Opinion: Coroner rulings are a matter of public record
March 02, 2010 | Filed in: Opinion
| Lancaster
Co. | Coroner
records | Right to Know
Law | Open
records
OPINION
Intelligencer Journal
Just over a year old, Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law remains a work in progress.
That fact is clearly evident through a court case brought by our colleagues at WGAL-TV. In what should be a clear-cut situation, the television station has been forced to go to the Commonwealth Court in an effort to determine not if a record is public - on that point everyone agrees - but when it should be released.
The conflict here is between the law governing the activities of county coroners and the open records provisions of the Right to Know Law.
In the case of the death of a Lancaster County student at Shippensburg University last year, a WGAL reporter sought from the Cumberland County coroner the official determination of the cause and manner of death of the student.
(We are not talking about autopsy reports here. Those are not public records under the Right to Know Law, and WGAL did not seek access to it in this case. A story in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era recently erred on this point.)
In cases they investigate, coroners are charged with determining the cause of death - a heart attack or gunshot wound, for example - and the manner of death, such as natural, accidental, suicide, etc.
This information has historically been public. Under the Coroners' Act, the cause and manner of deaths must be released by the end of January of the year following the death.
But the Right to Know Law requires the release of public records in a much speedier fashion. Indeed, in most cases it requires a response to an open records request within five days.
Citing the January deadline, the Cumberland County coroner refused WGAL's initial request in this case. The television station appealed this decision both to the state Office of Open Records and Cumberland County Court and unfortunately lost.
We agree with WGAL that as much as a 13-month delay in releasing cause and manner of death reports in no way meets the standards of the Right to Know Law, and we're puzzled why information that everyone agrees is public should be tied up like this.
It's regrettable that WGAL must go to the trouble and expense of appealing this case to the Commonwealth Court. We hope the judges there decide quickly in the station's favor.
We applaud WGAL's willingness to pursue this matter even though the cause and manner of death in this specific case have now been released under the January deadline. The bigger public access issue here still needs to be resolved.
Only through vigorous exercise like this will the Right to Know Law remain a living entity to serve the people of Pennsylvania.
Intelligencer Journal
Just over a year old, Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law remains a work in progress.
That fact is clearly evident through a court case brought by our colleagues at WGAL-TV. In what should be a clear-cut situation, the television station has been forced to go to the Commonwealth Court in an effort to determine not if a record is public - on that point everyone agrees - but when it should be released.
The conflict here is between the law governing the activities of county coroners and the open records provisions of the Right to Know Law.
In the case of the death of a Lancaster County student at Shippensburg University last year, a WGAL reporter sought from the Cumberland County coroner the official determination of the cause and manner of death of the student.
(We are not talking about autopsy reports here. Those are not public records under the Right to Know Law, and WGAL did not seek access to it in this case. A story in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era recently erred on this point.)
In cases they investigate, coroners are charged with determining the cause of death - a heart attack or gunshot wound, for example - and the manner of death, such as natural, accidental, suicide, etc.
This information has historically been public. Under the Coroners' Act, the cause and manner of deaths must be released by the end of January of the year following the death.
But the Right to Know Law requires the release of public records in a much speedier fashion. Indeed, in most cases it requires a response to an open records request within five days.
Citing the January deadline, the Cumberland County coroner refused WGAL's initial request in this case. The television station appealed this decision both to the state Office of Open Records and Cumberland County Court and unfortunately lost.
We agree with WGAL that as much as a 13-month delay in releasing cause and manner of death reports in no way meets the standards of the Right to Know Law, and we're puzzled why information that everyone agrees is public should be tied up like this.
It's regrettable that WGAL must go to the trouble and expense of appealing this case to the Commonwealth Court. We hope the judges there decide quickly in the station's favor.
We applaud WGAL's willingness to pursue this matter even though the cause and manner of death in this specific case have now been released under the January deadline. The bigger public access issue here still needs to be resolved.
Only through vigorous exercise like this will the Right to Know Law remain a living entity to serve the people of Pennsylvania.