ABSTRACT
The medicolegal death investigation system in the United States is expected to handle a heavy workload. With crime laboratories, the medicolegal death investigation field faces its own barriers to accreditation and ongoing quality improvement. The 2009 NAS report outlines a long list of specific deficiencies of the medicolegal death investigation system, including systems functioning at varying levels of expertise; persistent lack of adequate facilities, equipment, staff, education, and training; lack of mandated national qualifications or certifications for death investigators; lack of one recognized set of performance standards or best practices; and lack of universally accepted or promulgated methods of quality control or quality assurance. The National Commission on Forensic Science (NCFS) has adopted a number of positions affecting the medicolegal death investigation system and its efforts toward quality improvement. In a memorandum to staff dated March 17, 2016, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that her office would be endorsing various recommendations made by the NCFS.
