The Crowner and the Crowner's Quest
| After a sudden or suspicious death, the coroner (crowner) was required to immediately assemble a jury of local citizens to look into the manner of death. Possible outcomes of this inquest were accidental death, death by natural causes, or self-murder. (The word 'suicide' did not exist before 1630.) While the coroner was a local official, he was an officer of the crown, responsible for the interests of the crown. In the case of suicides, this responsibility includes the matter of the suicide's property which was forfeited to the crown. The coroner could not confiscate a suicide's property nor authorize the desecration of the body without the appropriate verdict of felo de se from the inquest jury |
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