Delaware
Coroner/Medical Examiner Laws
Is medical death investigation system centralized, county-based, or district-based?
Centralized. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4704.
If centralized, in which department or agency is the system housed?
Department of Health and Social Services. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4704.
Does the state system have a coroner, medical examiner, or coroners and medical examiners?
Medical examiner. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4704.
“In practice” notes
None.
Is there a state medical examiner?
Yes. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4701.
If so, what is the state medical examiner’s role?
The Chief Medical Examiner . . . shall perform all the medical and other functions now devolving upon the coroners, deputy coroners and coroners’ physicians in the counties of this State and in the City of Wilmington and duties imposed upon them by this chapter. . . . The Chief Medical Examiner shall comply with the orders and directions of the Department of Health and Social Services.
Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4704.
The Chief Medical Examiner functions as the Director of the Forensic Sciences Laboratory. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4708.
In what department or agency is the state medical examiner’s office located?
Department of Health and Social Services. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4701.
Are there deputies?
The Chief Medical Examiner may appoint, with the approval of the Department of Health and Social Services, 2 Assistant Medical Examiners . . . [and] necessary numbers of Deputy Medical Examiners . . . Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4703.
If so, what are the deputies’ roles?
[T]he Assistant Medical Examiners and the Deputy Medical Examiners shall perform all the medical and other functions now devolving upon . . . deputy coroners and coroners’ physicians in the counties of this State and in the City of Wilmington and duties imposed upon them by this chapter. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4704.
What are the qualifications for deputies?
Assistant Medical Examiners . . . shall be physicians with 2 years or more of training or experience in pathology . . . Deputy Medical Examiners . . . shall be practicing physicians . . . Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4703.
What types of deaths are required to be investigated?
When any person shall die in this State, as a result of violence, by suicide or by casualty if such occurred not longer than 1 year and 1 day prior to death, while under anesthesia, by abortion or suspected abortion, by poison or suspicion of poison or suddenly when in apparent health or when unattended by a physician or in any prison or penal institution or when in police custody or from a disease resulting from employment including disease related to injury or from an undiagnosed cause which may be related to a disease constituting a threat to public health or in any suspicious or unusual manner . . . Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4706.
What types of deaths are required to be autopsied?
If . . . in the opinion of the Medical Examiner an autopsy is necessary in the public interest or as shall be requested by the Attorney General, the same shall be performed by the Chief Medical Examiner, an Assistant Medical Examiner or by such other competent pathologists as may be designated by the Chief Medical Examiner. Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4707.
Does the state require that pathologists perform the autopsies?
Yes, . . . shall be performed by the Chief Medical Examiner, an Assistant Medical Examiner or by such other competent pathologists as may be designated by the Chief Medical Examiner . . . Del. Code Ann. tit. 29, § 4707.
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