Murder trial coming up these are the brief facts: Wife is shot in the left cheek with a .38 derringer. Husband claims suicide.

We are looking for an expert to speak with about the likelihood of a female shooting herself in the face. Ideas, suggestions?

Your forensic pathologist can fairly easily research the reported cases and come up with an accurate count of female gun suicides with body location. You will still have to tie that global stat to your case...family members or friends perhaps to talk about the way she felt about her looks? expressed desires for open vs. closed casket...Another tack: familiarity and comfort level with firearms...

I would look into having a blood spatter expert in your area look at crime scene photographs. Looking for any blow back on the hands of the victim. If there is not any blow back this could shut down the defendant claim of suicide.

We had a similar case in Collin County recently. You might want to try Max Courtney (although I saw at this site yesterday that he intends going into teaching)in Fort Worth, Ross M. Gardner (www.gardnerforensic.net) in Georgia or Tom Bevel in Oklahoma. The latter two write together and Gardner did great work in our case.

You might try Alan Brantley with the FBI. He has testified for us before in capital cases to show how alleged defense versions of events did not fit with physical evidence.

I will join with John on the Allan Brantley recommendation if he does this sort of thing. I have him hired on one of my cases and he is brilliant. He's a former FBI "profiler" who knows the psychology of murder, particularly serial murder, better than anyone I have ever used. He's not with the FBI any longer. Now in private practice.

A member is preparing to try a case with very similar facts - D claims the victim (his ex-girlfriend) committed suicide. Since this thread is fairly old, he requested that repost it. Anyone have suggestions for experts? He is particularly interested in talking to a forensic psychologist - someone who can testify about female suicide rates, tendencies, etc. Thanks for your help!