coroner

coroner, a public official whose principal duty in modern times is to inquire, with the help of a jury, into any death that appears to be unnatural.

The office originated in England and was first referred to as custos placitorum (Latin: “keeper of the pleas”) in the Articles of Eyre of 1194, although there is some evidence that it may have existed earlier. The name was originally “crowner,” or “coronator,” derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown.” The coroner, elected by the freeholders of the county, was charged with safeguarding the king’s property and served as a check on the powerful office of the sheriff in the royal interest.

Legislation in the 19th century eliminated the vestiges of the coroner’s early powers, many of which were already obsolete. The Coroners Amendment Act of 1926 further limited his duties to conducting an inquest into deaths occurring within his district by violent or unnatural means or from some unknown cause, or into the death of a person in prison or under circumstances that require an inquest in accord with other legislation. The act also set up the qualifications for holding the office, requiring that a coroner be a barrister, solicitor, or legally qualified medical practitioner. In practice, persons possessing both legal and medical qualifications have been appointed.

In Canada all coroners are appointed by a provincial order in council, signed by the lieutenant governor. As a judge of a court of record, the coroner is not liable in civil action for anything done by him in his judicial capacity if he acts indiscreetly or erroneously.

In the United States the office is usually elective, but in some states it may be appointive. About half the states have a coroner’s system; in some of the others the sheriff or the justice of the peace performs his functions, while in still others the coroner’s office has been replaced by a medical examiner. Roughly one-third of U.S. states use both the coroner and medical-examiner systems. In a few states the coroner’s staff is composed of persons skilled in pathology, toxicology, and chemistry.

In some U.S. states coroners must be pathologists, but in others a layman may be authorized as coroner, with the power to employ a physician to conduct the autopsy. In most states the coroner has the power to issue a warrant for the arrest of persons who may have caused the death of another by criminal means and possesses all the powers of a magistrate to hear testimony. See also inquest.