Taipei Times: Have the three American forensic experts you sent to Taiwan [coroner Cyril Wecht, ballistics expert Michael Haag and crime scene analyst Tom Palmbach] updated you on the latest results of the investigation?
Henry Lee (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
TT: The three experts said that President Chen Shui-bian (
Lee: Even though I have not examined the wound, if they found that it was a gunshot wound and it was fresh, I will verify that. Judging from the photos, it looks just like a gunshot wound.
As for how fresh it was, I cannot make a conclusion.
TT: Wecht indicated that his team could not judge when Chen was shot. In your experience, can a judgement be made on how fresh a wound is after it has healed?
Lee: Hard to say. Everyone's body, immune system and health are different. Only a doctor who examines the wound would know. Making a judgement also depends on other material evidence, such as clothing. How much blood was there and was it new blood? If these can be verified, there might be a conclusion.
But there might not necessarily be one because in forensic science there are sometimes gray areas. Expectations that forensic scientists can tell exactly what happened at a particular point in time cannot possibly be met.
TT: So what's the first thing you'll do when you arrive in Taiwan later this month?
Lee: The first thing is of course to collect evidence. I will review all the photos and records they have. I will first review the material evidence, shell casings, bullets and clothing. The second thing is to read the findings from the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) and look at their analysis and see whether their interpretation of the evidence is correct.
The next thing is to examine the bullet hole in the jeep's windshield, the rest of the jeep and the wounds, followed by a reconstruction of the bullets' trajectory.
TT: You were quoted in the media recently as saying you don't think the shooting was staged, nor was it an assassination attempt. Can you explain the reasons you think this?
Lee: A shooting incident can be divided into three parts. The first part is to determine the trajectory of the bullet, the kind of weapon, the ammunition and the shooter's position.
The second part is to determine the motive. Why did someone fire the shot?
The last part is to find out who is responsible. A foundation needs to be established first -- then comes the determination of the motive.
One type of speculation is that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party were behind the shooting, while another is that Chen's camp staged the shooting in order to win the presidential election. There are other possibilities in between.
In my experience, if it was a political assassination, a high-powered rifle would have been used. Even if the assassin opted for a handgun, it would be a high-powered one.
If the aim was to kill, why not take it to the extreme? If it was arranged, why didn't they make a better show so that there wouldn't be all these questions today? So if neither of these theories stands up to examination, then what is the truth?
If the shooter could be found, all these questions would be answered.
TT: The CIB has not found gunpowder residue on Chen's clothes. Judging from this, can you tell if the shot was fired from a long distance? How is that determined?
Lee: They said they didn't find powder residue on Chen's clothes, but does that mean there was no gunpowder residue in the first place or that the residue was lost when the clothes were collected by the hospital? Those are two different things.
When you pull the trigger of a gun and the bullet comes out, some powder is burned and some isn't. The unburned powder falls to the ground as very fine particles. If the target is very close to the gun, you will find powder on the target. If it is far away, you won't find it because the excess powder fell to the ground.
Usually, for a small and fully-loaded handgun, we can find powder up to 1m away from the gun. But there is another problem: the bullets were homemade. So questions
like this can only be answered after I examine all the evidence in Taiwan.
TT: In your experience, can a wound such as Chen's be produced with precision?
Lee: This question is beyond the scope of forensic science. I base my conclusions on the results of my analysis. When I finish my analysis in this case, there might be a conclusion or there might not be.
TT: Some people from the Democratic Progressive Party recently took issue with your political affiliations. Do you feel any pressure to confront politics when you're in Taiwan?
Lee: I have never been involved in politics in my life. I am respected by both the Republican and the Democratic parties in the US. If my role as a forensic scientist has to be associated with politics, then we may as well forget about this entirely.
TT: Do you think your findings will be accepted by the various parties?
Lee: Recognition and acceptance should come from the public. It has nothing to do with politicians. Politicians have their own agenda -- they can find fault in a saint. Recognition from the public is more important than the response of politicians.
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