AGO 1991-018.

• Case Date: May 21, 1991
• Court: Connecticut

Connecticut Attorney General Opinions 1991. AGO 1991-018. May 21, 1991Opinion No. 1991-018Wayne H. Carver, M.D.Office of the Chief Medical Examiner11 Shuttle RoadFarmington, CT 06032 Dear Dr. Carver: This letter responds to your request for an opinion dated January 15, 1991. In that request, you asked for a clarification of your authority as a subregistrar of vital statistics to issue a disinterment permit in a case of alleged suspicious death. The request was prompted by a request you received from the parents of a deceased man asking you to issue a disinterment permit for the disinterment of their son for a second autopsy. According to your letter, the deceased, Travis Jackson, was a twenty-seven year old black male who was found dead on a couch. Autopsy findings were equivocal and the cause and manner of death were certified as undetermined. The next of kin of the deceased suspects a subtle, homicidal injury which the autopsy could neither prove nor disprove. You have asked whether you have the authority under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-65 to issue a disinterment permit for the exhumation of the deceased's remains for a second autopsy. You asked how your authority as a subregistrar under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-65 is affected by Conn. Gen. Stat. and Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-413. The brief answer to your question is that the authority of the Chief Medical Examiner as a subregistrar under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-65 is limited to issuing burial and removal permits. It does not extend to the issuing of disinterment permits. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-65 states:

No deceased person shall be buried in the town in which he dies until a burial permit, specifying the place of burial and stating that the death certificate and any other certificate required by law have been returned and recorded, has been issued by the registrar of vital statistics, and the registrar shall record the place of any burial other than a public cemetery. Such registrar shall appoint suitable persons as subregistrars, who shall be authorized to issue burial permits based upon certificates as hereinbefore provided, and also to issue removal permits based upon certificates as provided in sections 7-68 and 7-69, in the same manner as is required of the registrar. ... The Chief Medical Examiner, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner and Associate Medical Examiners shall be considered

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