Doubt a death ruling? Hire a lawyer
Appealing in court is often the only recourse mourners have to dispute autopsy findings.
MOST DEATHS are no big mystery. Coroners and medical examiners rely on everything from anatomical analysis to toxicology tests to death-scene investigations to medical histories to decide how and why someone died.
So you might think autopsy rulings would rarely be disputed.
But it happens all the time.
"Suicides - families often find that unacceptable. It's very upsetting to think a relative would commit suicide," said Gregory Davis, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners.
On domestic homicides, families often want it "to be an accident, because a homicide ruling means someone in the family will now be accused of homicide," said Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman.
Deaths involving drugs or crime also can prompt family skepticism, "because people don't want to believe their loved one is into risky behaviors," said Bucks County Coroner Joseph Campbell.
But families who doubt a death ruling have little recourse - unless they have a lot of money.
There is no official "appeal" process other than to hire an attorney to sue or a private pathologist to review the coroner's report or do a second autopsy, experts agree.
That's exactly what happened in two recent headline-grabbing cases - Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot to death by a white cop in Ferguson, Mo., and closer to home, Cooper Hospital chief executive John Sheridan Jr. and his wife Joyce, who died in a September arson in their Somerset County, N.J., home.
Families could also ask the local district attorney to investigate, if criminal wrongdoing is suspected, Davis added.
"It happens: People aren't happy, and you go to court," Hofman said of disputed death rulings. "You go into Common Pleas, and you argue before the judge why this should be A instead of B. It's who presents the better case about why this should be an accident instead of a suicide or a homicide instead of natural. In today's society, this is very common."
For the families of inmates like Mike Davis and Mike Brady, challenging a death ruling can be especially difficult because inmates often are poor, unemployed and have a criminal history, experts say.
That means they don't make sympathetic plaintiffs nor are likely to get large judgments or settlements. Further, their relatives may be unable to afford lawyers and second opinions, experts agree.