Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Fall 2015, Vol 41, No. 3 | Page 13

Statutory History

The first law on inquests was enacted in
1779, and applied to “any sudden, untimely, or unnatural death,” or in cases where
the cause of death is unknown.33 A jury of
twelve “able and discrete men” was summoned before an assistant judge or justice of the peace, “to enquire of the cause,
and of the manner of such person’s death;
and shall present, upon oath, a true verdict
thereof, under their hands,” returning the
verdict to the next session of the court. The
“court” was the Vermont Superior Court,
renamed Supreme Court in 1787 at the
time the county courts were first formed.
In 1787, the law prohibited burials in these
cases until an official inquiry was made.34
The law was rewritten in 1797. The justice of the peace was to charge the jurors
to
declare of the death of the person,
whether he died of felony, or by mischance or accident; and if of felony,
whether of his own or of another; and
if of the felony of another, who were
principals, and who were accessories,
with what instrument he was struck,
or wounded, and so of all prevailing
circumstances, that may come by presumption; and if he died of his own
felony, then to inquire of the manner,
means or instrument, and of all circumstances concerning it; and if he died
by mischance or accident, whether by
the act of man, and whether by hurt,
fall, stroke, drowning or otherwise; to
inquire of the persons who were present, the finders of the body, his relations and neighbours, whether he was
killed in the same place where he was
found; and if elsewhere, by whom and
how he was bought from thence, and
of all circumstances relating to the
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said death.35
The sheriff was issued a summons to bring
fifteen men of the county together as the
jury. Each would be sworn. The law provided a form for the summons, and for the inquisition, the formal report of the jury.
After 1840, the actual questioning of witnesses became the duty of the foreman of
the jury. The justice of the peace was present for subpoenas and oaths, and ordering
witnesses and those found guilty to jail, but
played no part in the final decision of the
inquisition.36 In 1856, the jury was taken out
of the process. Selectmen were required to
request a hearing before a justice of the
peace acting alone when there was a death
caused by “casualty or violence.”
The inquest function was enlarged in
1898, authorizing inquests for any criminal
matter, and allowing judges of the county
court, in addition to justices of the peace,
to receive the petition for an inquest and
conduct it.37 By 1917, the state’s attorney
could request an inquest before a county
judge or a judge of the municipal or city
court. Selectmen were required to bring
the information before a justice of the
peace, or county or municipal judge.38
From 1898 until 1921, the judge conducting an inquest was forbidden from participating in any trial that resulted; after that
date, the law expressly authorized participation.39
The power to conduct inquests was removed from the authority of justices of the
peace when the Vermont Constitution was
amended in 1974, and first municipal judges, and then district judges were given that
power.40 Today a superior judge conducts
the proceedings.

The Reported Cases

Ruminations

that she walked through a field and two
gates, into a woods with fallen trees, near
the pond and found the shawls. Her husband wouldn’t go to look for them after
she awoke, but a neighbor named Bailey
joined her, and they found the shawls “still
wet as when the murderer buried them two
days before.”31 Following a trial, Clifford
was sentenced to be hanged, but the governor never ordered it. Clifford was insane,
and died a few years later in prison.32
For all the secrecy accorded inquests
and grand jury proceedings today, the fact
that these stories of inquests were reported in the newspaper or in public records
may