死因裁判官
维基百科，自由的百科全书
死因裁判官是普通法執行地區內的一個特別的死因裁判法庭的首長。他的主要工作，是當有死者在不尋常的情況下離世。不過，一般的刑事案件未必需要召開庭聆訊。不同的司法區對這個職位的稱呼亦可能有所不同，而擔任的條件亦會不一樣。不過，他們同樣都會由死因裁判官負責主持死因的裁決。
目录 |
[编辑] 判決的意義
判決的根本意義，在於死者的死所帶來的法律責任。假設有一老婦在排隊時死亡，若死因庭發現她是死於心臟病突發，可以說她是死於自然。然而，若發現她是因為空氣不流通，以致被焗暈然後死亡，死因庭可能會裁定她死於意外。若死者死於意外，可能表示有人為的疏忽(Negligence)，可引致民事訴訟。不過，若死因庭裁定死者死於不幸，則雖然可能有人為的疏忽，但未必可以構成訴訟的理據。死因裁判亦會影響到死者的遺產分配。例如：2005年在香港就有一位老伯被家人遺棄，當他被社會福利署的社工發現後，被送往醫院，而社署職員亦發現他的床底收藏了數萬元積蓄。這一筆錢被寄存在社會
若然死者被裁定“非法被殺”，則表示死因有刑事成份，律政署可以因此而起訴導致死者死亡的人謀殺或誤殺的罪。
[编辑] 英格蘭及威爾士的死因裁判官
在英格蘭及威爾士的死因裁判官並非公務員，而是由地方議會委任及支付薪金。
英國是世上比較早設立「死因裁判官」一職的國家之一，只比南宋的提點刑獄司晚了約一百年。大約在諾曼人於1066年登陸英格蘭之後，就有設立死因裁判官一職，但其運作形式與現代的有所不同。現代的死因裁判官要到大約19世紀左右才開始出現。隨着這兩百年間司法制度的轉變，預期在死因裁判官未來數年會有所改革。
[编辑] Coroners in the United States
Coroners in the United States are often elected officials. As finders of fact, they retain quasi-judicial powers like the power of subpoena, and in some states they also have the power to impanel juries of inquest, but unlike their British equivalents, they are not judicial officers. They are traditionally considered to be executive branch officials. Furthermore, American coroners are almost always officials of the state government or of the local county government. The federal government usually does not clean up dead bodies (with the obvious exception being people who die while serving in the armed forces).
Some jurisdictions have replaced the elected Coroner with a Medical Examiner, who must be a physician. Other jurisdictions, such as Orange County, California have merged the legal competencies of a Coroner into the office of the Sheriff, whose medical duties as Coroner are then delegated to a professional forensic staff of M.E.'s, technicians, and such.
Duties always include determining the time, cause, and manner of death. This uses the same investigatory skills of a police detective in most cases, because the answers are available from the circumstances, scene, and recent medical records. Only a small percentage of deaths require an autopsy to determine the time, cause and manner of death.
In some states, additional functions are handled by the Coroner. For example, in Louisiana, Coroners are involved in determination of mental illness of living persons. In Georgia, the coroner has the same powers as a county sheriff to execute arrest warrants and serve process.
[编辑] Artistic depictions
Although coroners are often depicted in police dramas as a source of information for detectives, there are a number of fictional coroners who are a focus of particular focus on television. The television series Wojeck, Quincy, M.E. and Da Vinci's Inquest each have a coroner as their title character. In addition, the coroner is a significant character on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and the lead character in Crossing Jordan is a Medical Examiner.
Dr. G: Medical Examiner is a reality television show shown on the Discovery Health Channel that shows dramatic reenactments of autospies that Dr. Jan Garavaglia has done. The shows also include interviews with Dr. Garavaglia, family members, and others connected with the cases she has worked on in Florida and Texas.
[编辑] 參看
[编辑] External links
- History of the Medieval English Coroner System by Prof. Bernard Knight, CBE
