| A good forensics investigation will clear this right up, EFL: |
A U.S. forensics team led by an expert who investigated John F. Kennedy's assassination began its probe Monday into the election eve shooting of Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian. Solving the shooting mystery could be key to defusing a political crisis over the March 20 election. Chen's top rival, Lien Chan, has insinuated that the president staged the shooting to get a boost from last-minute sympathy votes. Chen's margin of victory was 0.2 percent.
| Pretty tough way to get votes |
Lien's Nationalists and Chen's Democratic Progressive Party agreed Monday to consider passing a law that would set up a special commission to probe the shooting. Lien has said he doubts the foreign investigation team will be impartial.
| Starting off well, don't you think? |
The team began analyzing bullets, blood samples, medical photos and other evidence Monday from the March 19 shooting that grazed Chen's abdomen. The gunshot slightly injured Chen as he was campaigning in an open vehicle. The team leader, Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, suggest the conspiracy theories that Chen faked the shooting seemed unlikely. The bullet left a 4 1/2-inch gash under Chen's navel. "Looking at this wound, it is consistent with a gunshot wound," said Wecht, who also helped investigate the death of former Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy, and consulted on high-profile cases ranging from the Kennedy assassinations to the death of Elvis Presley.
| Chandra Levy? Kennedy? ELVIS!! Yeah, he really cleared those cases, didn't he? |
The team, invited by Taiwan's government, also includes Taiwanese-American forensics expert Henry Lee, who has investigated several prominent cases including those of O.J. Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey.
| O.J.? JonBenet? Have any of these experts ever solved a high profile case? |
Police have no suspects or other solid leads, but Wecht was optimistic that the experts would figure out what happened. Lee will probably already have "some final opinions" about the case before he arrives, he said.
| "It was a lone white male drug dealing golfer on the grassy knoll in the park, eating a peanut butter banana sandwich, angry at Chen for getting his sister, a former child beauty contest winner, pregnant." |
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