Buz sed,
All deaths ruled homicide by the Medical Examiner, and some even before, are reviewed by the Assistant State's Attorney for Violent Crime. He/she, in conjunction with their superiors, make the ruling of "justifiable"."
Well, BUZ, apparently even if the Medical Examiner's office says the death of a tied-up, buried woman might have been a strangulation, THAT is apparently not be not enough to get the police to classify or examine a death as a murder.
... what a wrenching story. That poor sister. What a nightmare.
And with 341 unclassified deaths in 2004-- 341!!-- how many more nightmares are out there?
5 comments:
I wonder how much this is responsible for Baltimore's decline in murders?
MJB---I was only answering your question regarding "justifiable homicides" as when a police officer or store owner shoots and kills a suspect. It would in fact be declared a homicide by the medical examiner; the SA just rules the homicide "justifiable".
The case of the medical examiner's office not classifying the body that you cite as a murder is mystifying to me as well. Perhaps the medical examiners feel she may have had a "pre-existing condition" or "fell down and hit her head" , or was "sleeping like a baby" or some such. (Just being sarcastic).
And all those "unclassified" murders sound suspiciously like the unknown debt many of our smart bankers were buying and selling until the bottom falls out. Could it be that these cases are being unclassified to only postpone the day of reckoning? Who knows?
And why does Baltimore's OCME has so many unclassified deaths compared to other jurisdictions? As the wise one says, if you add a modest percentage of them to this year's homicide count, it's a wash as far as progress in murders is concerned.
The idea that she may have died from causes other that homicide defies common sense, but betcha the ME is operating from sort of standardized rule or decision that keeps them from declaring it homicide. But your apparent lack of trust in the system is well founded--there have been rumors of end-of-year "delaying" or "hiding" of homicide declarations for years. But in any event, in these cases, the ME declares the official cause of death first, then the police continue their investigation if it's a homicide.
Not relevant to this case, but the vast majority of deaths that are "undetermined" are drug overdoses. They can't tell if they are suicide or unintentional.
but that still wouldn't be an 'undetermined' cause, would it, it would be 'heroin intoxication' or somesuch, right?
No, the cause wouldn't be undetermined, but the manner (natural, homicide, suicide, etc.) would.
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