T. Paulette Sutton Case Study Worksheet

T. Paulette Sutton is one of the world’s leading experts in bloodstains and is the former Assistant Director of Forensic Services and Director of Investigations at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. She has been involved in nationally known murder cases and has worked hard during her long career to make a position contribution to the legal system. Sutton says, “Its best for my fellow man that we get the killers off the street.” Since 2006 Sutton has been officially retired but continues to teach, consult, and testify about her area of expertise.
Sutton began her career by training as a medical equipment technician at the University of Tennessee. Before she could just do that job that she thought was going to be temporary job in a medical

examiner’s office. Her supervisors recognized her patience, precision, and technical training in collecting and analyzing evidence made her an excellent crime-scene technician. In the 1970’s they then sent her to a training in bloodstain analysis, which was a fairly new field to begin with.
Sutton has a talent for explaining her techniques as well as an ability to get at the truth and conclusions in court. In one of Suttons earlier cases she did extensive research to check the accounts of the three defendants in the 1998 dragging murder of James Byrd Jr. in Texas. Her testimony about the origin of bloodstains on one of the defendant’s shirts convinced the defendant to change his plea, from being accused of a part of the dragging murder itself. Suttons results supported the story of the defendant that the bloodstains from his clothes came from cleaning the bloody truck at a carwash and he had not taken part in the actual dragging itself. The defendant was then given a lesser sentence than the other two murderers.
Sutton is qualified as an expert witness in 12 states and in federal courts, and she has consulted for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Along with two other criminalists she is an author of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: Theory and Practice. She received the Lecturer of Merit Award Distinguished Faculty Award from the National College of District Attorneys. Also, she earned the Outstanding Service Award from the FBI.