Investigating and Documenting the Custodial Suicide in Preparation for Litigation

This article is the second part of two on the proper institutional response to a suicide in the jail setting. The author describes the proper procedures to follow in the postmortem investigation. For example, the medical examiner should be urged to arrive quickly, the room and body temperature should be measured to guage the time of death, and the lividity recorded (i.e. to prove the victim was dead upon the officers’ arrival), and an autospy performed. (Part 1 – 910734) (VM)