§ 45-16-24. Notification of Suspicious or Unusual Deaths; Court Ordered Medical Examiner’s Inquiry; Written Report of Inquiry

1. When any individual dies in any county in this state:
   1. As a result of violence;
   2. By suicide or casualty;
   3. Suddenly when in apparent good health;
   4. In any suspicious or unusual manner, with particular attention to those individuals 16 years of age and under;
   5. After birth but before seven years of age if the death is unexpected or unexplained;
   6. As a result of an execution carried out pursuant to the imposition of the death penalty under Article 2 of Chapter 10 of Title 17;
   7. When an inmate of a state hospital or a state, county, or city penal institution;
   8. After having been admitted to a hospital in an unconscious state and without regaining consciousness within 24 hours of admission;
   9. As a result of an apparent drug overdose;
   10. Who is a pregnant female or a female who was pregnant within 365 days prior to such female’s death; provided, however, that this paragraph shall not apply to a female whose death resulted from an incidental or accidental cause, including a motor vehicle accident, or from any other event or condition where it is apparent that the death was not causally related to the care of or physiology of pregnancy or its maintenance; or
   11. When unattended by a physician, it shall be the duty of any law enforcement officer or other person having knowledge of such death to notify immediately the coroner or county medical examiner of the county in which the acts or events resulting in the death occurred or the body is found. For purposes of paragraph (11) of this subsection, no individual shall be deemed to have died unattended by a physician when the death occurred while he or she was a patient of a hospice licensed under Article 9 of Chapter 7 of Title 31. For purposes of paragraph (11) of this subsection, an individual shall be deemed to have died unattended by a physician when any such individual had not been seen or treated by a physician within the 180 days prior to such individual’s death for a condition or illness likely to have caused or contributed to such individual’s death.
2. A coroner or county medical examiner who is notified of a death pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section under circumstances specified in paragraphs (1) through (9) of such subsection shall order a medical examiner’s inquiry of that death. A coroner or medical examiner who is notified of a death pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section under circumstances specified in paragraph (10) of such subsection and which death was not under circumstances specified in paragraphs (1) through (9) of such subsection shall order a medical examiner’s inquiry for such death through a regional perinatal center, as identified by the Department of Public Health. This subsection shall not be construed to prohibit a medical examiner’s inquiry of a death if a coroner or county medical examiner is notified of a death under circumstances specified in paragraph (11) of subsection (a) of this Code section.
3. Whenever an affidavit is made and filed with a court having criminal jurisdiction attesting that a person came to his or her death by foul play, that court may interrogate and examine witnesses, if any exist, as to the necessity of a medical examiner’s inquiry. Should the court decide that a medical examiner’s inquiry is essential to the ends of justice, such inquiry shall be ordered by that court.
4. A medical examiner’s inquiry required under this Code section shall be reduced to writing and filed as provided in Code Section 45-16-32. At the time of such filing, a copy of the medical examiner’s inquiry into a death reported to a coroner or county medical examiner pursuant to paragraph (5) of subsection (a) of this Code section shall also be transmitted to the department of family and children services of the county in which the child resided at the time of death.

History. Ga. L. 1953, Jan.-Feb. Sess., p. 602, § 8; Ga. L. 1984, p. 812, § 2; Ga. L. 1985, p. 1073, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1735, § 3; Ga. L. 1994, p. 391, § 1; Ga. L. 2009, p. 81, § 1B/HB 64; Ga. L. 2017, p. 319, § 6-1/HB 249; Ga. L. 2018, p. 239, § 1/SB 327; Ga. L. 2022, p. 409, § 1/SB 496.

The 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, in subsection (a), substituted “individual” for “person” in the introductory paragraph and in the last sentence of the ending undesignated paragraph, substituted “individuals” for “persons” in paragraph (a)(5), deleted “or” at the end of paragraph (a)(8), added “; or” at the end of paragraph (a)(9), added paragraph (a)(10), and substituted “he or she” for “the person” near the end of the ending undesignated paragraph.

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, deleted former paragraph (a)(4), which read: “When unattended by a physician;”; redesignated former paragraphs (a)(5) through (a)(9) as present paragraphs (a)(4) through (a)(8), respectively; deleted “or” at the end of paragraph (a)(8); redesignated former paragraph (a)(10) as present paragraph (a)(9); added “; or” at the end of paragraph (a)(9); and added paragraph (a)(10); and, in subsection (b), inserted “under circumstances specified in paragraphs (1) through (9) of such subsection” in the first sentence and added the second sentence.

The 2022 amendment, effective July 1, 2022, deleted “or” at the end of paragraph (a)(9); added paragraph (a)(10); redesignated former paragraph (a)(10) as present paragraph (a)(11); in the ending undesignated paragraph of subsection (a), in the second sentence, substituted “purposes of paragraph (11) of this subsection” for “the purposes of this Code section” and inserted “by a physician”, and added the last sentence; inserted the second sentence in subsection (b); and substituted “paragraph (5)” for “paragraph (6)” in the second sentence of subsection (d).

Law reviews.

For article on the 2017 amendment of this Code section, see 34 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 143 (2017).