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This National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study will examine the handing of deaths in custody by the medicolegal death investigation system in the United States. It will consider number and distribution of deaths in custody; measures forensic pathologists should follow to assess cause of death; the scientific bases and associated evidence needed to justify a diagnosis related to any death; mitigation of diagnostic biases; the role of the medicolegal death investigation as finder of fact for manner of death for public health (versus for the criminal justice system); and approaches to improve the handing of deaths in custody.
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Strengthening the U.S. Medicolegal Death Investigation System: Lessons from Deaths in Custody
Consensus Study Report
·2025
The U.S. medicolegal death investigation system is responsible for investigating and providing determinations of cause and manner of death, playing a vital role in the nation's public health and criminal justice systems. Recent, high-profile deaths in custody cases have drawn widespread attention to...
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