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shyscyberchamber.com
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THE ATTIC
:
Coroner |
Date
Added
SEP 2002 |
There is some
dispute over the exact date of origin of the English office of coroner, and
although the first mention of the modern equivalent dates from an ordinance of
1194 requiring every shire to elect an officer to 'keep the pleas of the Crown',
it is reliably thought that as a Crown office it was first instituted following
the Norman conquest.
The De Officia Coronatoris, a statute of 1276, enumerated the coroner's duties
and obligations: the coroner, or to give the position its full title, custos
placitorum coronae, or keeper of the king's pleas, was so called because the
special duty was to keep pleas, suits, or causes which more particularly
affected the king's Crown and dignity, and were determined either by the king in
person or by his immediate officers. As on of the king's officers, their
function was not so much to hear and determine causes as to keep a record of all
that went on in the county in any way connected with the administration of
criminal justice, and, above all, to guard what may be called chance revenues
falling to the king. The collection of such revenues depended to a great extent
on the diligence of the coroner in seeking for such things as the forfeited
chattels of felons, deodands, wrecks, royal fish and treasure trove. In his
early days the chief functions of the coroner, whilst guarding the king's
revenues, were the holding of inquests on view of the body in cases of death
from violence or accident and of those dying in prison.
So the medieval coroner's judicial authorities covered mainly the inquiry into
matters of unexplained deaths, the forfeiture of the land and goods, disposal of
wrecks and deodands (the instruments that cause death forfeited to the king for
charitable use), the escape of murderers, the declaration of outlawries and the
inquest upon treasure trove.
Because a convicted felon forfeited his possessions to the Crown, it was not
uncommon for professional crooks to attempt to defeat the system by burying
their valuables. The coroner was expected to hold an inquest into any gold or
silver that had been hidden, seeking to secure it for the king. Subsequent
changes in politics, society and the Church rendered many of the duties
obsolete, though quaintly the coroner is still occasionally called upon to
determine cases of treasure trove.
The statute De Officia Coronatoris and its many subsequent repeals and
amendments was placed by the consolidating Coroners Act of 1887, where the
duties of the office were restate and defined. In 1926 the Act was amended to
allow the coroner discretion whether or not to empanel a jury for each inquest,
except in certain mandatory cases:
1. Where the deceased dies as a result of murder, manslaughter or infanticide.
2. Where the death occurred in prison.
3. Where the death was caused by an accident, poisoning or disease which
requires notice to be given to a Government Department in pursuance of an Act.
4. Where the death was the result of an accident arising from the use of a
vehicle on a street or public highway.
5. Where the death occurred in circumstances the continuance of which is
prejudicial to the health and safety of the public.
Following the 1926 Coroner's (Amendment) Act, a person is only eligible for
appointment who is a solicitor, barrister, or a medical practitioner of five
years or more experience. In practice most posts are held by solicitors and
apart from in cities and large towns, the appointments are part time. Full time
city coroners are usually qualified in medicine and the law.
The procedure by which deaths in unorthodox circumstances come to the attention
of the coroner is as follows: every death, whether at home or in a hospital,
must be certified by a doctor as to cause, and this certificate must be lodged
with the local office of the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths. If there
is any suspicion about the nature of the death, then the registrar is legally
obligated to inform the coroner who will call an inquest. However, it is common
practice for a doctor, if he is unhappy about the
cause of death, to advise the coroner himself. The circumstances in which
death should be reported were laid down in guidelines issued by the Medical
Protection Society.
1. Deaths which are sudden or unexpected and where the doctor cannot certify the
real as opposed to the terminal cause of death or where the doctor has not
attended in the last illnesses within fourteen days of death.
2. Abortions, other than natural abortion.
3. Result of accidents and injuries of any date if in any way contributory to
the cause of death.
4. Death under anaesthetics and deaths following operations for injuries, or
where the operation, however necessary and skillfully performed, may have
precipitated or expedited death.
5. Result of crime or suspected crime.
6. Result of drugs, either therapeutic or addiction.
7. Ill treatment, such as starvation or neglect.
8. Industrial disease arising from the deceased's employment; all diseases
covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974.
9. Infant deaths if in any way usual.
10. Deaths of pensioners receiving disability allowance where the death is
connected with the pensionable disability.
11. Persons in prisons, borstal institutions, detention centres, etc.
12. Poisoning from any source.
13. Death from septicaemia, if arising from an injury.
14. Still births where there was the possibility of the child being born alive,
or where there is suspicion.
It is then the duty of the corner's inquest to ascertain:
1.
The identity of the deceased.
2. How, where and when death occurred.
3. Particulars at the time required by the Registration Acts to be registered
concerning the particular death.
Until 1978 a further, some said iniquitous duty was:
4. (To ascertain) the persons, if any, to be charged with murder, manslaughter,
infanticide or with being accessories before the fact in cases where the jury
might find that the deceased came by their murder, manslaughter or infanticide.
In 1976, the Broderick Committee report its recommendation on Death
Certification and Coroners. It has been convened to examine, among other more
medical issues, the role of the coroner in making observations as to the guilt
of a particular party and his power to commit that person for trial. The
Committee recommended that the coroner should have no such power, and the still
fugitive
Richard Bingham,
Lord Lucan was the last person to be named as a killer by the coroner at the
inquest of Sandra Rivett in June 1975. |
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