Reply #8: The intensivist and neurosurgeon

[Carolina]

are concerned with saving life, but in forensic work, one simple way would be to look at the defect in the skull for bevelling -- inward for an entrance wound, outward for an exit -- much as one would see when a bullet is shot through doubled paned glass. Problem is with contact or very close, near contact wounds, there is such bone destruction along with radiating fractures that the treating physicians are not concerned with putting the pieces back togather but rather with debriding all fragments that could serve as foreign bodies and hence nida for infection. In a deceased victim, a pathologist might actually piece together whatever fragments are present (much like a jigsaw puzzle) to help determine trajectory.

Also, in contact and near contact wounds, the entrance skin defect in the scalp (which includes the forehead) is jagged, often stellate (star-shaped) and can easily resemble, and be mistaken for, the ragged and variably shaped appearance of an exit wound. If Congresswoman Giffords had passed, the pathologist would look for residues on the skin, in the wound track and even in the hair. Again, clinicians are no so concerned with such.

In this case witness statements regarding relative positions of shooter and victim may help (if they can recall) but since there is no doubt about Loughner being the shooter, this issue is not a likely problem for the prosecution.

Edited to add: With Kennedy, the autopsy was poorly done and not by a forensic pathologist. It was a different time in forensics and though I am a forensic pathologist, I also am a conspiracy believer when it comes to JFK and firmly believe that the entire investigation was intentionally botched to protect TPTB