Melissa Harris-Perry: Welcome back to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. Throughout this week, we've been talking about the down ballot, those lesser-known races with big consequences, the elected officials that you really just might see on your ballot in November. Now, when I moved to New Orleans a few years ago and voted for the first time, I was surprised to find coroner on my ballot, and I didn't quite know how to consider voting for a coroner. Counties in 20 US states elect coroners.
If you're also not quite sure how to vote for one, well, we've got you covered. With me now is Darnell Hartwell. He's currently chief deputy coroner of Berkeley County, South Carolina, which encompasses parts of Charleston and its outskirts. He's a Republican candidate for coroner in Berkeley County. Don't worry, he's running unopposed, we're not going to actually mess with the election here. Mr. Hartwell, thanks so much for being here.
Darnell Hartwell: Thank you, Melissa, for having me.
Melissa Harris-Perry: All right. What is it that a coroner does?
Darnell Hartwell: A coroner is an elected position, the job of the coroner is to determine the manner and cause of death, also to locate the legal next of kin and to positivity identify the decedents?
Melissa Harris-Perry: What kind of skill set does it take to do that kind of work?
Darnell Hartwell: The job of the coroner involves several different professions, we have to know some things about medical, law enforcement, legal. Again, we have extensive amount of hours and trainings that we have to have and maintain to be able to keep up with the qualifications and to be able to keep up with the changing times of things that we're seeing. Currently, right now we're seeing in Berkeley County, South Carolina, and other parts of the country as well, is the opioid pandemic. Again, we have to maintain knowledge on these changing things as well.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, I know that you worked previously under three different coroners. You don't have to tell us who was a good corner or who wasn't, but tell us, what are some of the qualities of the person that make a coroner a high-quality person in that role?
Darnell Hartwell: Yes, Melissa, you are right. I was involved with the Berkeley County Coroner's Office for nearly 20 years and I did have the opportunity to work for three great coroners. Each one of those coroners showed me a different aspect of the job. They all had a hand in training me and preparing me for the job I'm about to take in January. Some of the coroners that I had the opportunity to work for was retired law enforcement captains, retired state law enforcement investigators. Their bringing that knowledge to the coroner's office definitely gave me the opportunity to view it on different levels as well.
Melissa Harris-Perry: I think some people might be surprised to find that that many coroners do not have medical degrees. In fact, even as you're talking and you're talking about law enforcement, that in some ways, the role of the coroner is as much or maybe even more connected to law enforcement and public safety as it is to medical determinations.
Darnell Hartwell: Yes, Ms. Melissa, that is correct. You can look at coroners are investigators. Again, in our state, we have the coroner system. In other states, they have the medical examiner's office, where the medical examiner sends investigators out to the scenes to report the findings back to the medical examiner's office. Here in South Carolina, we operate under the coroner's law.
Again, the coroners are investigators, but our investigations are more tailored toward the decedent to find the cause and manner of death. Here in South Carolina and in my county, Berkeley County, we do use a university for autopsies. What the coroners does is they go out in the field and find the finding and report that back to the coroner and then we make a decision if that case warrants an autopsy. If so, we work with the university here to make sure that that gets done in a timely manner as well.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Let me say congratulations, Mr. Hartwell, because you will assume this role, as we say, in the south, God Willing and the creek don't rise, you'll assume this role because you're running unopposed. You did have a primary campaign. What does it mean? What does it look like to campaign for coroner?
Darnell Hartwell: Yes. Well, it was a busy campaign season for me. My candidate actually was in law enforcement for a number of years as well. He definitely had some of the requirements. Listening to the constituents here in Berkeley County, it was hard to beat the experience that I have. Again, working for the coroner's office for nearly 20 years, I've had the opportunity to work for three coroners and my career here with the Berkeley County Coroner's Office and my whole career was here working throughout this office.
I have investigated well over 5,000 deaths. I have several thousand hours of death investigating training, law enforcement training, medical investigating training. One of my campaign stumps was experience matters. You will want your coroner to be experienced, you want to be experienced in the investigation, you want to be able to have community connections, great relationships with law enforcement agencies, doctors' offices, hospitals. Throughout my career, I was able to build great relationships with all those entities here in Berkeley County.
Melissa Harris-Perry: I was appreciating that on your website, you actually have a list of more than 30 trainings that you've been part of. Some of them made perfect sense to me, forensic death investigation, FEMA incident command. The one that I have to say, I might just take a drive down and might help me through this training, number six training was working with difficult people. I was like, "Well, that does seem to be an important training in all kinds of contexts, including this one."
Darnell Hartwell: Well, of course, dealing with death every day, it brings out the worst in people at times. We have to be ready and equipped to handle these situations, and more times than not, they just need a listening ear. Emotions are high at that time. Again, part of our job is to be that listening ear for these families, for these loved ones, because think about it, this is probably the worst day of their lives, where they just got informed that they will never see their loved one again and there's a hole now in their family that will never be closed again and they have to learn to deal with that.
Again, at times, they just need a listening ear and that's the job of coroners. Coroners has a difficult job. It's a calling. With all the relationships I have with coroners, we don't do it for the money, it's definitely a calling on our lives to be able to serve in a position like this. We're constantly on the go, the phones are constantly going off. Again, it's a great job to have to be able to be there for the families.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, I understand that you're running as a Republican, but what does a political party have to do with this elected office?
Darnell Hartwell: That's a tough question, but I'm going to give the best answer that I can. Personally, I don't agree with it. Again, out of the thousands and thousands of death I have investigated or have been a part of, when I knock on a loved one door to bring them the most horrific news, I've never had the first family asked me what political party [unintelligible 00:07:26] belongs to. It doesn't matter.
In a position of coroner, our job is to serve all people. Our job is not to create laws, our job is to just make sure that the laws that's on the books are seen through, and that's what we do as coroners each and every day when we are here serving our constituents, is just to make sure that they are being taken care of, and the laws that's already on the book that was put there by our governors, our senators, our representatives, our job is just to see to it that those laws are being handled and being handled the best that they can be.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Darnell Hartwell is chief deputy coroner of Berkeley County, South Carolina, and a Republican candidate for coroner of Berkeley County. He's running unopposed in the November midterm election. Mr. Hartwell, thank you so much for your time today.
Darnell Hartwell: Thank you, Melissa, for having me.
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