Word: district
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Exactly 21 days after Kennedy's Car plunged off the narrow Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, District Attorney Edmund Dinis and District Court Judge James Boyle met last week to resolve procedural confusion over whether or not to hold a belated inquest. The conference ended with Boyle's announcement that an inquest would be convened in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, on Sept. 3. At the same time, Dinis continued his efforts to have Mary Jo's body exhumed so that an autopsy could be conducted...
Without Jury. In Massachusetts the inquest is a seldom-used procedure, normally held in private before a district judge who calls witnesses one by one to testify under oath. Reporters, however, will be admitted this time. Such a hearing is "not accusatory," and if no evidence of criminality is found, no further proceeding need follow. But if a judge does find fault, such as negligence, his report is passed on to a grand jury and could then lead to a criminal process. The inquest itself has no jury and no provision for cross-examination of witnesses...
...parents, while agreeing that an inquest might be helpful, bitterly opposed an autopsy. Said Mrs. Joseph Kopechne: "No one is going to disturb my baby." Since Mary Jo is now buried near her home town of Plymouth, Pa., Dinis will have to persuade the Dukes County District Court to request the Luzerne County, Pa., court to order exhumation and an autopsy. By Pennsylvania law, autopsies can be performed, even against the wishes of "near relatives," if there is suspicion of a serious crime...
Twin Rebuffs. Even that effort was misdirected. G. Joseph Tauro, chief justice of the superior court-and a Republican appointee-said that the district court was Dinis' proper forum. Turning to Judge Kenneth Nash, administrative head of the district courts, Dinis was once again rebuffed; the responsibility for holding an inquest, Judge...
...becoming its head tended to confirm an impression in Washington that he is not overenthusiastic about his current post. He succeeded Manuel Cohen, a whirlwind policymaker who had greatly speeded the pace and expanded the variety of SEC regulatory activities. "Judge" Budge, a former Idaho Republican Congressman and state district judge who served as one of the SEC commissioners for more than four years, is quite different. He is likely to put off a study of an important question for a month or so until an SEC aide returns from vacation. In making policy, he allows securities-industry leaders...