Present law provides that when a death is reported as being under suspicious, unusual, or unnatural circumstances, it is the duty of the county medical examiner in the county in which the death occurred to immediately make an investigation of the circumstances of the death. When an autopsy is ordered by the district attorney general, the county medical examiner must notify the chief medical examiner, and the county medical examiner may perform the autopsy or must designate and authorize a pathologist to perform the autopsy. This bill requires the costs and expense of an autopsy ordered by the district attorney general to be paid by this state as other costs, chargeable to the state, are paid.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 38-7-109(b), 38-7-109