Symposium Announcement

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law and Duquesne University School of Law are pleased to announce their plans to host a national, three-day symposium on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 2003.

The conference, which is scheduled to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the assassination, will be held Thursday, Nov. 20 through Sunday, Nov. 23, 2003 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Among the presenters and panelists on Friday and Saturday will be some of the world’s preeminent forensic scientists, criminal investigators, attorneys, physicians and independent researchers. Sunday’s program will be open to presentations by qualified researchers in a variety of fields. In addition, a Thursday evening kickoff event and Friday and Saturday evening activities are currently being planned.

Confirmed faculty include U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, who originated the “single-bullet theory” while serving as a junior counsel to the Warren Commission; attorney Mark Lane, Esq., one of the earliest critics of the Warren Report and author of the 1966 critique Rush to Judgment; private investigator Josiah Thompson, Ph.D., author of the 1967 re-investigation of the case, Six Seconds in Dallas; attorney Robert Tanenbaum, Esq., who served as deputy counsel to the 1977-79 House Select Committee on Assassinations; forensic pathologist Michael Baden, M.D., head of the HSCA’s forensic pathology panel; U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim, chairman of the 1994-98 Assassination Records Review Board; medical evidence researchers Gary Aguilar, M.D. and David Mantik, M.D., Ph.D.; Henry Lee, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading criminalists and an FBI consultant on the case; and Houston physician Robert Grossman, M.D., a staff neurosurgeon at Parkland Memorial Hospital at the time of the assassination who observed the president's wounds but was never called to testify before the Warren Commission or any subsequent investigative body.

“Our intention is to provide an impartial, academic forum in which to clarify and advance our collective understanding of the JFK case and its impact on the practice of criminal law and forensic science,” said Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D., chairman of the Institute’s Advisory Board and a longtime assassination researcher who will also take part in the conference. “In addition, we intend to explore what might still be learned about the murder of our 35th president based upon DNA testing and other modern-day forensic scientific techniques and methodologies.”

“We are pleased and honored to be able to offer a program of such tremendous historical significance and featuring faculty of such a high caliber,” said Duquesne University Law School Dean Nicholas P. Cafardi, J.D., J.C.L. “I am certain that this conference will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and practitioners in the areas of law, medicine, law enforcement, criminalistics and many other fields.”

The names of additional conference faculty, along with a full conference program and information on registration, continuing education credit, accommodations and the submission of papers for Sunday’s program, will be posted on this Web site as they become available.

To add your name to our mailing and/or e-mail lists, please contact Ben Wecht at 412-396-1049 or wechtinstitute@duq.edu.