Mentor Visit Assessment #6

Mentor: ​Dr. Jessica Dwyer

Profession: ​Medical Examiner

Location:​ Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science

Date: ​February 14, 2019

Time: ​11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

Assessment:

The objective for this visit was to finish cataloguing the data for my final product so that

Dr. Dwyer and I could start working on running statistics. I was able to finish pretty easily, and

we are finally able to move on to the next step. This was extremely encouraging and exciting for

me, as I saw it as my final product being one step closer to completion. I am currently very

encouraged about the timeline of my product and grow more excited about it as my work

continues.

One thing I noticed looking through the cases this time was another aspect to the way

cases are classified according to a manner of death. I had previously been under the impression

that intent does not matter when trying to determine manners of death, but that was too broad a

view on this aspect of the profession. The particular case that showed me this was ruled as

undetermined, because there was no evidence to distinguish whether or not the decedent had

intended to kill himself or if his death was an accident. I had believed that intent did not have a

role in manner of death because of the meeting I sat in on earlier this school year in which the

pathologists were discussing a case where the intent behind a shooting was unclear. They had

said that the intent did not matter in the manner of death ruling because a homicide according to
forensic pathology’s standards is when one person kills another. However, it is important for me

to realize that there are many different variables that go into these things, and that they cannot

just be painted the same. Knowing this will help ease any confusion I might have- it is better to

have a more open mind about these things than to try and apply strict rules that exclude

important details of the process of death investigations.

Additionally, another thing that became apparent to me throughout the entire process of

cataloguing these cases was one of the challenges I faced trying to determine whether or not a

case should be used. Some, such as shooting situations, were easy, but others lacked the history

for me to be able to completely decide. We decided to rule out any cases where the decedents

had not been in contact with police officers within 24 hours of their deaths. This excluded cases

of inmates dying in jail or prison for the most part. However, it was sometimes hard to figure out

the timeline so that I could determine whether or not a case should be included. This showed me

some issues that could come up in autopsy reports. If the history could be difficult to find

through well-documented cases like police-involved deaths usually are, there are likely cases that

are much harder to document. Sadly, that is an issue that I do not believe can be solved. There

are always going to be cases that are harder to piece together than others, and I will need to come

to terms with that, or else I risk getting hung up over them.

Overall, this data collection has really helped my understanding of forensic pathology. It

has shown me the way autopsy reports are formatted, helped me figure out many different

technical terms, and I am looking forward to what the next step will teach me.