Bill Text: NY S09315 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Establishes the Terry Cooper autopsy accountability act requiring autopsy reports to include all photographs of the body, microscopic slides, and post-mortem x-rays taken by, at the direction of, or reviewed by the person performing the autopsy.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-21 - REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT [S09315 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S09315-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9315

                    IN SENATE

                                      May 10, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. SALAZAR, CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee  on  Crime  Victims,
          Crime and Correction

        AN ACT to amend the county law, in relation to requiring autopsy reports
          to  include  photographs,  microscopic  slides, and post-mortem x-rays
          taken by, at the direction of, or reviewed by  the  person  performing
          the autopsy

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. This act shall be known and may  be  cited  as  the  "Terry
     2  Cooper autopsy accountability act".
     3    §  2.  Subdivision  6  of section 677 of the county law, as amended by
     4  chapter 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
     5    6. Notwithstanding section six hundred seventy of this article or  any
     6  other  provision  of  law,  the  coroner, coroner's physician or medical
     7  examiner shall  promptly  provide  the  [chairman]  chairperson  of  the
     8  correction  medical review board and the commissioner of corrections and
     9  community supervision with copies of any autopsy  report,  toxicological
    10  report or any report of any examination or inquiry prepared with respect
    11  to  any  death occurring to an incarcerated individual of a correctional
    12  facility as defined  by  subdivision  three  of  section  forty  of  the
    13  correction  law  within  [his  or  her] their county; and shall promptly
    14  provide the executive director of the justice center for the  protection
    15  of people with special needs with copies of any autopsy report, toxicol-
    16  ogy  report  or  any  report of any examination or inquiry prepared with
    17  respect to the death of any service recipient  occurring  while  [he  or
    18  she]  such  person  was a resident in any facility operated, licensed or
    19  certified by any agency within the department  of  mental  hygiene,  the
    20  office  of children and family services, the department of health or the
    21  state education department. If  the  toxicological  report  is  prepared
    22  pursuant  to  any  agreement  or  contract with any person, partnership,
    23  corporation or governmental agency with the coroner or medical examiner,
    24  such report shall be promptly provided to the [chairman] chairperson  of
    25  the correction medical review board, the commissioner of corrections and

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15245-01-4
        S. 9315                             2

     1  community  supervision  or  the executive director of the justice center
     2  for people with special needs, as appropriate, by such person,  partner-
     3  ship,  corporation  or  governmental  agency.  For  the purposes of this
     4  subdivision,  in  addition  to anything else required by law, an autopsy
     5  report shall include all photographs of the  body,  microscopic  slides,
     6  and  post-mortem  x-rays  taken  by  or  at  the direction of the person
     7  performing the autopsy, and all  photographs,  microscopic  slides,  and
     8  post-mortem  x-rays reviewed by the person performing the autopsy in the
     9  course of their examination or in the course of their diagnosis  of  the
    10  cause of death and the means or manner of death.
    11    §  3.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
    12  have become a law and shall apply to all autopsies conducted on or after
    13  such date.