XPost: tx.politics, sac.politics, misc.legal   
   XPost: alt.politics   
   From: gay.sleeper@barackobama.com   
      
   (CNN)When my husband called and told me the news that Supreme   
   Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died, the first question that   
   came out of my mouth was, "Where?"   
      
   "Texas," he said.   
      
   "Oh no."   
      
   That reply did not surprise him.   
      
   I have been called to testify as a forensic pathology expert in   
   many legal cases in Texas. I know about the laws that govern   
   death investigation in that state.   
      
   It came as no surprise to me that Justice Scalia, found cold and   
   pulseless in bed with a pillow "over his head," was declared   
   dead of natural causes without an autopsy being performed. I was   
   not shocked to hear that a county justice of the peace agreed to   
   issue the death certificate without visiting the death scene or   
   seeing the body for herself.   
      
   When President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas on   
   November 22, 1963, the local medical examiner, a trained and   
   experienced forensic pathologist, wanted to perform an autopsy.   
      
   He was thwarted by the Secret Service, which followed the wishes   
   of the President's widow and flew the body out of state for an   
   autopsy at a naval facility. Even the Warren Commission report   
   and thoroughgoing congressional hearings never put to rest the   
   speculation that still surrounds John F. Kennedy's death -- and   
   that death was indisputably a homicide, with an autopsy.   
      
   Scalia's unexamined death will add to the conspiracy theory   
   industrial complex. It didn't need to be so, especially since   
   Scalia's pre-existing medical conditions make it likely that his   
   death was a natural one.   
      
   Why is it that in a nation with the best medical technology in   
   the world, we are still allowing a law enforcement official and   
   a judge on the end of a telephone line to declare someone dead   
   and pronounce the manner of death as natural without an autopsy?   
      
   Autopsy is Greek for "see for yourself."   
      
   It is the one and only scientific method for definitively   
   determining the cause and manner of death. Even if this decedent   
   weren't a controversial and powerful national figure, he should   
   have had an autopsy. Why? Because whenever someone is dead in   
   bed at a private residence with a pillow over his head, there is   
   the possibility that the death was not a natural one.   
      
   Scalia had underlying medical conditions, but he did not have a   
   known terminal illness. He was not expected to die at any moment.   
      
   His demise was, by definition, a sudden and unexpected death,   
   and those are the types of deaths that fall under a coroner or   
   medical examiner's jurisdiction. Though John Poindexter, the   
   owner of the ranch and the man who found Scalia's body, later   
   stated that the pillow was against the headboard and "not over   
   his face," there still should have been a death scene   
   investigation by trained personnel. And there should have been   
   an autopsy by a board-certified forensic pathologist.   
      
   Instead, we have a marshal and the property owner calling up a   
   justice of the peace, and everyone agreeing that there must have   
   been "no foul play."   
      
   Even if there was no foul play, the lack of an autopsy still   
   leaves too many open questions.   
      
   Sudden death while sleeping could be the result of any of   
   several different causes, some natural and some accidental.   
   Maybe it was heart disease, or pulmonary embolus from immobility   
   following a recent flight, or an accidental overdose of a sleep   
   aid or a prescription pain medication. So I was not surprised to   
   learn that conspiracies are already bubbling up out of the   
   ground around Marfa, Texas.   
      
   The irony here is that it takes the death of one of the nation's   
   top jurists to make us recognize the sorry state of legal   
   science in the United States.   
      
   Back in 2009, the National Academy of Sciences reported that the   
   practice of allowing lay coroners and justices of the peace to   
   sign death certificates, and the lack of certification and   
   training of death investigative personnel, puts our legal system   
   at risk.   
      
   Since then, what have we done to remedy this threat? Not much.   
      
   We do now have a National Commission on Forensic Science, but so   
   far its only task has been to generate a list of   
   recommendations. There still is no movement on legislating   
   funding and accreditation requirements on the state and county   
   level, where forensic death investigation occurs.   
      
   Local officials hold the purse strings and hold them tight --   
   unless there is bad publicity such as a high-profile murder or   
   accidental death. The only place where we see fully funded and   
   staffed forensics labs is in fictional shows such as "NCIS,"   
   "CSI" and "Bones."   
      
   Had Scalia died in an urban center with a medical examiner's   
   office, he would have had a thorough and complete death   
   investigation, including an independent review of his medical   
   records, and an examination at the death scene. His body would   
   have been brought to the morgue, and at the very least, an   
   external examination would have been performed by a licensed   
   forensic pathologist.   
      
   Any speculation would have easily been put to rest by an   
   autopsy. We need to change our laws so that all jurisdictions   
   have the same guidelines for staffing, funding, accreditation   
   and certification of personnel trained in death investigation.   
   This is a matter of public health and justice.   
      
   In 2011, "Post Mortem," a PBS/Frontline documentary series,   
   exposed the deficiencies in our nation's county-based system and   
   highlighted the wide disparities in the quality of forensic   
   death investigation depending on which side of an administrative   
   border the dead body happens to be lying.   
      
   The documentary outlined several instances of missed homicides.   
   In it, Dr. Marcella Fierro, one of the nation's foremost   
   forensic pathologists, put it best.   
      
   "You call a death an accident or miss a homicide altogether, a   
   murderer goes free. Lots of very bad things happen if death   
   investigation isn't carried out competently."   
      
   Anyone who followed the podcast "Serial" or the documentary   
   series "Making of a Murderer" saw that poor forensic death   
   investigations can jeopardize factual testimony and can lead to   
   wrongful conviction. If we don't do something about the state of   
   forensic sciences in this country, homicides will continue to be   
   missed and conspiracy theories will continue to thrive whenever   
   any prominent figure dies of natural causes in the absence of a   
   forensic death investigation.   
      
   Now that a murky, rushed death certification has marred the   
   passing of one of the very highest legal figures in the United   
   States, shouldn't we do something about it?   
      
   http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/18/opinions/justice-scalia-no-autopsy-   
   melinek/?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion&iref=obnetwork   
      
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