What to know
A medicolegal investigation is conducted by a coroner’s or medical examiner’s office to determine how someone died. Each state sets its own standards for what kinds of deaths require investigation. These are the laws for Mississippi.
Medicolegal death investigation system
Is medical death investigation system centralized, county-based, or district-based?
County-based. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-57.
If centralized, in which department or agency is the system housed?
Not applicable.
Does the state system have a coroner, medical examiner, or coroners and medical examiners?
Coroners and medical examiners/medical examiner investigators.
There are hereby created the positions of county medical examiners . . . to be established as herein provided through successful completion of the death investigation training school provided for in subsection (5) of this section. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-57.
(1) Each coroner elected in the 1987 general election and thereafter shall attend the Mississippi Crime Laboratory and State Medical Examiner Death Investigation Training School provided for in subsection (5) of Section 41-61-57, and shall successfully complete subsequent testing on the subject material prior to taking the oath of office. If the elected coroner fails to successfully complete the school and testing, he shall not be eligible to take the oath of office.
(2) Upon successful completion of the death investigation training school, the coroner shall take the oath of office, and he then shall be designated the chief county medical examiner or chief county medical examiner investigator, as provided in subsection (2) of Section 41-61-57, and shall perform the duties of such office as required by law.
Miss. Code. Ann. § 19-21-105.
"In practice" notes
Upon successful completion of the death investigation training school, a coroner who is a physician is designated the chief medical examiner (CME) for the county, while a coroner who is a nonphysician is designated the chief medical examiner investigator (CMEI).
Is there a state medical examiner?
Yes. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-55.
If so, what is the state medical examiner's role?
The State Medical Examiner is empowered to investigate deaths, under the authority hereinafter conferred, in any and all political subdivisions of the state. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-59.
The State Medical Examiner shall:
(a) Provide assistance, consultation and training to county medical examiners, county medical examiner investigators and law enforcement officials.
(b) Keep complete records of all relevant information concerning deaths or crimes requiring investigation by the medical examiners.
(c) Promulgate rules and regulations regarding the manner and techniques to be employed while conducting autopsies; the nature, character and extent of investigations to be made into deaths affecting the public interest to allow a medical examiner to render a full and complete analysis and report; the format and matters to be contained in all reports rendered by the medical examiners; and all other things necessary to carry out the purposes of Sections 41-61-51 through 41-61-79. The State Medical Examiner shall make such amendments to these rules and regulations as may be necessary. All medical examiners, coroners and law enforcement officers shall be subject to such rules.
(d) Cooperate with the crime detection and medical examiner laboratories authorized by Section 45-1-17, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Attorney General, law enforcement agencies, the courts and the State of Mississippi.
. . . The State Medical Examiner shall be authorized to amend a death certificate. . . Where an attending physician refuses to sign a certificate of death, or in case of any death, the State Medical Examiner or properly qualified designee may sign the death certificate.
Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-63.
In what department or agency is the state medical examiner's office located?
Department of Public Safety. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-55.
Are there deputies?
Any county may have deputy county medical examiners or deputy county medical examiner investigators as deemed necessary who shall be appointed jointly by the board of supervisors and the CME or CMEI. However, when the population of a county reaches a total of twenty thousand (20,000) or greater, there shall be one or more officially appointed deputies. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-57.
If so, what are the deputies' roles?
Deputies . . . shall possess the same authority and discharge the same duties, as other county medical examiners or county medical examiner investigators . . . Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-57.
What are the qualifications for deputies?
Deputies shall be subject to the same qualifications, training and certification requirements . . . as other county medical examiners or county medical examiner investigators . . . Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-57.
Qualifications, term of office, and training
Is the coroner or medical examiner position elected?
Yes, [coroners are elected, then appointed medical examiner after completing training]. Miss. Code. Ann. § 19-21-103.
If so, how many years is the term of office?
Four. Miss. Code. Ann. § 23-15-193.
What are the qualifications specified by law?
Each applicant for the position of State Medical Examiner shall, as a minimum, be a physician who is eligible for a license to practice medicine in Mississippi and be certified in forensic pathology by the American Board of Pathology. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-55.
