# Why do they perform autopsies on executed prisoners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2001, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398 "2001-01-10T20:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Origato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b2d939/32.png) [@Origato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Origato)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/1 "2001-01-10T20:39:27Z")
In most reports of executions I’ve read (and here in Texas we have plenty of them), as soon as they take the guy off the gurney, electric chair, or whatever, the body is immediately whisked off to autopsy. Hey, it seems to me it’s pretty obvious what killed him. The only reason I can think of is that they’re trying to find a brain tumor or something. Perhaps to explain the Criminal Mind? What exactly are they looking for? ---
**Author:** ![Maxwell\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Maxwell\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxwell_Edison)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/2 "2001-01-10T21:06:34Z")
I know this isn’t a direct answer to your question, but there used to be a link on the Official Darwin Awards Homepage (the link seems to be dead now)to a site that describes how autopsies are performed. One of the facts on the page stated that in 25% of autopsies, a potentially fatal disease is sometimes found that the person was unaware of during life. So maybe they are looking for brain tumors and lung cancer and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![yamo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecae2f/32.png) [@yamo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yamo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/3 "2001-01-10T21:19:35Z")
Execution is a homicide. I think homicides require an autopsy. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/4 "2001-01-10T21:42:08Z")
Yep. In most states, in any case where the death was not “natural causes” an autopsy is required. That includes falling off a roof, being shot, wading in shark infested waters, or being executed. The autopsy is always ruled a homicide. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/5 "2001-01-10T22:32:36Z")
Can’t you decline, flat out, not to have an autopsy, no matter what? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/6 "2001-01-11T05:57:14Z")
Autopsies are performed on all inmates who die while in prison. It’s required by law. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/7 "2001-01-11T06:26:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\*Autopsies are performed on all inmates who die while in prison. It’s required by law. > \*\* To me, that seems to be a pretty simple-minded law if it doesn’t distinguish between an inmate killed in a shower incident and one given a lethal injection by the authorities. All of these “autopsies are required by law” answers don’t really answer the OP, IMHO. Autopsies are (I’d imagine) expensive to perform, at least in terms of the coroner’s time. **Why does the law make them bother** when the cause of death is so eminently obvious? What do they hope to learn by doing it? If the answer is “nothing”, then can we concede that it’s an idiotic legal requirement, and that an autopsy is a _pro forma_ waste of taxpayer resources? If the answer’s not “nothing”, then I’d be interested in hearing what it is… ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/8 "2001-01-11T06:27:51Z")
A recognized authority declares the person legally dead. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/9 "2001-01-11T07:32:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > **Yep. In most states, in any case where the death was not “natural causes” an autopsy is required. That includes falling off a roof, being shot, wading in shark infested waters, or being executed.** Wasing in shark infested waters is not a natural cause?!? What _is_ a natural cause? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/10 "2001-01-11T07:52:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Ryan \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > > **Yep. In most states, in any case where the death was not “natural causes” an autopsy is required. That includes falling off a roof, being shot, wading in shark infested waters, or being executed.** > > Wasing in shark infested waters is not a natural cause?!? What _is_ a natural cause? \*\* Well I think “natural causes” means when the body is found it looks like the person died from a heart attack, stroke, etc, and there is no immediate evidence of homicide or an accident. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/11 "2001-01-11T07:54:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brad\_d \* > > To me, that seems to be a pretty simple-minded law if it doesn’t distinguish between an inmate killed in a shower incident and one given a lethal injection by the authorities. It also absolved the state of any type of liability with regard to the deceased. If you have proof that the person did, in fact, die by being executed, you know that there is no reason to have a homicide investigation or something silly like that, which would assuredly be a further taxpayer expense. I’m sure there are many relatives of executed prisoners who have tried to seek retribution from the state with oddball legal wrangling. Annoying? Perhaps, but certainly not simple-minded, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/12 "2001-01-11T08:24:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*It also absolved the state of any type of liability with regard to the deceased. If you have proof that the person did, in fact, die by being executed, you know that there is no reason to have a homicide investigation or something silly like that, which would assuredly be a further taxpayer expense. I’m sure there are many relatives of executed prisoners who have tried to seek retribution from the state with oddball legal wrangling. Annoying? Perhaps, but certainly not simple-minded, IMO. > \*\* This is kind of the answer I was hoping to get, to be honest. As long as there’s _some_ kind of motivation that makes sense for autopsying executed inmates, I have no problem with the practice. What you state up there sounds like adequate justification to me - thanks. My problem with the “all inmates who die must be autopsied” explanation is that executions might be seen as a very special case which may warrant an exception to that pretty broad one-sentence principle (which likely wasn’t targeted primarily at executions). I think (hope) that the OP was asking for something besides “they do them because the law says to, and nobody knows or cares just _why_ the law says to.” You provided that something in your post. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/13 "2001-01-11T08:31:50Z")
also, medicine greatly advances when it has bodies to study. If a prisoner was aging, they could study his brain for precursors of alzeimher’s disease. I he had any kind of medical condition, they get to check up on the status of his internal organs. Once your body belongs to the state, it’s essentially their’s to do what they see fit with. jb ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-perform-autopsies-on-executed-prisoners/49398/14 "2001-01-11T13:22:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CnoteChris \* > \*\*Can’t you decline, flat out, not to have an autopsy, no matter what? \*\* I don’t know of any dead people that have expressed a desire not to have one. :D:D