§ MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN) (Monaghan, N.I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether he can state the cause of the failure of the Coroner's Jury to record a verdict in the case of Dr. Cross, alleged to have been hanged in Cork Gaol, about three years ago, for poisoning his wife; whether the law requires that a Coroner's inquest must certify the cause of death in all oases of persons dying within prisons; whether the Government intend taking any and what steps to have the law complied with in this case; and whether the death of the man hanged, and alleged to have been Dr. Cross, has been registered; and, if so, whether he has any objection to state the date upon which the death was registered, the cause of death given, and by whose authority it was so registered?
§ MR. MADDENThe Executive Government have no control over the action of the Coroner in this matter. The death was duly registered in a medical certificate given by Dr. Coates, interim Registrar of the district, dated February 15, 1888. The cause of death stated was "injury to the spinal column in the neck, effected by hanging." The Registration of Births and Deaths Act dispenses with a medical certificate where the cause of death has been found by a Coroner's Jury. In the absence of such a finding registration can, in my opinion, be effected on a medical certificate. The circumstances under which no verdict was recorded are simply these. The inquest was opened by the Coroner in due course, when some of the jurymen called for the presence of the executioner, and the executioner not being forthcoming the Coroner adjourned the inquest.
§ MR. P. O'BRIENWill the right hon. Gentleman inquire whether it is not the fact that the executioner could not have left Cork for several hours after the Jury declined to return a verdict; and whether it is not also the case that in Liverpool before a Coroner's Jury consented to return a verdict they required the attendance of the executioner?
§ MR. MADDENI have no objection to make inquiry if the hon. Gentleman attaches importance to the matter; but I believe that in this case the coroner found that the executioner had left the town, and he had no jurisdiction to summon and enforce his attendance.
§ MR. P. O'BRIENIs it true that the executioner was not sober, and was it not necessary that his absence should have been reported to the next Judge of Assize?
§ MR. MADDENI have no such information.
In reply to a question by Mr. CHILDERS,
§ MR. MADDENsaid: I cannot answer for the course of procedure under the English Act; but under the Irish Act, where there has been no inquest or no finding by a jury, registration may, in my opinion, be effected, as in ordinary cases, upon a medical certificate.