HARRY HUGHES, Governor

4645

and 10-1003

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1980 Replacement Volume and 1981 Supplement)

BY adding to

Article - Courts and Judicial Proceedings
Section 10-1004, to be under the new part

"Part II. Bodies"
Annotated Code of Maryland
(1980 Replacement Volume and 1981 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland

(as enacted by Chapter ___(H.B. 200) of the Acts of the

General Assembly of 1982) read(s) as follows:

Article 22 - Postmortem Examiners

6.

(A) When any person shall die in Baltimore City, or in
any county of the State, as a result of violence, or by
suicide, or by casualty, or suddenly when in apparent health
or when unattended by a physician, or in any suspicious or
unusual manner, it shall be the duty of the police or
sheriff immediately to notify the chief medical examiner and
assistant medical examiner, or a deputy medical examiner, as
the case may be, and the State's attorney of Baltimore City,
or of the county, as the case may be, of the known facts
concerning the time, place, manner and circumstances of such
death. Immediately upon receipt of such notification, the
said medical examiner, IF PRACTICAL, shall go to the dead

body and take charge of the same. Such medical examiner

shall fully investigate the essential facts concerning the
medical causes of death [and may take the names and
addresses of as many witnesses thereto as may be practicable
to obtain, and before leaving the premises shall reduce
such facts, as he may deem necessary to writing and file the
same in his office. The police officer or sheriff present
at such investigation, or if no officer be present, then the
medical examiner shall, in the absence of the next kin of
the deceased person, take possession of all property of
value found on such person, make an exact inventory thereof
on his report and deliver such property to the police
department in Baltimore City or sheriff of the county, as
the case may be, which shall surrender the same to the
person entitled to its custody or possession; such medical
examiner shall take possession of any object or articles
which, in his opinion, may be useful in establishing the
cause of death, and deliver them to the State's attorney].
IF IT IS NOT PRACTICAL FOR ANY OF THESE MEDICAL EXAMINERS TO
IMMEDIATELY GO TO THE DEAD BODY, THE MEDICAL EXAMINER SHALL
INVESTIGATE THE MEDICAL CAUSES OF DEATH WHEN THE DEAD BODY