Establishes the Terry Cooper autopsy accountability act requiring autopsy reports to include all photographs of the body, microscopic slides, and post-mortem x-rays taken by, at the direction of, or reviewed by the person performing the autopsy.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5424
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 14, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GALLAGHER -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Local Governments
AN ACT to amend the county law, in relation to requiring autopsy reports
to include photographs, microscopic slides, and post-mortem x-rays
taken by, at the direction of, or reviewed by the person performing
the autopsy
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Terry
2 Cooper autopsy accountability act".
3 § 2. Subdivision 6 of section 677 of the county law, as amended by
4 chapter 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
5 6. Notwithstanding section six hundred seventy of this article or any
6 other provision of law, the coroner, coroner's physician or medical
7 examiner shall promptly provide the [chairman] chairperson of the
8 correction medical review board and the commissioner of corrections and
9 community supervision with copies of any autopsy report, toxicological
10 report or any report of any examination or inquiry prepared with respect
11 to any death occurring to an incarcerated individual of a correctional
12 facility as defined by subdivision three of section forty of the
13 correction law within [his or her] their county; and shall promptly
14 provide the executive director of the justice center for the protection
15 of people with special needs with copies of any autopsy report, toxicol-
16 ogy report or any report of any examination or inquiry prepared with
17 respect to the death of any service recipient occurring while [he or
18 she] such person was a resident in any facility operated, licensed or
19 certified by any agency within the department of mental hygiene, the
20 office of children and family services, the department of health or the
21 state education department. If the toxicological report is prepared
22 pursuant to any agreement or contract with any person, partnership,
23 corporation or governmental agency with the coroner or medical examiner,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05959-01-5
A. 5424 2
1 such report shall be promptly provided to the [chairman] chairperson of
2 the correction medical review board, the commissioner of corrections and
3 community supervision or the executive director of the justice center
4 for people with special needs, as appropriate, by such person, partner-
5 ship, corporation or governmental agency. For the purposes of this
6 subdivision, in addition to anything else required by law, an autopsy
7 report shall include all photographs of the body, microscopic slides,
8 and post-mortem x-rays taken by or at the direction of the person
9 performing the autopsy, and all photographs, microscopic slides, and
10 post-mortem x-rays reviewed by the person performing the autopsy in the
11 course of their examination or in the course of their diagnosis of the
12 cause of death and the means or manner of death.
13 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
14 have become a law and shall apply to all autopsies conducted on or after
15 such date.
