Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-13
TO RESTRICT CORONER
Bill Drafted by Ex-District At
torney Davis.
ARRESTS ARE FORBIDDEN
Persons Liable to Be Affected May
Have Counsel Present.
PRESENT PRACTICES CRITICISED
Recent Procedure in Connection With
Terra Gotta Wreck Charac-
terized as Outrageous.
PRESENT PRACTICES CRITICISED


Henry E. Davis, formerly United States
attorney for the District of Columbia, has
prepared bill amending sections 100, 1913
and 1914 of the District CODE in relation to
the coroner of the District and the manner
of holding inquests, which will be intro
duced in the Senate and House tomorrow
afternoon The bill makes the coroner an
appointee of the District Supreme Court in
stead of the Commit ssioners, and fixes his
salary at $500 year.
The measure amends section 1913 of the
code so to provide that the coroner shall
not cause the arrest of any person on &C
count of any death to be inquired into by
him, but every person, before arrest or de-
tention, shall be formally charged on ac-
count of such death and shall have the right
to bail pending an inquest
Section 1914 Is amended to provide that at
inquests the proceedings shall be in charge
of the District attorney, and any person
likely to be affected is entitled to be pres
ent with counsel. Any justice of the Su-
preme Court may, on petition. take charge
of the inquest when he may deem it proper.
Discussing his bill, Mr. Davis said to a
Star reporter tonight
Proper Occasions for Inquest.
He oHiS Inquest WHICH tHe COEOHeI Is
authorized to hold is one over any person
found dead when the manner and cause of
death shall not already be known as acct
dental, or in the course of nature, and he Is
specifically forbidden to hold an inquest
over the body of any person known to have
come to his death by accident, mischance,
or natural causes. Accordingly, the object
of any inquest is exclusively to ascertain
whether any death has been caused under
a "a no for ha omit Of
any person or persons connected Herewith.
This makes the matter exclusively one con-
corning the United States, and not in any
way concerning the District of Columbia.
1t is. therefore, eminently proper that the
appointment of the coroner should rest with
some body representing the United States.
The present law vests the power of appoint
ment in the Commissioners of the District.
The bin, by Its first section, proposes to
vest the power In the Supreme Court of the
District, where it very properly belongs,
seeing that the coroner is a judicial officer
and ought to have some legal attachments.
and that already indicated, in respect
of inquests, has to do with matters pertain
ing to the violation of law prosecution for
which rests with the United States, and
with which the District Of Columbia has no
concern.
A Reprehensible Practice.
There is no provision of existing law
which authorizes permits the coroner, or
trict Columbia merely on suspicion, and
very reprehensible practice has grown
up of the coroner's assuming the authority
to order arrests without warrant or COM
plant of any kind. In the case of the re-
cent accident at Terra Gotta, the coroner
caused the arrest on the day of the acct
dent of six persons, of whom only two were
held by the jury of inquest, and the per-
son whom the jury found directly respon-
sble for the accident was not arrested. Of
the six persons arrested, one who was alb
solved by the jury's verdict from any re-
sponsibility was put under $4,000 bond, and
the other five We're imprisoned four days
and nights.
When 1 endeavored to arrange the giving
of bail for these five men, l was referred
back and forth from the district attor-
ney's office to the coroner, and, at the close
of the second days session of the inquest, 1
suggested to the coroner that three of the
five men, namely, the fireman, brakeman
and baggagemaster of the train which ran
into the other, seemed wholly unaffected
by any testimony produced or likely to be
produced, and l asked their release &C
cordingly. The coroner told me that he in
tended to hold them all, whereupon l re-
piled that his attitude would drive me to
the necessity of releasing the men by
habeas corpus. l was not very politely told
by the coroner that might do as l pleased,
whereupon, on the following day, 1 pro-
cured the release of all the men,
Illegally Detained.
when the taking of testimony by the
jury was closed l advised the engineer and
conductor of the collidng train that they
were at liberty to go to their homes, sub
ject to the verdict of the jury, especially
as they were then each under heavy bail
to report to the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia under the writs of
habeas corpus. Nevertheless. they We're
detained by the police officers throughout
1aliI
the authority, as the officers told me, of
the coroner, who had directed that all wit
nesses be held until the verdict. When l
reminded the officers that the engineer and
conductor were not under subpoena before
the jury and, therefore, not within the
scope of the coroner's order, unlawful as it
was they told me that they would hold the
men anyhow, and did SO, thus subjectng
them to second unlawful Imprisonment.
And, moreover during the inquest, the
coroner similarly imprisoned three wit
nesses whom the railroad company had
voluntarily produced from out of town, and
these witnesses We're unable even to go to
luncheon except under the parole of rep
resentative of the district attorneys office,
who undertook to be responsible for them.
Finally, when the jury's verdict rem
dered, and before I had time to get to the
place of inquest, the engineer and
ductor were hurried to Jail in a wagon and
l was put to the necessity of spending
hours in getting together the proper Of
ficers and bondsmen to secure their
release.
"A condition of law which makes such
performances possible is simply outrageous,
and 1t is proposed by section 2 of the bill
to forbid any such action by the coroner in
the future, and to give to all persons
liable to be affected by coroner's inquest
the right to preliminary accusation with
the usual privilege of admission to bail to
await the result of the inquest.
An Act of Condescension.
Under existing law the coroner claims
the absolute right to conduct an inquest
both as respects the witnesses to be pro-
duced and their examination, and denies
| that any one but himself has any right
either to produce or to inter:ogate a wit
ness. In the recent inquest the coroner
was most efficiently aided in framing and
putting his question by two civilian com
missioners. and, while the representatives of
the district attorneys Office We're freely
permitted to question the witnesses. l was
at first denied the right and afterward ac-