Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
REGULAR SESSION
                 Introduced Senate Bill 779
           BY SENATORS WELD AND DEEDS
       [Introduced February 14, 2024; referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources]
     Intr SB 779
  A BILL to amend and reenact §61-12-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating
         to postmortem examinations.
     Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
     ARTICLE 12. POSTMORTEM EXAMINATIONS.
     §61-12-10. When autopsies made and by whom performed; records of date investigated;
            copies of records and information; reporting requirements.
         (a) If in the opinion of the chief medical examiner, or of the county medical examiner of
  the county in which the death in question occurred, it is advisable and in the public interest that
  an autopsy be made, or if an autopsy is requested by either the prosecuting attorney or the judge
  of the circuit court or other court of record having criminal jurisdiction in that county, an autopsy
  shall be conducted by the chief medical examiner or his or her designee, by a member of his or
  her staff, or by a competent pathologist designated and employed by the chief medical examiner
  under the provisions of this article. When requested by either the prosecuting attorney or judge
  of the circuit court or other court of record having criminal jurisdiction in that county, the autopsy
  shall be conducted within 72 hours of the time the request was received by the Office of the Chief
 Medical Examiner: Provided, That the body is in the possession of the chief medical examiner
 when such request is made. For this purpose, the chief medical examiner may employ any county
 medical examiner who is a pathologist who holds board certification or board eligibility in forensic
 pathology or has completed an American Board of Pathology fellowship in forensic pathology to
 make the autopsies, and the fees to be paid for autopsies under this section shall be in addition
 to the fee provided for investigations pursuant to §61-12-8 of this code. A full record and report of
 the findings developed by the autopsy shall be filed with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
 by the person making the autopsy.
        (b) Within the discretion of the chief medical examiner, or of the person making the
 autopsy, or if requested by the prosecuting attorney of the county, or of the county where any
 injury contributing to or causing the death was sustained, a copy of the report of the autopsy shall
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     Intr SB 779
 be furnished to the prosecuting attorney Within 24 hours of completion, a copy of the report of
 autopsy, including any death investigation reports made by the county level medical examiner
 submitted to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, shall be furnished to the prosecuting
 attorney of the county, or of the county where any injury contributing to or causing the death was
 sustained.
         (c) The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shall keep full, complete and properly indexed
 records of all deaths investigated, containing all relevant information concerning the death and
 the autopsy report if an autopsy report is made. Any prosecuting attorney or law-enforcement
 officer may secure copies of these records or information necessary for the performance of his or
 her official duties.
         (d) Copies of these records or information shall be furnished, upon request, to any court
 of law, or to the parties therein to whom the cause of death is a material issue, except where the
 court determines that interests in a civil matter conflict with the interests in a criminal proceeding,
 in which case the interests in the criminal proceeding shall take precedence. The Office of Chief
 Medical Examiner shall be reimbursed a reasonable rate by the requesting party for costs incurred
 in the production of records under this subsection and subsections (c), (f) and (g) of this section.
         (e) The chief medical examiner may release investigation records and autopsy reports to
 the multidisciplinary team authorized by §49-4-402 of this code and as authorized in subsection
 (j) of this section. The chief medical examiner may release records and information to other state
 agencies when considered to be in the public interest.
         (f) The chief medical examiner may release a copy of the autopsy and toxicology reports
 upon the request from a designated representative of a hospital as defined in §16-2D-2 of this
 code to said facility who has reported a death under the provisions of §61-12-8 of this code for
 purposes of quality review and medical record completion.
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     Intr SB 779
        (g) The chief medical examiner may release a copy of the autopsy and toxicology reports
 upon the request of an attending physician as defined in §16-30C-3 of this code to said physician
 whose patient has died for purposes of quality review and medical record completion.
        (h) Any person performing an autopsy under this section may keep and retain, for and on
 behalf of the chief medical examiner, any tissue from the body upon which the autopsy was
 performed which may be necessary for further study or consideration.
        (i) In cases of the death of any infant, where sudden infant death syndrome is the
 suspected cause of death and the chief medical examiner or the medical examiner of the county
 in which the death in question occurred considers it advisable to perform an autopsy, it is the duty
 of the chief medical examiner or the medical examiner of the county in which the death occurred
 to notify the sudden infant death syndrome program within the Division of Maternal and Child
 Health and to inform the program of all information to be given to the infant’s parents.
        (j) If the chief medical examiner determines that a drug overdose is the cause of death of
 a person, the chief medical examiner shall provide notice of the death to the West Virginia
 Controlled Substances Monitoring Program Database Review Committee established pursuant
 to §60A-9-5(b) of this code and shall include in the notice any information relating to the cause of
 the fatal overdose.
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Statutes affected: 
Introduced Version: 61-12-10