Nearly six years after then-Gov. John Hickenlooper vetoed a bill to seal autopsy reports on minors, Colorado’s county coroners are again trying to restrict public access to those records.
“History shows that bringing tragedies to the public’s attention is the greatest catalyst for public policy change,” Hickenlooper wrote in a letter explaining why he vetoed Senate Bill 18-223. “Transparency can lead to enhanced government protections, greater public and private resources, and heightened public understanding and demand for change.”
But the coroners’ association argued then, and continues to argue, that legislation is necessary to protect the privacy of families of children who have died.
Under current law, autopsy reports are specifically excluded from an exemption for medical records in the Colorado Open Records Act. An autopsy report on a homicide victim may be withheld from a requester only under the legal procedure specified in CORA for denying access based on “substantial injury to the public interest.” A coroner must apply to the district court for an order authorizing the withholding of an autopsy report under that standard.