Each county medical examiner (CME) shall be a doctor of medicine (M.D.) or osteopathic medicine (D.O.) licensed in the State of Mississippi . . . Chief and deputy CME's and CMEI's shall attend the death investigation training school provided by the Mississippi Crime Laboratory and the State Medical Examiner, and shall successfully complete subsequent testing on the subject material by the State Medical Examiner at least once every four (4) years . . . In addition to the above training, the individual shall receive at least twenty-four (24) hours annually of continuing education as prescribed and certified by the State Medical Examiner. If the above requirements for training or continuing education are not met, the individual immediately shall be disqualified and removed from office as CME and/or CMEI . . . Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-57.
Beginning with the 1987 general election and thereafter, each candidate for the elected office of coroner shall, as a minimum, possess a high school graduation diploma or its equivalent, be twenty-one (21) years of age or older, and be a qualified elector of the county in which elected. Miss. Code. Ann. § 19-21-103.
(1) Each coroner elected in the 1987 general election and thereafter shall attend the Mississippi Crime Laboratory and State Medical Examiner Death Investigation Training School provided for in subsection (5) of Section 41-61-57, and shall successfully complete subsequent testing on the subject material prior to taking the oath of office. If the elected coroner fails to successfully complete the school and testing, he shall not be eligible to take the oath of office.
(2) Upon successful completion of the death investigation training school, the coroner shall take the oath of office, and he then shall be designated the chief county medical examiner or chief county medical examiner investigator, as provided in subsection (2) of Section 41-61-57, and shall perform the duties of such office as required by law.
Miss. Code. Ann. § 19-21-105.
Investigations/autopsies
What types of deaths are required to be investigated?
A death affecting the public interest includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:
(a) Violent death, including homicidal, suicidal or accidental death.
(b) Death caused by thermal, chemical, electrical or radiation injury.
(c) Death caused by criminal abortion, including self-induced abortion, or abortion related to or by sexual abuse.
(d) Death related to disease thought to be virulent or contagious that may constitute a public hazard.
(e) Death that has occurred unexpectedly or from an unexplained cause.
(f) Death of a person confined in a prison, jail or correctional institution.
(g) Death of a person where a physician was not in attendance within thirty-six (36) hours preceding death, or in prediagnosed terminal or bedfast cases, within thirty (30) days preceding death.
(h) Death of a person where the body is not claimed by a relative or a friend.
(i) Death of a person where the identity of the deceased is unknown.
(j) Death of a child under the age of two (2) years where death results from an unknown cause or where the circumstances surrounding the death indicate that sudden infant death syndrome may be the cause of death.
(k) Where a body is brought into this state for disposal and there is reason to believe either that the death was not investigated properly or that there is not an adequate certificate of death.
(l) Where a person is presented to a hospital emergency room unconscious and/or unresponsive, with cardiopulmonary resuscitative measures being performed, and dies within twenty-four (24) hours of admission without regaining consciousness or responsiveness, unless a physician was in attendance within thirty-six (36) hours preceding presentation to the hospital, or in cases in which the decedent had a prediagnosed terminal or bedfast condition, unless a physician was in attendance within thirty (30) days preceding presentation to the hospital.
(m) Death that is caused by drug overdose or which is believed to be caused by drug overdose.
(n) When a stillborn fetus is delivered and the cause of the demise is medically believed to be from the use by the mother of any controlled substance as defined in Section 41-29-105.
Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-59.
What types of deaths are required to be autopsied?
If, in the opinion of the medical examiner investigating the case, it is advisable and in the public interest that an autopsy or other study be made for the purpose of determining the primary and/or contributing cause of death, an autopsy or other study shall be made by the State Medical Examiner, or the State Medical Examiner may choose a competent pathologist who is designated by the State Medical Examiner or the Department of Public Safety as a pathologist qualified to perform postmortem examinations and autopsies to perform the autopsy or study. Miss. Code. Ann. § 41-61-65.
Does the state require that pathologists perform the autopsies?
No.
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Information available on this website that was not developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not necessarily represent any CDC policy, position, or endorsement of that information or of its sources. The information contained on this website is not legal advice; if you have questions about a specific law or its application you should consult your legal counsel.