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(725 ILCS 5/115-5.1) (from Ch. 38, par. 115-5.1)
Sec. 115-5.1.
In any civil or criminal action the records of the
coroner's medical or
laboratory examiner summarizing and detailing the performance of his
or her official duties in performing medical examinations upon deceased persons
or autopsies, or both, and kept in the ordinary course of business of
the coroner's office, duly certified by the county coroner or chief
supervisory coroner's pathologist or medical examiner, shall be received
as competent evidence in any court of this State, to the extent
permitted by this Section. These reports, specifically including but not
limited to the pathologist's protocol, autopsy reports and toxicological
reports, shall be public documents and thereby may be admissible as
prima facie evidence of the facts, findings, opinions, diagnoses and
conditions stated therein.
A duly certified coroner's protocol or autopsy report, or both,
complying with the requirements of this Section may be duly
admitted into evidence as an exception to the hearsay rule as prima
facie proof of the cause of death of the person to whom it relates. The
records referred to in this Section shall be limited to the records of
the results of post-mortem examinations of the findings of autopsy and
toxicological laboratory examinations.
Persons who prepare reports or records offered in evidence hereunder
may be subpoenaed as witnesses in civil or criminal cases upon the request of either
party to the cause. However, if such person is dead, the county coroner
or a duly authorized official of the coroner's office may testify to the
fact that the examining pathologist, toxicologist or other medical or
laboratory examiner is deceased and that the offered report or record
was prepared by such deceased person. The witness must further attest
that the medical report or record was prepared in the ordinary and usual
course of the deceased person's duty or employment in conformity with the
provisions of this Section.
(Source: P.A. 82-783.)
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