Back to my notes from the Writers' Police Academy. The latter part of Friday was spent listening to Dr. Jonathan Hayes, Senior Medical Examiner for New York City. He began by explaining what a forensic pathologist is and does. Forensic pathology is a sub-specialty of pathology, and the major expertise is the evaluation of injuries. He also explained the difference between coroners and medical examiners, the former being elected officials who may or may not have any medical or forensic background. Medical examiners are not elected officials. The trend now is to move from coroners to medical examiners who are specialists in the examination of death, and are apolitical.
To become a medical examiner, beyond the normal medical school, internship, and residency, one needs to deal with 250 autopsies, as many homicides as possible, as many crime scenes as possible, and then have lab experiences with DNA, blood spatter, criminalistics, and toxicology (and more).Medical examiners, at least in New York, are part of the public health system, NOT law enforcement.
They must determine cause and manner of death, the cause of death being the disease or injury that leads to death. Manner of death explains how that death came about. There are only a limited number of them: Natural, Accident, Suicide, Homicide, Therapeutic Complication, and Undetermined.
Of the above, suicides require the highest degree of proof. And, contrary to what we see on television, only about 5% of deaths are ruled homicides.
