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91_SB1123
SDS/910015/JDdo
1 AN ACT to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure by
2 changing Section 115-5.1.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The Code of Criminal Procedure is amended by
6 changing Section 115-5.1 as follows:
7 (725 ILCS 5/115-5.1) (from Ch. 38, par. 115-5.1)
8 Sec. 115-5.1. In any civil or criminal action, the
9 records of the coroner's medical or laboratory examiner
10 summarizing and detailing the performance of his or her
11 official duties in performing medical examinations upon
12 deceased persons or autopsies, or both, and kept in the
13 ordinary course of business of the coroner's office, duly
14 certified by the county coroner or chief supervisory
15 coroner's pathologist or medical examiner, shall be received
16 as competent evidence in any court of this State, to the
17 extent permitted by this Section. These reports, specifically
18 including but not limited to the pathologist's protocol,
19 autopsy reports and toxicological reports, shall be public
20 documents and thereby may be admissible as prima facie
21 evidence of the facts, findings, opinions, diagnoses and
22 conditions stated therein.
23 A duly certified coroner's protocol or autopsy report, or
24 both, complying with the requirements of this Section may be
25 duly admitted into evidence as an exception to the hearsay
26 rule as prima facie proof of the cause of death of the person
27 to whom it relates. The records referred to in this Section
28 shall be limited to the records of the results of post-mortem
29 examinations of the findings of autopsy and toxicological
30 laboratory examinations.
31 Persons who prepare reports or records offered in
-2- SDS/910015/JDdo
1 evidence hereunder may be subpoenaed as witnesses in civil or
2 criminal cases upon the request of either party to the cause.
3 However, if such person is dead, the county coroner or a duly
4 authorized official of the coroner's office may testify to
5 the fact that the examining pathologist, toxicologist or
6 other medical or laboratory examiner is deceased and that the
7 offered report or record was prepared by such deceased
8 person. The witness must further attest that the medical
9 report or record was prepared in the ordinary and usual
10 course of the deceased person's duty or employment in
11 conformity with the provisions of this Section.
12 (Source: P.A. 82-783.)