绝命毒师

一 |     JACKSON, Miss. -- Incomplete homicide autopsy reports have continued to pile up in Mississippi - despite tough-on-crime talk by state leaders ahead of the Nov. 7 general election.Police officers and prosecutors rely on medical examiners' autopsy reports to investigate violent crimes and hold perpetrators accountable. Families look to the reports to make sense of a loved one’s death. Without death certificates, families often have to wait to collect insurance and settle the deceased’s affairs. Delays in completing autopsies of the dead remain an ongoing problem.The National Association of Medical Examiners, the office that accredits U.S. death investigations offices, dictates that 90% of autopsy reports should be returned within 60 to 90 days. Homicide autopsies in Mississippi continue to lag behind national standards as crime has remained a flashpoint in the state legislature and campaign trail.Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who is running for reelection, makes a point of his commitment to law enforcement in public speeches and on the campaign trail.“In Mississippi, we choose to fund the police. We choose to back the blue,” Reeves said in his annual State of the State speech in January. “That’s exactly what Mississippi has done, and that’s exactly what Mississippi will continue to do.” In 2022, an AP analysis based on state data and documents found that Mississippi’s system has long violated national standards for death investigations, accruing a severe backlog of autopsies and reports. Moreover, Mississippi has the highest homicide mortality rate in the country, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell has called the backlog “unacceptable” and said he’d instituted a policy requiring all autopsy reports to be completed within 90 days. Tindell, a former judge who was appointed commissioner in 2020 by Reeves, said in August that his office had completed a "decade-old autopsy backlog in record time.” But records obtained by The Associated Press show that as of Oct. 1 of this year, Mississippi had 51 homicide autopsy reports that were incomplete for longer than 60 days; and 45 autopsies pending after more than 90 days. Three other autopsy reports for 2023 took over 90 days to complete. Democrat Brandon Presley, Reeves' opponent for governor in next month's general election, has implied Tindell should never have been appointed.“It’s not rocket science to want someone who has worn a badge to run the state’s largest law enforcement agency,” Presley said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Unlike Tate Reeves, I’ll have professionals running agencies, not cronies.” Tindell responded on the same social media platform by saying Presley “isn’t just attacking me ... He’s attacking law & order."Tindell's spokesperson did not respond to an emailed list of questions or phone messages. But Tindell has said the state forensics laboratory and medical examiner’s office suffered from a lack of funding.At a campaign event Monday, Reeves said the backlog reached back as far as 2009 and that it shouldn't be blamed on Tindell.Jody Owens, district attorney for Hinds County, the largest county in Mississippi, said autopsy reports for homicides in his jurisdiction were still rarely done within a 90-day window. "That's just not where we are," the Democrat prosecutor said. “We are nowhere near 90 days. We have autopsies that have still been pending, sometimes for years.”Delayed autopsy reports create bureaucratic hurdles for prosecutors and defense attorneys. Reports can help determine whether a death was an accident, a suicide or a homicide. They can shed light on whether a person accused of murder acted in self-defense, with stark implications for both the accuser and the accused. “You can't make a (plea) offer without an autopsy report because it establishes the manner and cause of death. Without having that, you really can't move a case," Owens said. “States like Mississippi are safest when autopsy reports are completed within 90 days. It not only protects the defendant's rights, but also the state's obligation to give victims their day in court.”。    “以前快递只能等街坊邻居有空儿的时候顺路取回来，自从咱村特殊群体有了专属快递员，热心志愿者第一时间就能把快递送到家，太方便了！”近日，在平泉市平泉镇哈叭气村南坡自然村，65岁的王建民拿到志愿者张述云送来的网购生活日用品后，对这项贴心服务连连点赞。王建民所在的南坡自然村距离哈叭气村综合服务站约三公里的距离，由于骑车意外摔倒造成行动不便，快递到达服务站后往往需要别人帮忙代取，一件快递从服务站到家里经常要等好几天。“村里不少高龄老人腿脚不利索，居住分散，出行不便，收件慢成了他们的烦心事。”国家邮政局驻平泉市哈叭气村第一书记尚辉说。今年4月，为解决农村鳏寡孤独、老弱病残等特殊群体的快递上门投递问题，承德市启动畅通快递进村“最后一百米”志愿帮扶试点工作，平泉市被列为试点。试点工作开展以来，平泉市依托现有超市、村部、综合服务站等快递村级网点，设立“安心紫塞、驿路邮我”志愿者服务站，悬挂专属标识，建立服务台账。快件到达服务站后，由工作人员在群内发布帮办提醒，形成“快件到站—电话信息提醒—上门送达—确认签收—台账登记”的闭环信息流。“我们实行网格化管理，优先选派同村、同组、邻里关系近的志愿者对接帮扶对象，确保响应快、道路熟、情感亲。每一件包裹的送达时间、志愿者姓名、签收确认，都记录在册，有据可查。”平泉市邮政管理局局长杨继光说，全市现已覆盖17个乡镇25个重点村，52名志愿者与189名特殊群体形成固定结对关系。为避免志愿服务“一阵风”，平泉市推行“三固定”运行标准——固定帮办人员、固定帮扶台账、固定服务标识，让帮扶关系长期化、操作规范化、监督可视化。

二 | “最后一百米”实现精准投递，离不开完善的物流网络。目前，平泉已在承德率先实现了行政村快递设点率和快递服务通达率双100%目标，县乡村三级物流体系构架基本形成，为打通“农产品出村进城、消费品下乡进村”双向流通渠道夯实了基础。“从‘等快递’到‘有人送’，我们将持续完善志愿服务体系，让快递进村的‘最后一百米’变成了联系群众、服务群众的‘暖心一百米’。”杨继光说。（日报记者 陈宝云）。