Mills (SB 402) Act No. 390
Prior law provided that the coroner will either view the body or make an investigation into
the cause and manner of death in all cases involving the following:
(1)Suspicious, unexpected, or unusual deaths.
(2)Sudden or violent deaths.
(3)Deaths due to unknown or obscure causes or in any unusual manner.
(4)Bodies found dead.
(5)Deaths without an attending physician within thirty-six hours prior to the hour of
death.
(6)Deaths due to suspected suicide or homicide.
(7)Deaths in which poison is suspected.
(8)Any death from natural causes occurring in a hospital under twenty-four hours of
admission unless seen by a physician in the last 36 hours.
(9)Deaths following an injury or accident either old or recent.
(10)Deaths due to drowning, hanging, burns, electrocution, gunshot wounds, stabs or
cutting, lightning, starvation, radiation, exposure, alcoholism, addiction, tetanus,
strangulation, suffocation, or smothering.
(11)Deaths due to trauma from whatever cause.
(12)Deaths due to criminal means or by casualty.
(13)Deaths in prison or while serving a sentence.
(14)Deaths due to virulent contagious disease that might be caused by or cause a public
hazard, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
New law retains prior law but removes the coroner's duty to investigate deaths without an
attending physician 36 hours prior to the death.
Prior law provided for the burial of paupers. New law retains prior law but changes the term
of use from burial to disposition.
Prior law provided that the term "peace officer" for purposes of first degree murder means
any peace officer, as defined in prior law, and includes any constable, marshal, deputy
marshal, sheriff, deputy sheriff, local or state policeman, commissioned wildlife enforcement
agent, federal law enforcement officer, jail or prison guard, parole officer, probation officer,
judge, attorney general, assistant attorney general, attorney general's investigator, district
attorney, assistant district attorney, or district attorney's investigator.
New law retains prior law but adds any coroner, deputy coroner, or coroner investigator to
the list of individuals that would be considered a "peace officer".
Prior law provided that prior law will not prohibit active justices or judges of the supreme
court, courts of appeal, district courts, parish courts, juvenile courts, family courts, city
courts, federal courts domiciled in the state of Louisiana, and traffic courts, constables,
coroners, district attorneys and designated assistant district attorneys, United States attorneys
and assistant United States attorneys and investigators, and justices of the peace from
possessing and concealing a handgun on their person when the justice or judge, constable,
coroner, district attorneys and designated assistant district attorneys, United States attorneys
and assistant United States attorneys and investigators, or justices of the peace are POST
certified. New law retains prior law but adds coroner investigators to the list of individuals that may
possess and conceal a handgun when they are POST certified.
New law provides that the following persons will make a reasonable search of a person
reasonably believed to be near death for a document of post anatomical gift or other
information identifying the person as a donor or a person who has refused to make such a
donation:
(1)Any law enforcement officer, fireman, paramedic, or any other emergency rescuer
assisting the person.
(2)Any hospital, as soon as practical after the arrival of the person.
New law retains prior law and adds a coroner or his designee to the list of individuals that
must make a reasonable search.
Effective August 1, 2014.
(Amends R.S. 13:5713(A) and 5715(A), R.S. 14:30(B)(1) and 95(H), and R.S. 17:2355.1)