Note 527 — POWERS AND DUTIES OF CORONERS AND MEDICAL EXAMINERS.

People v. Fitzgerald, 105 N. Y., 146. In this case, upon application of the defendant and upon affidavits showing sufficient reasons therefor, a coroner of Chemung County, N. Y., directed the exhumation of the body of a man, who died in California about one year previous and was buried in Chemung County; for the purpose of a post-mortem examination to determine whether the deceased was murdered, and the body was accordingly exhumed, and an examination had without empanelling a jury. An indictment was found against the defendant charging her with body-stealing under section 311 of the New York Penal Code, against body-stealing. It was held that conceding the proceeding to have been irregular, a conviction under that provision of the Penal Code could not be sustained, and this, without regard to the motives which actuated the defendant; that if she had committed any offence it was not that of body-stealing.