Michael Welner

Michael Welner, M.D. (born September 24 1964 in Pittsburgh, PA) is one of America’s most highly regarded forensic psychiatrists. He has pioneered several important advances in forensic science, consulted as lead examiner on some of the most critical and complex cases in America in recent years, has written groundbreaking pieces on cutting edge areas of forensic psychiatry and public policy, and has been recognized by various government, law, mental health, and news media organizations as a primary resource on emerging issues in forensic mental health.

Personal background
Dr. Welner is the youngest of four children. His father Nick, who spoke seven languages fluently, was a civil engineer educated in England. His mother Barbara, who left school as a wartime refugee, entered college in Britain unable to speak English and graduated as valedictorian, and became a nurse specializing in gerontology. Both his parents were born in Poland, where their entire families perished in the Holocaust. In recent years, Dr. Welner lost both of his sisters in accidental deaths. Dr. Welner’s oldest sister, Sandra Welner, M.D., was a Maryland-based gynecologist who, after a neurologically disabling injury in 1987, fought back to become internationally renowned for her medical research, inventions, and advocacy for the medical care of the disabled. He is married to Orli Welner, a corporate finance attorney, and has no children.

Training
Dr. Welner graduated high school at 15, and attended the University of Miami, where he earned a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry, before moving to the University of Miami School of Medicine for his M.D. From 1988-1992, Dr. Welner completed his residency in psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. In 1991, he was invited into the forensic psychiatry fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, mentored by Robert Sadoff, M.D. He became the first resident to complete a forensic psychiatry fellowship simultaneously with a psychiatry residency training at the Beth Israel program.

Professional life, casework, research, and practice
Upon completion of his medical residency in 1992, Dr. Welner took on a substantial patient load in an existing private practice of psychopharmacology, specializing in violence and patients who did not respond to others’ treatment. At the same time he also served as an Attending Physician on the corrections psychiatry unit at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. In 1992, he debated candidates’ representatives such as Alphonse D’Amato and Charles Schumer on behalf of Ross Perot’s presidential campaign. He has maintained a clinical practice since 1992, and is Board Certified in Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, Psychopharmacology and Disaster Medicine.

Dr. Welner's casework has spanned the range of criminal, civil, employment, and securities law, often focusing on cutting edge issues or highly complex litigation, including class action litigation. He also has been consulted by attorneys and judges on a number of high profile cases. His 1996 evaluation of William Tager was the first to confirm, through evidence, that Tager was responsible for attacking newsman Dan Rather in the confrontation remembered for “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” immortalized by an R.E.M. song. From there, Dr. Welner advised attorneys or examined principals in a number of highly sensitive cases including billionairess Doris Duke, Laramie college student Matthew Sheppard, the Church of Scientology, post-9/11 civil litigation, the retardation controversy of Johnny Paul Penry, dermatologist Richard Sharpe, basketball star Jayson Williams and Andrea Yates.

He has consulted to courts on a number of mass shooting cases and has interviewed Byran Uyesugi, Ronald Taylor, Richard Baumhammers, and Ronald Crumpley, who survived their rampages. Dr. Welner was, in addition one of only four psychiatrists in America invited to a 2006 FBI working group updating current understandings of serial killers. His casework has also engaged a number of well-known medication and drug-induced crimes, including Errol Beumel (IN) and Bryan Johnston (MA).

A chief mental health consultant to both defense and prosecution in a number of death penalty cases around the United States, Dr. Welner was the principal prosecution mental health witness in all three of the first and only successful federal death penalty verdicts in the Northeast United States in decades: Gary Sampson (MA), Donald Fell (VT), and Ronell Wilson (NY).

Dr. Welner has also conducted original research on false confessions, and has testified in nationally referenced court decisions involving false confession questions, such as Tyrell Edmonds and Patrick Free. In 2001, he published pioneering research on the typology of drug facilitated rapists.

He was invited to present testimony before the Pennsylvania and Texas State Senate Judiciary Committees on mental retardation and the death penalty. His testimony proved decisive, as hotly contested legislation ultimately strong bipartisan support for Dr. Welner’s position.

The Forensic Echo
In 1996, Dr. Welner unveiled the first practitioner-driven magazine devoted to the frontier interface of psychiatry, law, and public policy. Among other original features, The Forensic Echo introduced case digest coverage, which was soon followed by other academic journals in forensic psychiatry. The Forensic Echo continued publication for five years before retiring to its current online archive form, where it continues as a resource on unique complexities of psychiatry, forensic science, and law.

The Forensic Panel
In 1998, Dr. Welner developed the first system for peer-review of forensic consultation in the United States. The Forensic Panel, which he chairs, now features approximately 30 members in psychiatry, psychology, neuroradiology, emergency and critical care medicine, nursing, toxicology, and pathology. The peer-review system optimized by The Forensic Panel aims at maximizing evidence-driven diligence, safeguards objectivity, and promotes adherence to updated standards of forensic sciences. The Forensic Panel’s peer-review has since established a reputation for enhancing the settlement of cases without testimony needed, and is recognized by virtue of its case list and roster of specialists as one of the most respected forensic practices in the world.

