A medicolegal death investigation is an official investigation or inquest into the manner, cause, and circumstances surrounding death. As it applies a medicolegal death investigation is a combination of medicine and law, with a purpose to answer the questions of death. The answers obtained in these investigations can assist with criminal and civil litigation, insurance claims, the distribution of estates, and the health and safety of the public. These investigations are performed by trained medicolegal death investigators (MDIs) and can represent multiple different disciplines. The MDIs can be a coroner, deputy coroner, forensic pathologist, morgue technologist, forensic odontologist, forensic anthropologist, forensic toxicologist, or a criminalist.
At the JCCMEO these investigations are begun by deputy coroners who are formally trained MDIs. When a death is reported to the JCCMEO it is the responsibility of the deputy coroner to determine if the death falls under the statutory jurisdiction of the JCCMEO and if so, will jurisdiction be assumed or declined. Pursuant to State of Alabama Code 11-5-35 (Act 2006-581, p. 1527, §6.) the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner’s Office only has the authority to certify a death if the offense, occurrence, or incident that ultimately resulted in the death occurred within the geographical boundaries of Jefferson County, Alabama. Therefore, if the sequence of events that ultimately resulted in the death began in a county or state other than Jefferson County, Alabama then the coroner’s office of that county should be notified of the death.
Declined Jurisdiction: Jurisdiction is declined if investigators (i.e. law enforcement, paramedics, and/or medical staff, and the deputy coroner) find no signs of foul play, injury, and/or evidence of current substance abuse associated with the death and; if the decedent has a documented significant medical history and is currently under the care of a primary care physician.
Assumed Jurisdiction: Jurisdiction is assumed if there is suspicion of criminal violence or criminal neglect, criminal abortion, when a body is to be cremated, dissected, or buried at sea, unclaimed bodies, when a dead body is brought into the state without proper medical certification, when deaths are thought to result from trauma or violence or other non-natural processes, unexpected death without adequate medical history to explain death, in any prison or penal institution, when in police custody, disease constituting a hazard to public health when requested in writing by the County Health Officer, or deaths originating outside the geographical jurisdiction of the Coroner-Medical Examiner's Office, when authorized by the Chief Coroner-Medical Examiner of Jefferson County, for the purpose of assisting other coroner or medical examiner offices due to a perceived local conflict of interest, upon receiving official request in writing from the requesting coroner medical examiner.
If jurisdiction is to be assumed a deputy coroner in most cases responds to the scene of the death to begin the investigation. The decedent is transported from the scene to the JCCMEO for examination, which is usually completed within 24 hours from the time of death by one of the forensic pathologist on staff. An examination/autopsy is necessary to accurately determine cause, manner, and circumstances surrounding the death, so to satisfy statuary requirements, for the good of public health, and to assist with potential civil and criminal litigation. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the death and the evidence that is needed to substantiate the death an autopsy may not be performed in every case, but rather a less invasive external examination is performed. The final examination/autopsy report is usually available 8 weeks after the date of death.
