Will Coroner's Alleged Hoax Help Convicts?

April 23 -- On June 1, 2002, a security guard found Memphis coroner O.C. Smith outside his office, wrapped in barbed wire, and strapped to a live bomb.

The security guard summoned police, and when officers arrived Smith told them that an attacker had strapped the bomb to him and warned him it would explode if he moved.

The police bomb squad was able to free Smith, but the apparent assault rocked the city of Memphis, and stumped authorities. At one point, investigators even turned to America's Most Wanted to seek help finding the person responsible.

The prime suspect at the time was a mysterious religious zealot who had been sending angry letters with death threats against Smith to various offices across the city, including the district attorney's office, a public defender and a local newspaper.

But now investigators say the attack was a hoax, and the culprit is Smith himself. Seventeen different law enforcement agencies worked together and eventually found that statements Smith, the top medical examiner for Shelby County, gave to police were inconsistent with evidence at the scene.

Emotional Toll of Work?

There has been no explanation as to why the esteemed coroner would do something so bizarre, but the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case says he'll reveal a motive for Smith's crimes at trial. Meanwhile, some experts speculate that the 51-year-old medical examiner is paying an emotional toll for his morbid occupation.

"Perhaps the stress of coping with all of these gruesome crimes over the years, these awful circumstances is really too much to bear, too much to balance," said Dr N.G. Berrill, executive director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science.

But now the case is much bigger than Smith, and has thrown the Memphis court system into turmoil. It has raised an interesting issue: If the coroner is somehow mentally "off," can the expert testimony he gave in dozens of trials be trusted?

Experts aren't sure.