Accident ?

[brionon]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26394100

How can an Autopsy reach this conclusion ?

[emmie]

how can they say it was an accident, have a look at what he was taking.

[jackthehat]

There was no suicide note and no indication that a third-party was responsible, therefore it's not unreasonable to conclude that he overdosed 'accidentally'.

[ll_billym]

It's been labelled an accident in that the belief is that he wasn't killed by anybody else and he didn't mean to kill himself. Not as in he accidentally stuck a syringe into his arm, I'm sure everybody knows he meant to do that.

[ChillDoubt]

As JTH says, as there is no suicide note nor knowledge of suicidal tendency then any overdose in similar circumstances is by definition an accident.

[emmie]

he may not have intended it, but that cocktail of drugs would see most off surely?

[Sqad]

\\\How can an Autopsy reach this conclusion ?\\

A good question.

I don't think that an absence of a "suicide note" is a sine que non for accidental death.........is it?

[boxtops]

He didn't mean to do it, therefore it was accidental.

[Sqad]

boxy

\\\\He didn't mean to do it,\\\

How do you know?

[237SJ]

I would say that he didn`t mean to kill himself - he meant to get high so it was an accident. He had been trying to give up the drugs and sometimes when people relapse, they take the same doses they were taking in the past but their tolerance has decreased and it kills them.

[ll_billym]

Obviously nobody actually 'knows' but if the only other option is suicide then surely we could all have the same discussion about how that conclusion was reached. The case is stronger for accident hence the verdict.

[FredPuli43]

What other conclusion could be drawn? Deliberate act of suicide? On what evidence? Nothing in his known life suggests that he would want to kill himself.

[emmie]

perhaps, but the amount of different drugs, wouldn't you have an inkling that could do you some serious harm

[boxtops]

Of course I don't know that - but we've had people die in our local town because they forget they've already had a dose of drugs and taken more, or a bad combination, it was the same sort of outcome when Amy Whitehouse died.

[FredPuli43]

Every drug abuser of serious drugs must be aware of the risk of serious harm, whether they take a cocktail or not. That is far from saying that they do, at any time, intend to kill themselves. And that's what the evidence fails to show. Druggies often kill themselves by one dose too many, but it doesn't mean they meant to do it.

[SeaJayPea]

Agree with most other posters that the overdose was probably accidental.

I believe also that many coroners, aware that some life insurance policies won't pay out on suicide, will come to a verdict of Accident or Misadventure so that the relatives aren't left destitute.

I'm sure that the legal experts on here will correct me if I'm wrong.

[ludwig]

An autopsy simply establishes the physical cause of death. There's an inquest later which seeks to establish the reasons behind the death - deliberately self-inflicted, accident, murder, whatever. That's how it works in this country anyway.

He had 'dozens' of bags of heroin in his flat. I would have thought that If he'd wanted to kill himself he would have taken a massive heroin overdose, not a concoction of different drugs.

[FredPuli43]

It depends where you are in the US. Some counties use Medical Examiners rather than coroners. These are qualified forensic pathologists. Some counties use the coroner system, a coroner there being elected by popular vote. Unlike here, a coroner in the US need not have any medical or legal qualification; they may be the local hairdresser or grocer. Coroners are mostly found in rural areas because such places may no have any, or enough, forensic pathologists. In big cities, a Medical Examiner does the job.

[Gromit]

He had taken lots of drugs before and didn't kill himself, so it is reasonable to conclude he didn't mean to kill himself that time.

[brionon]

Humanitarians will agree with the verdict but surely we can't Know,therefore the correct verdict should have been 'An open verdict '!