Governor Lee Signs Law Removing Public Access To Autopsies Of Minors Who Are Victims Of Violent Crime

Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

Governor Bill Lee signed a new law last week that will prevent autopsies for minors who are victims of violent crimes from becoming part of public record.

Current Tennessee law states that all reports of county medical examiners, toxicology reports, and autopsy reports are public documents. The updated law will add two exceptions to that, allowing records involving minors who are injured or killed at the hands of violent offenders to be hidden.

There are two exceptions provided in the law that would allow those records to be released:

1) If the minor’s parent or legal guardian is not suspected of being involved in the death and they provide consent for those records to be released; or

2) If a court order requires the release of the report with good cause.

It is assumed that the legislation, which was initiated during last year’s special session following the Covenant School shooting, came about as parents of the victims have pushed to keep their children’s records from being released.

Opponents fear that the new law will provide a loophole for the Department of Children’s Services to hide information regarding crimes against children who are in the custody of the state, residing in foster homes. 

Because the state maintains custody of those children, they would have to give authorization for those records to be made public. Chances are they would opt not to do so, under the guise of maintaining privacy, while effectively keeping the media from being able to expose possible cases of negligence and abuse that occur within the foster care system.

Deborah Fisher, Executive Director of Tennessee Coalition For Open Government, spoke before the House when the bill was under consideration, stating that the legislation would actually protect violent offenders and make it too easy for crimes to be covered up while keeping criminals from being brought to justice.

The new law will go into effect immediately after receiving a Public Chapter Number now that it has the signature of Governor Lee. Lee could have chosen to veto the law, but he has not used that power at all during his tenure as governor.