Throughout life we are set to many standards or expectations, whether it be our own personal standards or the standards that are set by others. One expected standard in particular is the act of being ethical. This could mean in the workplace or in one's everyday life. Being ethical can mean many different things to different people. To one man named Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Courts (1958-1981), "Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have the right to do and what is right to do" (Thomas). Whether or not to be ethical is a choice you have to make every day. Two people in particular, Fred Zain and Joyce Gilchrist, chose to be unethical when it came to their jobs. Fred Zain was a West Virginia State Police Forensics expert who had testified in hundreds of cases. He had worked in forensics for over 16 years and was a very trusted man. He was mostly known for his work in cases that involved rape and/or murder, where he seemed to be able to find DNA evidence when no one else could. One case that really seemed to stand out was in 1987 with a case involving a man named Glen Woodall. Woodall was convicted of multiple felonies including two counts of …show more content…
Some might say Zain was set up for this sort of thing to happen. He moved up in rank very quickly with no fault of his less than mediocre work in the past. Zain was actually a bad chemist throughout school, but since he often sided with the prosecution many people wanted him to be put on the stand. By 1993, Zain's life in forensic science was over, he had been caught in his lies and had racked up more than 7 million dollars in lawsuits for his faulty convictions. Zain did end up dying in 2002 before his trial had occurred, but he will always be remembered by future scientist and in trials to come in the