ABSTRACT
The great interindividual variability of the postmortal changes as a consequence of many influencing factors restricts the accuracy of death time estimation and impairs the reliability. Subjective methods are also employed for the evaluation of lividity. Attempts to make the evaluation of lividity objective were not generally accepted in practical work. The conditional probability distribution (CPD) approach integrates additional information, namely the time interval in which death is at all possible to have occurred, into the nomogram interval. For compilation of the CPD interval, a computer spreadsheet is provided. The conditions in terms of upper and lower limits are entered. In rare cases, there is no change in interval width when comparing the CPD interval with the unconditional interval that is simply cut off by limitations. The CPD algorithm achieved a narrowing of the death time interval compared with the compound method interval in 43 of 53 cases.
