BLAIR LEE III, Acting Governor                         1207

sentence nay not exceed confinement for three years.

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act

shall take effect July 1, 1978 is declared to be an

emergency measure and necessary for the immediate

preservation of the public health and safety and having been

passed by a yea and nay vote supported by three—fifths of

all the members elected to each of the two Houses of the

General Assembly, it shall take effect from the date of its

passage.

Approved May 2, 1978.

CHAPTER 189

(Senate Bill 91)

AN ACT concerning

Autopsies — Expenses

FOR the purpose of directing the Comptroller of the State of
Maryland to pay certain autopay postmortem examination
expenses and to extend the payment of certain autopsy
expenses to activities of deputy medical examiners
changing the methods of funding certain postmortem
expenses.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,

Article 22 — Postmortem Examiners

Section 7(a)

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1973 Replacement Volume and 1977 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
be repealed, amended, or enacted to read as follows:

Article 22 - Postmortem Examiners

7.

(a) If the cause of a death described in § 6 of this
article is established beyond a reasonable doubt, the
medical examiner shall so report and file in his office
within 30 days after his notification of the death. If,
however, in the opinion of the medical examiner, an autopsy
is necessary, the same shall be performed by the chief
medical examiner, an assistant medical examiner or by any
competent pathologists as may be authorized by the chief
medical examiner, except those cases as provided in
subsection (b). A detailed description of the findings