edited the five-volume set, Forensic Sciences (Matthew Bender) along with other collections about forensics. In his own books such as “Cause of Death,” “Grave Secrets,” “Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey” and “Mortal Evidence,” Wecht discusses his own professional involvement and perspective on high-profile forensic cases. His latest, “Forensic Science and the Law,” was released in February 2005.

An expert in forensic medicine, Dr. Wecht has frequently appeared on nationally syndicated programs discussing various medical, legal and forensic scientific issues, including medical malpractice and drug abuse. Among the cases Wecht has studied are the assassinations of both President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the death of Elvis Presley and the O.J. Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey cases. Most recently, Wecht was involved with the trial of Scott Peterson. In fact, Wecht was lined up to testify in the case, but was released and commented on the case on several national news programs instead.

Formerly the chairman of the Department of Pathology at Saint Francis Central Hospital in Pittsburgh, Dr. Wecht is now the president of its medical staff and is actively involved as a medical-legal and forensic science consultant, author and lecturer.

Wecht is now the president of the American College of Legal Medicine, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine and the American College of Legal Medicine Foundation. Wecht is also a fellow at the College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and director of the Pittsburgh Institute of Legal Medicine and namesake of the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne University.