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Reporting Violent Death: Networks of Expertise and the Scottish Post-mortem

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Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850

Part of the book series: Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice ((PHPPJ))

Abstract

This chapter uses a 1933 Dumfries murder case to examine an aspect of the practice of the medico-legal post-mortem examination in Scotland. While the initial autopsy was conducted by two local doctors, an Edinburgh-based expert was also asked to give an opinion about the death after the fact. This system where prosecutors were able to obtain non-local expertise was facilitated by a feature of the Scottish system, mandatory written reports by expert witnesses. Reports were structured such that the observations of the doctor performing the original post-mortem could be interpreted by other doctors reading the report, sometimes in conjunction with analysing samples, allowing them to form separate opinions. Far from preventing debate among experts, other cases demonstrate that they prompted experts to form diverging opinions.

This chapter is adapted from research from the Economic and Social Research Council-funded PhD project ‘Forensic Medicine in Scotland 1914–1939’, University of Manchester 2013.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘Dumfries tragedy: Young married woman found dead: Husband arrested’, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 21 January 1933.

  2. 2.

    ‘Dumfries murder trial: Special plea of temporary insanity: Dramatic story at High Court: Brother’s tragic discovery: Extracts from dead woman’s diary: Judge and child witnesses’, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 12 April 1933.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    S. Timmermans, Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006, pp. 63–70, 294, n. 60.

  5. 5.

    S. Shapin and S. Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985, pp. 60–61.

  6. 6.

    M.A. Crowther and B. White, On Soul and Conscience: The Medical Expert and Crime: 150 Years of Forensic Medicine in Glasgow, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988, p. 84.

  7. 7.

    J. Glaister, Sr., A Text-Book of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, 3rd ed., Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone, 1915, pp. 32–34.

  8. 8.

    D. Dewar, Criminal Procedure in England and Scotland, Edinburgh: W Green, 1913, pp. 31–34.

  9. 9.

    Glaister, Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, p. 34.

  10. 10.

    S.A. Smith, Forensic Medicine: A Textbook for Students and Practitioners, London: J. & A. Churchill, 1925, p. 32.

  11. 11.

    The process by which a range of individual characteristics was used to identify human remains has been discussed by Fraser Joyce with reference to the 1910 Crippen case in London. F. Joyce, ‘Experts, laymen, and the identification of Cora Crippen: An exercise in medicolegal cooperation’, Medico-Legal Journal, 2011, 79(2): 58–63.

  12. 12.

    D.J.A. Kerr, Forensic Medicine: A Text-Book for Students and a Guide for the Practitioner, London: A & C Black, 1936, pp. 45–54.

  13. 13.

    Glaister, Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, p. 35.

  14. 14.

    Smith, Forensic Medicine, p. 81.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., p. 33.

  16. 16.

    Kerr, Forensic Medicine, p. 23.

  17. 17.

    Glaister, Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, p. 36.

  18. 18.

    Smith, Forensic Medicine, p. 33.

  19. 19.

    Glaister, Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, p. 36.

  20. 20.

    I. Burney, Bodies of Evidence: Medicine and the Politics of the English Inquest, 1830–1926, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, p. 121.

  21. 21.

    Smith, Forensic Medicine, pp. 33–34.

  22. 22.

    Glaister, Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, p. 35.

  23. 23.

    Smith, Forensic Medicine, p. 81.

  24. 24.

    Kerr, Forensic Medicine, p. 25; Smith, Forensic Medicine, p. 36.

  25. 25.

    Smith, Forensic Medicine, pp. 35–36.

  26. 26.

    Timmermans, Postmortem, pp. 63–69, 294, n. 59.

  27. 27.

    Smith, Forensic Medicine, p. 4.

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Glaister, Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, p. 38.

  30. 30.

    Ibid.

  31. 31.

    ‘Sentenced to death: Dumfries man guilty of murder: Unanimous verdict by jury: Closing scenes in High Court trial: Execution fixed for May 4’, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 15 April 1933.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    Report by Sydney Smith (Production no. 3) on Productions nos. 33 & 34 in case of John Maxwell Muir, 27 February 1933, Trial papers in case of John Maxwell Muir, NRS JC26/1933/98.

  34. 34.

    Testimony of Sydney Smith, Report of proceedings at trial of John Maxwell Muir, 11 April 1933, in papers relating to Appeal against conviction of John Maxwell Muir, NRS JC34/1/135, pp. 149–150.

  35. 35.

    Report by Sydney Smith (Production no. 4), 27 February 1933, Trial papers in case of John Maxwell Muir, NRS JC26/1933/98.

  36. 36.

    Testimony of Sydney Smith, Report of proceedings at trial of John Maxwell Muir, 11 April 1933, NRS JC34/1/135, p. 150.

  37. 37.

    Letter from Harvey Littlejohn to the Crown Agent, 30 September 1921, Post-mortem notebooks of Professor Henry Harvey Littlejohn, Edinburgh University Library Special Collections, EUA IN1/ACU/F1/2, Vol. XIII (April 1919–August 1923), p. 77.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., p. 78.

  39. 39.

    Letter from Sydney Smith, 18 October 1934, Smith (Sir Sydney) Papers and photographs on forensic medicine , Edinburgh University Library Special Collections, MS. 2753; Sydney Smith medical report, 7 March 1935, Smith (Sir Sydney) Papers and photographs on forensic medicine, Edinburgh University Library Special Collections, MS. 2753.

  40. 40.

    ‘Sentenced to death: Dumfries man guilty of murder: Unanimous verdict by jury: Closing scenes in High Court trial: Execution fixed for May 4’, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 15 April 1933.

  41. 41.

    For context, according to the Standard, the burgh contained approximately 5000 homes.

  42. 42.

    ‘The Reprieve petition’, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 29 April 1933.

  43. 43.

    ‘Reprieved’, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 13 May 1933.

Archives

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  • National Records of Scotland, Trial papers in case of John Maxwell Muir, National Records of Scotland, JC26/1933/98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S.A., Papers and photographs on forensic medicine, Edinburgh University Library Special Collections, MS. 2753.

    Google Scholar 

Bibliography

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    Google Scholar 

  • ‘Dumfries Tragedy: Young married woman found dead: Husband arrested’, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 21 January 1933.

    Google Scholar 

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    Google Scholar 

  • Joyce, F., ‘Experts, laymen, and the identification of Cora Crippen: An exercise in medicolegal cooperation’, Medico-Legal Journal, 2011, 79(2): 58–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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  1. Edinburgh, UK

    Nicholas Duvall

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  1. Nicholas Duvall
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  1. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK

    Alison Adam

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Duvall, N. (2020). Reporting Violent Death: Networks of Expertise and the Scottish Post-mortem. In: Adam, A. (eds) Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850. Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28837-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28837-2_9

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