2016/02/23
CNN February 21, 2016: Justice Scalia's unexamined death points to a problem
By Judy Melinek
(CNN)—When my husband called and told me the news that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died, the first question that came out of my mouth was, "Where?"
"Texas," he said.
"Oh no."
That reply did not surprise him.
I have been called to testify as a forensic pathology expert in many legal cases in Texas. I know about the laws that govern death investigation in that state.
It came as no surprise to me that Justice Scalia, found cold and pulseless in bed with a pillow "over his head," was declared dead of natural causes without an autopsy being performed. I was not shocked to hear that a county justice of the peace agreed to issue the death certificate without visiting the death scene or seeing the body for herself.
When President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the local medical examiner, a trained and experienced forensic pathologist, wanted to perform an autopsy.
He was thwarted by the Secret Service, which followed the wishes of the President's widow and flew the body out of state for an autopsy at a naval facility. Even the Warren Commission report and thoroughgoing congressional hearings never put to rest the speculation that still surrounds John F. Kennedy's death -- and that death was indisputably a homicide, with an autopsy.