Coroner is ombudsman of death

I'm a murder mystery junkie. A dead body, a well-developed character with an investigating obsession and few initial clues and I am riveted.

So while news that former police chief Tom Cronin is seeking the Kootenai County Coroner's seat after Dr. West's long tenure may evoke a morbid taste, it needn't. The popular fascination with forensic investigation is well proved by the bestseller status of authors of the genre.

Cops are the most common protagonists in whodunnits, but it's the coroners - sometimes referred to as medical examiners (the office is the same, but names confuse) - who are legally bound to solve the central mystery of any murder investigation: cause and manner of death.

From the Latin "corona" or crown, coroners appeared in pre-Norman England as early as the Ninth Century. However, little was known about their function until the first recorded coroner was appointed as sort of a glorified clerk by Richard the Lionheart (who, by the way, couldn't speak English) in 1194. Under the "Articles of Eyre" - like a traveling law system - the coroner was to "keep the pleas of the crown." By medieval times, the coroner's duties included the investigation of sudden deaths - the only early function which survived.

Under Idaho's Penal Code section 19-4301, the coroner must investigate any death which is:

n A result of violence, whether apparently self-inflicted, homicide, or accident

n Under suspicious or unknown circumstances

n A stillborn or any child if reasonable suspicion that death occurred without a known medical disease

n Not attended and certified by a physician (then referred to law enforcement first) Inquests are more inquisitorial than adversarial. The coroner summons six jurors who consider facts to determine whether the cause of death was accidental, natural, suicide or homicide. Criminal prosecution, if any, would follow after the inquest is complete.

Under Title 31, Chapter 28 of Idaho Code, the coroner is also responsible for burying unclaimed bodies and properly disposing of property found on corpses. Another little known role of the coroner is substitute sheriff. That's not for the sheriff's general absences, when a deputy would fill in, but "when the sheriff declares he is disqualified from acting due to a conflict of interest in a proceeding or matter."

The Idaho Association of County Coroners calls the office "ombudsman of the deceased," navigating among family, law enforcement, physicians, prosecutors and funeral homes, all in quick order and while maintaining privacy.

Even the dead need representation.

Sholeh Patrick, J.D. is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. E-mail [email protected].