Guidelines of Performing Duties of Prosecutor and Governing Officers With Conducting a Mutual Autopsy

Abstract

This research aimed to study the operational guidelines, the associated problems and obstacles encountered by prosecutor and governing officer when a mutual autopsy occurred and to propose solutions for those problematic issues. The sample group consisted of five prosecutors and five governing officers, who were selected by the purposive sampling method and in-depth interviews was used to collect data. The research data was processed by applying questions from this study as a framework and analyzed using the approaches of data analysis and descriptive presentation. The results of this research indicated as follows:

In the event of a death arising from any action or a death occurs while in custody, the law determined that prosecutors and governing officers were legally required to attend a mutual autopsy. When the autopsy was completed, the prosecutor will file a complaint with the court as prescribed by law in order for the court to conduct a hearing for the death.

Subsequently, the court would issue an order to declare the circumstances of the death. In addition, the findings found three problematic issues, including, (1) Inadequacy of personnel in performing duties (2) Unsystematic regulations and (3) Inadequate budgets for supporting operations. The group of key informants suggested solutions to the problems as follows:(1) There should be trainings about forensic science and forensic medicine to provide more knowledge for practical operations (2) Regulations should be managed in unison. (3) The speed of the budget disbursement system should be improved to provide prompt response.