OPINION_ Justice Scalia's unexamined death points to a problem

CNN

Justice Scalia's unexamined death points to a problem

By Judy Melinek
Updated 0238 GMT (1038 HKT) February 21, 2016



Justice Antonin Scalia


Story highlights

Forensic pathologist Judy Melinek says that the justice's death feeds conspiracy theories unnecessarily; there should have been an autopsy

It takes the death of one of the nation's top jurists to make us recognize the sorry state of legal science in the United States, she says


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(CNN)_  When my husband called and told me the news that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died, the first question that came out of my mouth was, "Where?"

"Texas," he said.

"Oh no."




Judy Melinek



That reply did not surprise him. I have been called to testify as a forensic pathology expert in many legal cases in Texas. I know about the laws that govern death investigation in that state.

It came as no surprise to me that Justice Scalia, found cold and pulseless in bed with a pillow "over his head," was declared dead of natural causes without an autopsy being performed. I was not shocked to hear that a county justice of the peace agreed to issue the death certificate without visiting the death scene or seeing the body for herself.

When President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the local medical examiner, a trained and experienced forensic pathologist, wanted to perform an autopsy.

He was thwarted by the Secret Service, which followed the wishes of the President's widow and flew the body out of state for an autopsy at a naval facility. Even the Warren Commission report and thoroughgoing congressional hearings never put to rest the speculation that still surrounds John F. Kennedy's death -- and that death was indisputably a homicide, with an autopsy.

Scalia's unexamined death will add to the conspiracy theory industrial complex. It didn't need to be so, especially since Scalia's pre-existing medical conditions make it likely that his death was a natural one.

Why is it that in a nation with the best medical technology in the world, we are still allowing a law enforcement official and a judge on the end of a telephone line to declare someone dead and pronounce the manner of death as natural without an autopsy?

Autopsy is Greek for "see for yourself."

It is the one and only scientific method for definitively determining the cause and manner of death. Even if this decedent weren't a controversial and powerful national figure, he should have had an autopsy. Why? Because whenever someone is dead in bed at a private residence with a pillow over his head, there is the possibility that the death was not a natural one.

Scalia had underlying medical conditions, but he did not have a known terminal illness. He was not expected to die at any moment.

READ MORE: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/18/opinions/justice-scalia-no-autopsy-melinek/index.html

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