Idaho’s failed attempts at coroner reform: Timeline – ProPublica

A series of suspicious deaths. Two cases of infanticide that were almost described as sudden infant death syndrome. A curiously low rate of opioid overdose deaths. It’s among the warning signs Idahoans have pointed to over the decades as they tried to pressure those in power to change Idaho’s death investigation system, which is based on elected county coroners and has virtually no government support or oversight .

The legislature came close to introducing reforms several times. But every attempt failed. The reason is often simple, as current and former coroners and national experts have told ProPublica in recent months: “Nobody wants to spend money on death.”

But that leaves Idaho with a system in which one coroner can decide not to comply with national standards while the coroner of a neighboring county does.

Calls for reform of the Idaho system have occurred nearly every decade since at least the 1950s. Some of the first calls for change came from local doctors and state health officials alarmed by Idaho’s refusal to modernize its approach to death investigations.

November 1951

The Idaho Statesman highlighted a national magazine article that said Idaho is “the best place in the country for a criminal to literally get away with murder” because the state exemplifies “an outdated coroner’s system.” may contribute to frequent miscarriages.” Justice.”

March 1959

A doctor who served as coroner in Idaho’s largest county resigned, citing “outdated and woefully inadequate” state laws. He said lawmakers this year declined to introduce a bill that would be “a middle ground between the catastrophic inadequacy of existing law and a central government health examiner system.”

September 1965

Dr. TO Carver, the state health administrator at the time, told The Associated Press: “I think … if someone wanted to commit a murder without being discovered, Idaho would be a good place to do it.” Carver praised Oregon’s medical screening system and said the change from Idaho to a similar system would cost more, but it would provide evidence and truth.

October 1965

The director of Idaho’s vital records office expressed alarm over the qualifications of medical examiners, the state’s autopsy rate and “questionable” death investigations. The director said coroners in Idaho handle 600 to 700 deaths each year and perform autopsies on 10% or fewer.

Fall 1976

A hospital pathologist in rural Idaho has called for replacing the state’s “archaic” medical examiner system with a medical examiner’s office. “Idaho is a state where it would be very easy to commit murder and go undetected,” he said, according to news archives. “With a little intelligence and care, no one would ever know it happened under the current coroner system in our counties.”

March 1997

After a series of suspicious deaths, the Idaho Statesman again called for reform in an editorial: “Idaho must recognize that the elected medical examiner system can only go so far,” the authors said. “Idaho residents need protection. They need coroners, pathologists and medical examiners who can work with law enforcement to catch criminals.

December 1998

The Eastern Idaho Post Register did a series on child deaths that found there were few autopsies, including two cases of infanticide that were almost attributed to SIDS. Over the next five years, legislators considered, but did not pass, bills on forensic reform. A district attorney told the newspaper: “It doesn’t work in the late 20th century, it won’t work in the 21st century.”

January 2006

Ten years after her son’s death was ruled a suicide without an autopsy, a Boise woman who became an attorney wrote in the Idaho Statesman: “Lawmakers need to take a fresh look at the laws that govern Idaho’s coroner’s system.”

February 2019

A former state senator, family physician and county coroner wrote on his blog that Idaho “quite likely” underreported opioid overdose deaths, in part because coroners didn’t detect and report them. “Since I was Latah County coroner for 15 years, I have wondered whether the Idaho County coroner system makes sense,” Dan Schmidt wrote. “To all county coroners: Ask yourself: Are you satisfied with the death investigation system? Are you doing a good job? Are there ways to do this better?”