With questions swirling around the sudden, unexplained move to scrap the exclusive “coroner’s court,” Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez says the move will actually speed up the process of managing cases that could be termed coroners’ cases.
While the chief magistrate insisted that the move was neither a reflection on Coroner Linda Virgillﾒs abilities, nor punishment for her speaking to the press about a certain high-profile matter, he did acknowledge that she would not be hearing the case she spoke to reporters about.
The reversion to the pre-1993 system of all magistrates in the pool ﾖ currently 16 ﾖ acting as coroner when required was accomplished suddenly and with no explanation by a September 18 memo from Supreme Court Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall.
In effect, the memo removed the exclusive designation of “coroner” from Magistrate Linda Virgill, who took up that office in October last year. The memo was circulated less than a week after the coroner held an impromptu press conference on a case that seems to be becoming increasingly sensational.
American reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith was visited by tragedy recently when her presumably healthy 20-year-old son Daniel Wayne Smith died suddenly in her hospital room at Doctors Hospital on September 10.
Ms. Smith had given birth to a daughter, Hannah, only days before, and Daniel was visiting his mother and newborn sister when he died.
As there were no marks on Danielﾒs body, and no signs of trauma ﾖ in other words no obvious cause of death ﾖ Mrs. Virgill termed the death “suspicious,” setting off a firestorm of questions from the international press.
Shortly after this, the coroner met with reporters to answer those questions after reportedly being besieged by telephone calls. She reiterated that the death was suspicious, and claimed to know the cause of death, saying that she was only awaiting confirmation from the forensic pathologistﾒs toxicology report.
Mrs. Virgill also set a swift court date for the matter ﾖ October 23 ﾖ causing some to say she was being premature by setting a date for an inquest when the cause of death was still pending, as is the case in Danielﾒs death.
Ms. Smithﾒs lawyer Michael Scott told the Journal that Mrs. Virgill was also wrong to say she knew the cause of death before the toxicology report was completed.
He pointed out that a death certificate had been issued for Daniel Smith, with the cause of death pending.
Mr. Scott said that to set a date for an inquest was to “poison the well” ﾖ he suggested that the Bahamian public, from which a jury to hear the inquest would be drawn, would assume that because an inquest was set, there must be something suspicious.
“Itﾒs almost a reversal of the presumption of innocence,” Mr. Scott said.
However, one Journal source disagreed.
“If an inquest is not held (in this matter), you would never know the cause of death, the legal cause of death,” the source insisted.
Mrs. Virgill declined to comment.
According to Mr. Gomez, the inquest may be canceled if tests show Smith died of natural causes while he was visiting his mother after she gave birth to a daughter at a hospital in Nassau.
In the event that there is an inquest, Mrs. Virgill will not preside. Mr. Gomez told the Journal this was because she had already commented on the case, suggesting that her designation of the death as “suspicious” might have given a hint as to which way the coroner was leaning.
However, Journal sources say the move was designed to stop Mrs. Virgill from hearing this particular case.
“They donﾒt want her questions that she was going to ask, because sheﾒs an investigative type of coroner,” one source said.
In fact, during the recent high-profile inquest into a deadly prison breakout on January 17 that left two men ﾖ a prisoner and a prison guard ﾖ dead, Mrs. Virgill asked probing questions.
When pushed for a response to the move and the implications that she jumped the gun by setting an inquest date and saying she knew the cause of death, Mrs. Virgill replied simply “I have no comment at this time.”
Mr. Gomez told the Associated Press on Wednesday that complaints came from people who have had cases pending for years and still have no inquest date, but Journal sources say those cases had been pending since before Mrs. Virgill took over the Coronerﾒs post last October.
The Journal has learned that there are cases in the Coronerﾒs Court dating back to 1969, which have not yet been heard, and that the court has a significant backlog of matters not yet begun, dating up to 2004.
In Sir Burtonﾒs memo, he reinstated the pre-1993 practice, adding that “in the extraordinary cases in which it is considered necessary to hold an inquest, the facilities now available to accommodate a jury will be accessible to any magistrate qua coroner.”
So while the physical space that now constitutes the coronerﾒs court, which is also Magistrateﾒs Court No. 7, will remain available for coronerﾒs inquests, there is now no longer an official Coronerﾒs Court.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
