Rights of Accused Party.
The coroner is not required to take the testimony of the witnesses who are examined before the jury in the presence of the party accused. The accused has not the right to be represented by counsel, or to cross-examine the witnesses.[549] He is not permitted to produce witnesses before the coroner to show himself innocent of the crime. The coroner is not required to examine any witnesses to establish the guilt of such party when brought before him by virtue of process issued after the finding of the inquisition.[550]
Deliberation by Jury and Return of an Inquisition.—After the evidence has been taken, and the jury instructed in the law by the coroner, the jury should retire to deliberate upon their verdict. During such deliberation and until they have arrived at their verdict the coroner should not be present in the room where the jury is deliberating. After they have agreed on their verdict it should be reduced to writing, and the coroner is bound to accept it as final in his court. The inquisition should then be signed by the coroner and jury.[551] If the inquest is signed by the coroner and duly certified by him, the jurors having signed by making their cross marks, and the whole being certified by the coroner, his certificate of the signatures of the jurors is sufficient and the inquisition is properly made.[552] If several jurors on the inquest have the same christian and surname, it is not necessary in the caption of the inquisition to distinguish them by abode or otherwise.[553] The law requiring the coroner to make a return of the testimony with the inquisition cannot be satisfied short of some official certificate indicating that the witnesses named were sworn before him, to the matter insisted on as evidence against a prisoner. At least if there be no formal authentication, there should be proof aliunde that the memorandum presents the testimony of the witness truly.[554]
III. The Effect of the Evidence and Verdict.
Under the common law formerly, a coroner’s inquisition was equivalent to an indictment by a grand jury upon which the accused might be tried. But in this country no person can be tried upon a coroner’s inquisition, yet the inquisition of a coroner’s jury finding a person guilty of murder has about the same force against him, until the grand jury passes upon his case, that an indictment found by them has thereafter, prior to his trial.
Coroner has Power to Issue Process of Apprehension.—If a person is charged with the crime in the inquisition, the coroner has power and he issues his process for the apprehension of the accused when not in custody solely upon the inquisition. The inquisition, though taken in the absence of the prisoner, and upon the testimony of witnesses he could not cross-examine, settles the question of his guilt until the grand jury passes upon the case. It justifies the commitment of the prisoner to jail, in the same manner that the testimony of witnesses does taken before a justice of the peace. The coroner can only examine the prisoner in the same manner as upon a warrant of arrest or on information, and is not authorized to examine witnesses either against the prisoner or for him, when he is apprehended by virtue of process issued subsequent to the finding of the inquisition by the jury, or in custody of the coroner without process at the time the same is found.
Privilege of Prisoner upon Arrest.—The prisoner has the privilege of telling his own story before the coroner, which is to be returned with the inquisition, and that is all. He cannot be discharged on it, however plausible it may be; and he has not the privilege of proving it true before the coroner. He should, therefore, not be discharged, and he cannot have the case investigated again before it is passed upon by the grand jury.[555]
Under the provisions of the New York Criminal Code the defendant against whom an inquisition has been found by a coroner’s jury is entitled to a hearing before a magistrate, whether he has been arrested before the inquisition has been filed or is arrested after such filing. Under the provisions of sec. 779, in the case of a defendant who has been arrested before the inquisition can be filed, the prisoner is entitled to be examined before the magistrate, before whom he may be brought, as provided in sec. 781, and in the case of a prisoner who has not been arrested until after the inquisition was filed, under secs. 781 and 783 the defendant is entitled to be heard before a magistrate in all respects as upon a warrant of arrest on an information. The magistrate must proceed to examine the charge contained in the inquisition, and hold the defendant to answer or discharge him therefrom.[556] The information is the allegation made to a magistrate that a person has been guilty of some designated crime.[557]
When Evidence taken before Coroner of a Party Charged with Crime Admissible in Evidence upon His Trial Subsequently.
There is nothing which distinguishes between the proceedings of a coroner’s inquest and any other official proceedings taken and returned in the discharge of official duty as to their admissibility in evidence. A witness, therefore, may be contradicted by the production of a deposition thus given by him before a coroner.[558] But the line is sharply drawn in what cases the testimony of a witness examined before a coroner’s inquest can be used on his subsequent trial, and in what cases it cannot. When a coroner’s inquest is held before it has been ascertained that a crime has been committed, or before any person has been arrested charged with the crime, and a witness is called and sworn before the coroner’s jury, the testimony of that witness, should he afterward be charged with the crime, may be used against him on his trial, and the mere fact that at the time of his examination he was aware that a crime was suspected, and that he was suspected of being the criminal, will not prevent his being regarded as a mere witness, whose testimony may be afterward given in evidence against himself. If he desires to protect himself he must claim his privilege. But if, at the time of his examination, it appears that a crime has been committed, and that he is in custody as the supposed criminal, he is not regarded merely as a witness, but as a party accused, called before a tribunal vested with power to investigate preliminarily the question of his guilt, and he is to be treated in the same manner as if brought before a committing magistrate, and an examination not taken in conformity with the statute cannot be used against him on his trial for the offence.[559] So the doctrine as to silence being taken as an implied admission of the truth of allegations spoken or uttered in the presence of a person, does not apply to silence at a judicial proceeding or hearing, and since the proceedings at a coroner’s inquest are of a judicial character, what there transpired must be considered as a part of the proceedings.[560] The leading cases which have been before the New York Court of Appeals upon this important question, and from which that court has finally deduced that rule, may be here referred to.