Law says Pa. autopsy reports should be public. Why aren’t they? – By Jonathan D. Silver (Triblive) / July 16, 2023
From coast to coast, officials have tried to block Terence Keel from getting autopsy reports as he studies jail and police-custody deaths.
But after clashing with recalcitrant civil servants in California, Illinois, Maryland and Texas, the UCLA professor said no state has vexed him like Pennsylvania.
In his quest for access, Keel has dragged a half-dozen counties and coroners before Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records for refusing to turn over autopsy reports, the lifeblood of his scholarly research. He lamented the lack of a centralized state database of coroners’ records. And he blanched at the fee that coroners can charge for autopsy reports.
At $500, it’s several times what Los Angeles demands.
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