The Depravity Scale
Dr. Welner has pioneered a multilayered effort to achieve scientific-legal standardization of evil crimes and everyday evil acts. The Depravity Scale research, as it is known, is the first such research to incorporate forensic science, law and public input, and the first criminal sentencing research to incorporate public opinion. Through the Depravity Scale research, Dr. Welner has used public web-based surveys to incorporate public consensus into an evidence-driven Depravity Standard for determining heinous crimes that warrant more severe punishment, and those that do not. He has also devised a standard for application in clinical psychotherapy to distinguish everyday evil and intent that warrant clinical attention.

Lecturing and media
For a number of years, Dr. Welner has been consulted for network news coverage of forensic issues, and has been known for his thoughtful, no-nonsense, but compassionate commentary. Bucking the initial crush, he was the first forensic scientist to openly doubt the veracity of John Mark Karr’s 2006 confession to killing Jon Benet Ramsey and to accurately account for why he confessed.

He joined ABC News as a Special Consultant in 2007, becoming the first forensic scientist to join a major network news division for both creative and advisory work. Dr. Welner drew considerable notoriety in April 2007 when his widely quoted remarks on Good Morning America, following the Virginia Tech massacre sparked a backlash that prompted networks to remove the killer’s video confession and digital photographs from their news pages. Dr. Welner is also a strong critic of video game violence, having testified for the New York State Assembly in support of related legislation.

Dr. Welner is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1997, he was honored by the American Psychiatric Association with its award for excellence in medical student education. He has lectured on numerous forensic and clinical issues as an invited speaker of, among others, the American Bar Association, American College of Legal Medicine, American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, International Bar Association, and various medical center Grand Rounds at venues around the world on the above topics of expertise, along with disaster medicine, domestic violence, competency to invest, fitness for employment and the psychology of terrorism.

Selected presentations

 * Lessons in Psychiatric Resilience from Foreign Disasters, Preserving Evidence, Saving Lines, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2007.
 * Unresolved: Psychiatry Ethical Dilemmas, Current and Coming, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, February, 2007.
 * Antidepressant (SSRI) Defenses: Guidelines for Assessment, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, February 2007.
 * Forensic Psychiatric Peer-Review in Action: Capital Mitigation, And Justice for All, Pittsburgh, PA, April 2006.
 * Interdisciplinary Forensic Peer-Review in Action: Death Investigation, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, February 2006.
 * Forensic Interviewing and Police Interrogation: Learning from the Other, Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2005.
 * Psychopathy, Media, and the Psychology at the Root of Terror, Grand Rounds, Cooper Hospital, Camden, NJ, November 2004.
 * The Insanity Defendant: Answers in the Unexplained, Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, PA, October 2004.
 * Death Investigation and Medical Malpractice, Distinguished Lecturer in Legal Medicine, American College of Legal Medicine, Las Vegas, NV, March 2004.
 * False Confessions & DNA Exonerations: Research, and Realities, Nebraska Institute of Forensic Sciences, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 2003.
 * Evil Beyond Crime: Civil Assessment and the Clinical Reckoning of Evil, American Psychiatric Association, Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, May 2003.
 * Sorting Out the Female Defendant: Clinical & Forensic Considerations, Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, Grand Rounds, New York NY, March 2003.
 * Americans with Disabilities Act and September 11, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York, NY, January 2002.
 * The Depravity Scale: Development and Potential, American Psychiatric Association, Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, May 2001.
 * Ethnic Rage: Guidelines for Forensic Assessment, American Psychiatric Association, Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, May 2001.

Selected bibliography

 * Classifying Crimes by Severity: From Aggravators to Depravity, Welner M. In: Douglass J, Ressler R, Burgess A, FBI Crime Classification Manual. Jossey-Bass 2007 pp 55-72.
 * Psychopathy, Media, and the Psychology at the Root of Terrorism Welner, M. In: Biological and Chemical Warfare Lawyers and Judges Publishing Tucson Az. 2004 pp 385-421.
 * Motives in Crime. Welner, M. In: Dominick J et al. Crime Scene Investigation Elwin Street London. 2004 pp 126-135.
 * Psychotropic Medications and Crime. Welner, M. In: Mozayani A, Raymon L (ed) Handbook of Drug Interactions: A Clinical and Forensic Guide. Haworth Press. London. 2003. pp 631-645.
 * Antipsychotics Drugs and Interactions: Implications for Criminal and Civil Forensics. Welner, M. In: Mozayani A, Raymon L (ed) Handbook of Drug Interactions: A Clinical and Forensic Guide. Haworth Press. London. 2003. pp 187- 215.
 * The Perpetrators and Their Modus Operandi. Welner, M. In: LeBeau M, Mozayani A (ed) Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault. Academic Press. London. 2001 pp 39-74.
 * The Cult of Al-Qaeda. (brainwashing and Islamic fundamentalism) Welner, M. The Forensic Panel Letter. The Forensic Echo. October 16, 2001
 * Forensic Psychiatry. Welner, M. In: Wecht C., (ed) Forensic Sciences. Matthew Bender. New York. 2000. 32 1-21.
 * Risk and the Power of Manson (power, charisma, and dangerousness) Welner, M. 4(2) The Forensic Panel Letter. www.forensicpanel.com, January 2000.
 * Calming the Enemy of the State (law enforcement psychiatry collaboration) Welner, M. 3(1) The Forensic Echo. 1 December 1998.
 * Neonaticide: Immaculate Misconception? Welner, M, Delfs, L.;  1(12) The Forensic Echo. 4-10 November 1997.
 * Vincent Gigante’s Next Move (competency assessment) Welner, M, Delfs, L.; 1(10) The Forensic Echo. 4-14 September 1997.