Disastrous errors by medical examiners have raised questions about whether they are influenced by prejudgments and a close relationship with
"A patchwork of medical examiners, freelance experts and elected coroners who may have no medical training, is responsible for examining suspicious and unexplained deaths. Wrapped in a mantle of scientific authority, its practitioners translate the complexities of disease, decomposition, toxicology and physics into simple categories like accident, homicide or death by natural causes, setting in motion the legal system’s gravest cases and wielding tremendous influence over juries."
And as you can imagine, medical examiners' negligence and racial bias disproportionately impacts Black people and other people of color, like Jocelyn McLean, who "spent almost a year in jail because of errors in her infant daughter’s autopsy, leading prosecutors to charge her with capital murder. The charge was later dropped."