Art. 49.15. INQUEST RECORD. (a) A justice of the peace or other person authorized under this subchapter to conduct an inquest shall make an inquest record for each inquest he conducts. The inquest record must include a report of the events, proceedings, findings, and conclusions of the inquest. The record must also include any autopsy prepared in the case and all other papers of the case. All papers of the inquest record must be marked with the case number and be clearly indexed and be maintained in the office of the justice of the peace and be made available to the appropriate officials upon request.
(b) As part of the inquest record, the justice of the peace shall make and keep complete and permanent records of all inquest hearings. The inquest hearing records must include:
(1) the name of the deceased person or, if the person is unidentified, a description of the body;
(2) the time, date, and place where the body was found;
(3) the time, date, and place where the inquest was held;
(4) the name of every witness who testified at the inquest;
(5) the name of every person who provided to the justice information pertinent to the inquest;
(6) the amount of bail set for each witness and person charged in the death;
(7) a transcript of the testimony given by each witness at the inquest hearing;
(8) the autopsy report, if an autopsy was performed; and
(9) the name of every person arrested as a suspect in the death who appeared at the inquest and the details of that person's arrest.
(c) The commissioners court shall pay a reasonable fee to a person who records or transcribes sworn testimony during an inquest hearing.
(d) The justice of the peace shall certify a copy of the inquest summary report and deliver the certified copy in a sealed envelope to the clerk of the district court. The clerk of the district court shall retain the summary report subject to an order by the district court.
Amended by Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 529, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987.
Article: Previous 49.07 49.08 49.09 49.10 49.11 49.12 49.14 49.15 49.16 49.17 49.18 49.19 49.20 49.21 49.22 NextLast modified: September 28, 2016