On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:28:17 -0600, "John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com>
brought down from the Mount tablets inscribed:

>Michael Cash wrote:
>> On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:55:15 -0400, Kevin Wayne Williams
>> <kww.nihongo@verizon.nut> brought down from the Mount tablets
>> inscribed:
>> 
>> 
>>>Michael Cash wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>One of the things about murder cases in Japan which struck me as odd
>>>>was how a murdered corpse going undiscovered affects the statute of
>>>>limitations on prosecuting the murderer. 
>>>>
>>>>You ain't dead, you see, until a doctor says you're dead. And it
>>>>doesn't matter if he says it 30 seconds after you give up the ghost or
>>>>30 years after the last bit of flesh has rotted off your skeleton. 
>>>>
>>>>The statute of limitations is 15 years after the murder. You're not
>>>>murdered until you're dead. And you're not dead until you're examined.
>>>>And you're not examined until you're found. There have been people
>>>>prosecuted for and convicted of murder in Japan who, because they
>>>>didn't know this, thought they had long ago safely beaten the rap.
>>>
>>>So your best bet is to dump the victim's body in a doctor's waiting room
>>>in order to start the statute of limitations clock ticking?
>> 
>> 
>> Sounds logical to me.
>> 
>> I first became aware of this while reading a book written by a
>> Japanese coroner. The incident he used to relate the info was (if I
>> remember correctly) one of a set of skeletal remains found in a remote
>> mountainous area. The date of death on the death certificate was the
>> date of discovery/examination.
>> 
>> Things like this can also complicate things like settling up estates
>> and life insurance, even without there being any foul play involved.
>> 
>> Dr. Masahiko Ueno, former Tokyo head coroner, told about working a big
>> hotel fire several years ago. I forget the name of the hotel at the
>> moment. Anyway, all the members of a particular family who were
>> staying there died of smoke inhalation. On their death certificates,
>> he recorded the same time of death for each of them. He soon found
>> himself hosting delegations of the bereaved who pushed for him to
>> shift the time. The husband's family wanted his time to be later than
>> the wife's time, and vice versa. This, of course, would be the
>> deciding factor in which set of relatives would inherit the estate of
>> the now-gone bunch who had expired in the tragedy.
>> 
>What about cases where no body is ever found, such as the World Trade 
>Center, but it's a good bet the person is dead?

I believe that a person can be declared dead by the courts in such
cases.

Relevant article from Sept. 18, 2001: http://tinyurl.com/42qge




--

Michael Cash

"I am sorry, Mr. Cash, but we are unable to accept your rap sheet in lieu of
a high school transcript."

                                Dr. Howard Sprague
                                Dean of Admissions
                                Mount Pilot College