But then when we got the new evidence and the new sheriff went to work on it, been a lot of work done on it, a lot of investigation, so now we have new hopes. At the park in Herman that night there was a witness who reportedly claims he saw a man shoot Jay Jensen. Evidence enough to re-open the three year old case. In Nebraska, that job is automatically given to the county attorney. It has been that way since 1915.
Most states now require fully trained medical examiners to handle death investigations.
They should be surprised to hear that. But that was very surprising to me when I was elected county attorney 12 years ago. I've been trained that when you go out on a coroner call then you should assume there is foul play and rule it out. Many times that's not what happens because of a lack of training. But rarely are such concerns raised publicly in Nebraska about the duel role of the coroner and county attorney.