 frederick "fred" a. leuchter, jr. (born &nbsp;1943) is an author of forensic holocaust denial material. in the past, he had been contracted by governmental authorities of several states of the united states to improve the design of instruments for capital punishment, but no longer does so, primarily because of his lack of any formal engineering experience, but also because of charges of running a "death row shakedown" in which leuchter threatened to testify for the defense in capital cases if he was not given contracts for his services by the state. leuchter became known around the world for his testimony in defense of holocaust denier ernst zÃ¼ndel in 1988. his study for zÃ¼ndel's trial is referred to as the leuchter report after it was published by zÃ¼ndel as such and is often framed as a scientifically based work of holocaust denial, though his research methods and findings were shown to be discredited in a 1999 errol morris documentary on the controversy, entitled mr. death: the rise and fall of fred a. leuchter, jr. ==education and career== leuchter received a bachelor of arts degree in history from boston university in 1964 and later conducted post-graduate studies at the harvard-smithsonian astronomical observatory. leuchter holds patents for a geodetic instrument and an electronic sextant.us patents 3,968,570  and 4,339,198  leuchter has said he is "unregistered as a professional engineer" and misled people abou
1944_births Boston_University_alumni Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States Harvard_University_alumni Harvard_University_people Holocaust_deniers Living_people People_deported_from_the_United_Kingdom People_from_Malden,_Massachusetts