NC medical examiner office backpedals on withholding death records from the public
A new state law that ends public access to some autopsy reports had a rocky start this week when the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told those requesting reports that none could be released.
“Because of the magnitude of these changes, OCME is creating new infrastructure and pulling staffing and resources to comply with these new unfunded mandates,” the message said. “While that infrastructure is being designed, developed, and implemented, the OCME cannot yet process your document request.”
But state health officials backpedaled on that blanket denial after The News & Observer asked for more details, and on what grounds the office could deny autopsies that are not subject to the new law.
“We are working diligently to update the system to ensure that individuals requesting OCME documents are provided them in a timely manner,” said Summer Tonizzo, a Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman, in an email message.
In June, state lawmakers passed an omnibus crime prevention bill that includes a provision barring the public from obtaining autopsies of deaths linked to criminal investigation. The law also doesn’t allow the release of autopsies of child deaths unless a parent or guardian gives approval.
An autopsy is done by a medical examiner or pathologist to determine the cause of death. The reports often play an important role in publicly revealing how people died in jails, prisons or in police custody.
The overall legislation, which includes provisions to help out-of-state domestic violence victims get protective orders and increased criminal penalties for trafficking fentanyl, was widely supported by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Josh Stein. But he called the autopsy provision “problematic.”
In recent years, prosecutors had been seeking this control over what had been public records. News organizations opposed the change.
Grappling with new law
Prosecutors say the release of medical examiner reports, which include autopsies, could jeopardize efforts to identify, arrest and convict suspects.
Media organizations say the secrecy could aid efforts to protect powerful people who commit crimes or bear responsibility for deaths, and deny the public information they need to know to keep themselves safe.
“The law is a problem because it will deny the public our right to know the state’s official position on cause of death — and the state’s reasons for forming that conclusion. Hiding behind a law enforcement or privacy exemption will only lead to more baseless conspiracies, rumors and misinformation,” Pate McMichael, who leads the N.C. Open Government Coalition at Elon University, said Wednesday.
He and Mike Tadych, an attorney who represents The N&O and other news organizations in public records disputes, said their understanding is that the medical examiner’s office could not legally deny all autopsies while it figures out how to sift out those tied to criminal investigations.
“Certainly they need to be in compliance with the new law but that does not abdicate their responsibility to be in compliance with the public records law,” Tadych said in an email response.
An N&O reporter received the blanket denial notice Wednesday after filing requests for autopsies of two people who died the previous day, before the law took effect. It’s unclear whether the law is intended to shield all deaths under investigation or those that happen on the law’s Oct. 1 start date, McMichael said.
The medical examiner office’s denial notice, which is being updated, called the new law an “unfunded mandate” that the office has to absorb with existing resources. The office had been providing completed autopsies through an automated web-based system that often fulfill requests within a few days.
DHHS officials have not said how much it will cost to revamp its system, or how long it will take before that process is completed.
“We are continuing to process records but there will be a delay in processing all records as we are working to update the infrastructure to comply with the new law,” Tonizzo said. “NCDHHS will need to update the online document request system and is doing that using current staffing and resources.“
Death records important to families
The new law gives the public the right to ask a judge to release an autopsy of a death under criminal investigation. It’s similar to the process lawmakers created in 2016 for the release of law enforcement videos that were previously subject to the public records law.
“Burdened after Death,” a Charlotte Observer investigation published in 2023, exposed the pain that delays in releasing autopsies cause families who need that information to understand how their loved ones died, settle estates and receive insurance payments.
At the time, the office was struggling with a major backlog in producing the reports. Lawmakers subsequently gave the office more money to speed up the work.
Staff writer Lexi Solomon contributed to this report.