Inquest into Daniel's Death Underway; Smith to Testify?

3/28/2007
McKenna Lowry
The inquest into the death of Daniel W. Smith began Tuesday and has already been stalled.

Tuesday morning, the official inquest into the death of Daniel W. Smith began. The witness list, released Monday, has sparked a lot of interest as it lists Larry Birkhead, Howard K. Stern, two former nannies who overheard Smith accusing Stern of causing Daniel's death, and most interesting of all, Anna Nicole Smith herself.

In all, nearly 40 witnesses are scheduled to testify at the inquest. Despite Smith's own death in early February, she will testify via the police statement she made following Daniel's death.

The inquest is meant to determine whether or not Daniel's death was an accident or a homicide and the decision is normally left to a jury to decide. Today was to be the beginning of jury selection. However, Howard K. Stern's attorney, Wayne Munroe, has already challenged the use of the jury in this particular case.

The court decided to take another day to make a decision on the issue raised by Munroe and plans to resume the inquest Thursday.

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