Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko
“California, like several other states, still relies on an anachronistic coroner system to oversee death investigations. In these systems, an elected county coroner has ultimate say over manner of death. As you might imagine, entrusting death investigations to a low-ranking, low-paying office that in most places requires little training and few qualifications has created a lot of problems. But the situation in California is even worse. In 48 of the state’s 58 counties, the elected county sheriff also serves as coroner. Certified forensic pathologists still perform the autopsies in these counties, but they report to the sheriff and, ultimately, the sheriff has the last word about manner of death. At risk of stating the obvious, entrusting the county sheriff to determine the manner of death of people who die in police custody is a big honking conflict of interest.” (09/04/24)
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-retconning-of-george-floyd-a