Coroners and forensic science
Coroners are specialized officials responsible for investigating deaths, particularly those that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances. Their role is significant in ensuring that wrongful deaths are identified and properly scrutinized, serving both governmental interests and the families of the deceased. The concept of the coroner has roots in Western culture, dating back to the Norman invasion of England in 1066, with the term itself derived from the Latin word for crown, indicating their original role as protectors of the monarch’s financial interests. Coroners operate as part of the executive branch of government and can be either elected or appointed, with varying qualifications depending on jurisdiction.
Their responsibilities encompass a wide range of tasks, including conducting death investigations, responding to death scenes, coordinating autopsies, and maintaining death records. While many jurisdictions require coroners to have medical degrees, this is not universally mandated; some areas have transitioned to a medical examiner system that typically requires advanced medical qualifications. Coroners also address diverse death scenarios, from criminal violence to unexpected fatalities, and they play a vital role in public health by investigating deaths that could pose a risk to the community. Overall, coroners serve an essential function in the intersection of law, medicine, and public service.
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Subject Terms
Coroners and forensic science
DEFINITION: Presiding officers of special courts, medical officers, or officers of the law responsible for investigating deaths, particularly those that have taken place under unusual circumstances.
SIGNIFICANCE: The work of coroners ensures that wrongful deaths are noted as such and are investigated, so that the interests of both government and the families of the deceased are served.
The office of seems to have been established in Western culture after the Norman invasion of England in 1066. The term “coroner” is derived from the Latin word corona, which means crown, because the original coroners were servants of the crown appointed at the local level to protect the financial interests of the monarch. Although coroners’ duties overlapped with the emerging duties of sheriffs, eventually coroners focused primarily on protecting the crown’s financial interests, particularly in matters of the property of deceased persons that might be claimed by the crown. Coroners are thus part of the common-law tradition and appear in most of the nations colonized by England, including Australia and the United States. Elsewhere in the world, functions similar to those of coroners are often performed by medical practitioners.
Coroners may be either elected or appointed, depending on (a jurisdiction is usually a county). As the investigator of cause of death, the coroner generally has power to concerning given deaths and to conduct inquests (reviews of the facts of deaths by panels of jurors). Coroners are not judicial officers; rather, they are considered to be part of the executive branch of government.
Qualifications
The qualifications required of coroners vary across jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions, coroners must have medical degrees, but this is not always a requirement. A general trend has been seen over the years toward increasing demand for professionalism in the office of coroner. Some US jurisdictions have replaced the office of coroner with that of medical examiner, which differs from coroner in several ways. For example, coroners are generally placed in office through countywide elections (usually serving terms of four years), whereas medical examiners are typically appointed by the chairs of county boards or by county executives. Most jurisdictions with medical examiners require that these officials be qualified medical doctors licensed to practice in the states in which they serve, and that they be certified as licensed pathologists in anatomic and forensic pathology.
After coroners or medical examiners are installed in office, they are usually required to attend specialized training programs. In Illinois, for example, new coroners must apply for admittance to the coroners’ training program run by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board and must then complete the program within six months. In addition, all coroners are required to send their deputy coroners to the same training program.
Responsibilities
The responsibilities of coroners include, but are not limited to, responding or dispatching deputy coroners to death scenes, collection of toxicological samples and their analysis, making death notifications to next of kin, and coordination and facilitation of organ donation. Coroners also determine the necessity for autopsy in individual deaths, facilitate the autopsy process, coordinate transport of deceased persons from death scenes, conduct death investigations when necessary, schedule and conduct inquests, summon juries for inquests, and issue temporary and permanent death certificates. Coroners are responsible for establishing the autopsy protocols used in their jurisdictions—that is, they determine what must be identified in autopsies and in the toxicology reports that list foreign substances found in the bodies of deceased persons.
Coroners in many jurisdictions are responsible for facilitating the burial of indigent persons, issuing cremation permits, maintaining records of all deaths reported, maintaining permanent records of all inquested cases, and maintaining vital statistics related to all cases reported. Coroners also generally take charge of the personal property of deceased persons until the property can be released. In addition to these duties, coroners are expected to be generally prepared for all possible disaster situations, during which they may need to hire and supervise “disaster deputy coroners.”
In some states, coroners have duties beyond those related to death investigations. In Illinois, for example, coroners have the same powers as county sheriffs with regard to conservation of the peace; in the absence of a jurisdiction’s sheriff, the coroner is empowered to act as sheriff. In Louisiana, coroners assist in determining the nature and extent of mental illness in living people.
Coroners and medical examiners are called upon to investigate many different types of deaths, including those resulting from criminal violence, suicide, and accident. Coroners become involved when persons who were apparently in good condition die suddenly, when deaths are unattended by practicing licensed physicians, and when deaths take place under suspicious or unusual circumstances. Coroners may investigate cases of death attributable to criminal abortion, poisoning, adverse reaction to drugs or alcohol, disease constituting a threat to public health, or injury or toxic agent resulting from employment. They also investigate deaths that have taken place during medical diagnostic or therapeutic procedures and deaths that have occurred to those confined in penal institutions or in custody. In addition, coroners are generally involved when dead bodies are transported into medicolegal jurisdictions without proper medical certification and whenever any human body is to be cremated, dissected, or buried at sea.
Bibliography
Gerber, Samuel M., and Richard Saferstein, eds. More Chemistry and Crime: From Marsh Arsenic Test to DNA Profile. American Chemical Society, 1997.
Hendrix, Robert C. Investigation of Violent and Sudden Death: A Manual for Medical Examiners. Charles C Thomas, 1972.
National Medicolegal Review Panel. Death Investigation: A Guide for the Scene Investigator, 2024. US Department of Justice, July 2024, nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/death-investigation-guide-scene-investigator-2024. Accessed 14 Aug. 2024.
Spitz, Werner U., ed. Spitz and Fisher’s Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigation. 4th ed., Charles C Thomas, 2006.
Timmermans, Stefan. Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths. U of Chicago P, 2006.