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| 1 | AN ACT concerning criminal law.
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| 2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, | ||||||
| 3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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| 4 | Section 5. The Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 is | ||||||
| 5 | amended by changing Section 115-5.1 as follows:
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| 6 | (725 ILCS 5/115-5.1) (from Ch. 38, par. 115-5.1)
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| 7 | Sec. 115-5.1. In any civil or criminal action the records | ||||||
| 8 | of the
coroner's medical or
laboratory examiner summarizing and | ||||||
| 9 | detailing the performance of his
or her official duties in | ||||||
| 10 | performing medical examinations upon deceased persons
or | ||||||
| 11 | autopsies, or both, and kept in the ordinary course of business | ||||||
| 12 | of
the coroner's office, duly certified by the county coroner | ||||||
| 13 | or chief
supervisory coroner's pathologist or medical | ||||||
| 14 | examiner, shall be received
as competent evidence in any court | ||||||
| 15 | of this State, to the extent
permitted by this Section. These | ||||||
| 16 | reports, specifically including but not
limited to the | ||||||
| 17 | pathologist's protocol, autopsy reports, photographs, and | ||||||
| 18 | toxicological
reports, shall be public documents and thereby | ||||||
| 19 | may be admissible as
prima facie evidence of the facts, | ||||||
| 20 | findings, opinions, diagnoses and
conditions stated therein.
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| 21 | A duly certified coroner's protocol or autopsy report, or | ||||||
| 22 | both,
complying with the requirements of this Section may be | ||||||
| 23 | duly
admitted into evidence as an exception to the hearsay rule | ||||||
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| 1 | as prima
facie proof of the cause of death of the person to | ||||||
| 2 | whom it relates. The
records referred to in this Section shall | ||||||
| 3 | be limited to the records of
the results of post-mortem | ||||||
| 4 | examinations of the findings of autopsy, including | ||||||
| 5 | photographs, and
toxicological laboratory examinations.
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| 6 | Persons who prepare reports or records offered in evidence | ||||||
| 7 | hereunder
may be subpoenaed as witnesses in civil or criminal | ||||||
| 8 | cases upon the request of either
party to the cause. However, | ||||||
| 9 | the fact that such person is for any reason unavailable or not | ||||||
| 10 | present to testify shall not be a bar to admissibility of the | ||||||
| 11 | reports or records. Such reports or records shall be admissible | ||||||
| 12 | if the county coroner or a duly authorized official of the | ||||||
| 13 | coroner's office testifies or attests However, if such person | ||||||
| 14 | is dead, the county coroner
or a duly authorized official of | ||||||
| 15 | the coroner's office may testify to the
fact that the examining | ||||||
| 16 | pathologist, toxicologist or other medical or
laboratory | ||||||
| 17 | examiner is deceased and that the offered report or record
was | ||||||
| 18 | prepared by such deceased person. The witness must further | ||||||
| 19 | attest
that the medical report or record was prepared in the | ||||||
| 20 | ordinary and usual
course of the preparer's deceased person's | ||||||
| 21 | duty or employment in conformity with the
provisions of this | ||||||
| 22 | Section.
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| 23 | (Source: P.A. 82-783.)
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