As those of you who have been with us a while know, the Crime Lab Project has long been concerned with the state of death investigation in the U.S.. We’ve had the Death Quiz up on the site for more than a year. When members of the CLP have been on panels or asked to speak, some of us have talked about problems facing Coroners’ and Medical Examiners’ Offices — the lack of training, outdated equipment, shortages of supplies and equipment, aged and inadequate facilities, under-staffing, and under-funding. We talked about the widely varying quality of death investigation in the U.S., the vast differences in qualifications required from region to region, and the need to establish incentives to encourage more medical students to enter the field of forensic pathology.
So you can image how excited we are by the coverage being given to this problem by three major news organizations. The Public Broadcasting Service’s Frontline broadcast of February 1 was “Post Mortem” — one part of a year-long project that was undertaken with National Public Radio and ProPublica, an independent, non-profit investigative journalism organization that won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2010.
Death investigation greatly affects crime investigation, of course, but it reaches into many other parts of our lives. Medical research and mortality statistics, missing persons cases, job safety, product safety, public health — are just a few of the areas affected by the quality (or lack of quality) of death investigation. So it is good to see attention being brought to bear of this subject, and to see three major news organizations involved in providing in coverage.
Below is a list of links to stories included in this effort — we hope you’ll take the time to watch Post Mortem and to read the associated articles.
POST MORTEM: DEATH INVESTIGATION IN AMERICA
You can watch the full program here: http://tinyurl.com/4vj4fhe
There are many links from that same page, including:
“THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO”
Which includes the following sections:
Autopsy 101
No National Standards, Little Oversight
Forensic Pathologists: The Death Detectives
How Qualified Is Your Coroner?
Documenting Death — The Certificate
Graphics: How Is Death Investigated In Your State?
Is The ‘CSI Effect’ Influencing Courtrooms?
Flawed Autopsies Send Two Innocent Men To Jail
Second Chances Shows Flaws In Death Investigations
Post Mortem Live Chat Transcript
Autopsy Cutbacks Reveal ‘Gray Homicides’
Graphics: How Is Death Investigated In Your State?
Parents Fight To Find Truth Behind Daughter’s Death
Autopsy Data
Coroners Don’t Need Degrees To Determine Death
The Real CSI: Death Detective Dysfunction
In New Orleans, Uncovering Errors and Oversights
Academy Recommends Phasing Out Coroners
A State Office Struggles With Mismanagement
Shortage Of Death Detectives To Perform Autopsies
Oklahoma’s Lack Of Resources Means Few Autopsies
On PRO PUBLICA:
Interactive Database of Autopsy Rates in the U.S. Per 100 Deaths
The Real ‘CSI’: How America’s Patchwork System of Death Investigations Puts the Living at Risk
How to Investigate Coroners and Medical Examiners
About Our Autopsy Data
Without Competition, Private Firm Reaps Millions in Autopsy Work
Autopsy Firm’s High Caseloads, Practices Lead to Errors
