CORONER. An officer whose principal duty it is to hold an inquisition, with the assistance of a jury, over the body of any person who may have come to a violent death, or who has died in prison.
It is his duty, in case of the death of the sheriff or his incapacity, or when a vacancy occurs in that office, to serve all the writs and processes which the sheriff is usually bound to serve; Gunby v. Welcher, 20 Ga. 336; Brown v. Barker, 10 Humph. (Tenn.) 346 ; Manning v. Keenan, 73 N. Y. 45; 1 Bla. Coro. 349. See SHERIFF.
Coroners were county officers placed be side the sheriff to look after the adminis tration of criminal justice and the revenue to the king resulting therefrom; Brunner, 2 Sel. Essays in Anglo-Arrier. L. H. 31. See Gross, History of Coroners. It is supposed that the first institution of coroners dates from 1194. The office may have existed be fore then. 2 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 45; Pol lock, King's Peace, 2 Sel. Essays in Anglo Amer. L H. 410.
It was also the coroner's duty to inquire concerning shipwreck, and to find who had possession of the goods; concerning treas ure-trove, who were the finders, and where the property was ; 1 Bla. Com. 349. The stat. 4 Edw. I. ch. 2 (1276), entitled "De Of foto Coronatoris," empowered the coroner to inquire who was slain and who were there, who and in what manner they were culpable of the act or force. Whoever was found culpable was turned over to the sher iff, and whoever was not culpable was at tached until the coming of the justices. The Chief . Justice of the King's Bench was the chief coroner of all England; though he did not perform the active duties of that office in any one county; 4 Co. 57 b; Bac. Abr.
Coroner; 3 COM Dig. 242; 5 id. 212.
Coroners were abolished in Massachusetts in 1877, and "men learned in the science of medicine" are appointed to make autopsies and in case of a violent death to report it to a justice of the district.
In England a coroner (one in every county and in certain boroughs) holds a court of record; his jury of inquest consists of not less than 12 nor more than 23 persons. Up on a verdict of the jury, the coroner can commit the accused for trial and he may be arraigned without any presentment by a grand jury. Odgers, C. L. 1031.
A coroner is a "judicial officer" within a bribery act; People v. Jackson, 191 N. Y. 293: 84 N. E. 65, 15 L R. A. (N. S.) 1173, 14 Ann. Cas. 243.
It is proper for a coroner in most cases of homicide to cause an examination to be made by a physician, and in many cases it is his duty so to do; 4 C. & P. 571. See Jameson v. Board of Com'rs of Bartholo mew County, 64 Ind. 524; Sanford v. Lee County, 49 Ia. 148 ; Cook v. Multnomah Coun ty, 8 Or. 170.
In Coroner's Duties, 20 D. R. (Pa.) 685, Sulzberger, P. J., instructed the coroner as to his duties in Pennsylvania, where the practice has been much modified, to the ef fect that the district attorney should always be present at the coroner's inquest and that he has power to cross-examine witnesses; also that if the district attorney is of opin ion that there is no evidence to hold the person charged, he should be discharged, but not otherwise. •