As he cross-examined the coroner, the defense attorney asked, "Before you signed the death certificate, had you taken the man's pulse?"

"No," the coroner replied.

"Oh? Did you check for breathing?"

"No."

"So when you signed the death certificate," the attorney asked with a smirk, "you had not taken any steps to make sure the man was dead, had you?"

"Let me put it this way," the badgered coroner replied. "The man's brain was sitting in a jar on my desk. But," he added, "I guess that he could still be out there practicing law somewhere."