Greek authorities are overhauling the services of coroners’ offices by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite autopsy reports, addressing years of delays and dysfunction, following a high-profile case that rocked Greek public opinion.
The Greek Ministry of Justice decided to supply coroner’s offices with AI digital audio and visual assistants to aid in the delivery of timely and accurate reports. Until now, Greek coroners’ services have used the outdated and time-consuming practice of writing autopsy reports by hand.
The decision comes in the wake of the closure of the Patras coroner’s office after it produced a controversial report regarding the murder of three infants in the western port city of the Peloponnese that dragged on for nearly a decade.
A 25-year-old woman named Eirini (Irini) Mourtzoukou confessed to murdering the three infants and was arrested on July 8 after admitting during police questioning that she was responsible for all fatalities.
According to sources close to the investigation, her confession included disturbing details that have shocked even seasoned investigators.
The new forensic procedure will leverage AI by using a tablet to visually record details of the body and receive spoken descriptions from the forensic examiner via voice commands. It will then process this information using AI algorithms and specialized databases to automatically generate a preliminary forensic report.
The tool will offer the forensic expert an initial, scientifically grounded assessment of the likely cause of death based on the recorded findings. The expert will retain full control over the final report, with the ability to edit, correct, or supplement the text as needed to ensure its scientific accuracy and integrity.
This innovation is expected to significantly reduce both the potential for human error and the time required to complete autopsy reports. It represents a major step forward in delivering faster and more reliable justice, particularly in serious cases such as sexual assault, child abuse, and incidents of gender-based or domestic violence.
