Does a Coroner have a duty to perform blood or urine tests?

General Duty to Determine Manner and Cause of Death

Under California Government Code §27491 a coroner must determine the manner and cause of all violent, sudden or unusual deaths or deaths where the deceased has not been seen by a physician in the 20 days before death.

There are approximately 22 types of death that a coroner has mandatory duty to investigate. Please see my article “Types of Deaths Coroner Must Investigate” for the full list.

For purposes of this article, the most common deaths requiring a “manner and cause of death determination” are suicides, homicides, accidental deaths, drownings, in-custody deaths, and fires.

As part of this mandatory duty, the coroner frequently makes use of laboratory tests of blood collected from a deceased person.

• Types of Deaths Coroner Must Investigate

Drugs Regularly Tested For

A 10 panel immunoassay drug screen is quite normal. Blood is screened for:

• Amphetamines
• Benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium/Xanax)
• Cannabinoids
• Cocaine and/or Metabolite
• Opiates
• Phencyclidine (PCP)
• Carisoprodol (Muscle Relaxers)
• Fentanyl
• Oxycodone
• Zolpidem (Insomnia Drugs)

Motor Vehicle Accidents

California coroners have an affirmative duty to take the blood and urine samples from the body of the deceased and perform chemical tests to determine alcoholic contents when the deceased person was driving or riding in a motor vehicle, or was killed as a result of the deceased person being struck by a motor vehicle.

So to be clear, the deceased person does not have to be suspected of using alcohol in order to have his/her blood tested, instead the law says that even persons who were struck by a motor vehicle (e.g. a deceased pedestrian or a deceased passenger in a motor vehicle) must have their alcohol contents measured.

In such cases, the coroner also has discretionary power to test the blood and urine for barbiturates and amphetamines.

Source: Cal. Govt Code §27491.25

Common Practice

In practice, Coroners almost always collect blood and urine samples as part of their normal autopsy protocol. This is true even when a death does not arise from a motor vehicle accident.

A 10 panel immunoassay drug screen is quite normal. Blood is screened for Amphetamines, Benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium/Xanax), Cannabinoids, Cocaine and/or Metabolite, Opiates, Phencyclidine (PCP), Carisoprodol (Muscle Relaxers), Fentanyl, Oxycodone And Zolpidem (Insomnia Drugs).

In cases where a person's death is fire related, it is common to test for carboxyhemoglobin saturation rates (i.e., carbon monoxide poisoning). This may provide coroner's with that ability to determine if a person was breathing in smoke at time of death as opposed to having been deceased prior to the fire.