The much-publicized Michael Jackson autopsy is underway and heading the autopsy is Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles.

Dr. Sathyavagiswaran, a graduate of Madras University, India, is certainly no stranger to high-profile cases. [Vancouver Sun] (tip Karthik via email, @Krupali via Twitter)

He is no stranger to the lime light. Sathyavagiswaran was the medical examiner during the O. J. Simpson murder case and testified at Simpson’s criminal and civil trials.

According to Wikipedia, Sathyavagiswaran also testified in the trials of Phil Spector and Dean Carter.

Dr. Sathyavagiswaran’s testimony could’ve been one of the key reasons in O.J’s acquital. He had to admit to mistakes his deputy made during autopsies.
[NYT]

Before Ms. Vemich took the stand, Robert L. Shapiro, one of Mr. Simpson’s lawyers, completed his cross-examination of Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the Los Angeles County coroner. That cross-examination had been expected to be long and intense. But it lasted only about four hours, having largely been pre-empted by the prosecution’s direct examination of Dr. Sathyavagiswaran, who had readily admitted that Dr. Irwin Golden, the deputy coroner who conducted the autopsies on the victims, made dozens of mistakes.

Dr. Sathyavagiswaran also testified in the Phil Spector case. From the looks of it, he shot down a lame attempt by the defense to blame the coroner’s office. Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life. [Telegraph]

Mr Weinberg opened the defence case with testimony from Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the Los Angeles county coroner. He asked if Dr Sathyavagiswaran’s staff had considered performing a “psychological autopsy” on Miss Clarkson’s to determine her emotional state and whether or not she might have committed suicide.

Mr Sathyavagiswaran replied that psychological autopsies were not carried out in homicide cases “so it did not apply”. He was due to return to the witness stand for more questioning on the issue on Tuesday.

The coroners office has stated that, unlike episodes of CSI, it could be weeks before they determine the cause of Michael Jackson’s death.

Looks like you've just discovered us. Add our RSS feed to keep up with the new posts.