2020 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 17 - Criminal Procedures
Chapter 7 - Autopsies And Inquest On The Dead
Section 17-7-20. Requirement of preliminary examination before formal inquest; issuance of burial permit, conclusion of inquiry or formal inquest.
Whenever a body is found dead and an investigation or inquest is deemed advisable the coroner or the magistrate acting as coroner, as the case may be, shall go to the body and examine the witnesses most likely to be able to explain the cause of death, take their testimony in writing and decide for himself whether there ought to be a trial or whether blame probably attaches to any living person for the death, and if so and if he shall receive the written request, if any, required by Section 17-7-50, he shall proceed to summon a jury and hold a formal inquest as required by law. But if there be, in his judgment, no apparent or probable blame against living persons as to the death he shall issue a burial permit and all further inquiry or formal inquest shall be dispensed with. Provided, however, that the coroner of Charleston County is authorized and empowered to issue a death certificate.
HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 17-91; 1952 Code Section 17-91; 1942 Code Section 1097; 1932 Code Section 1097; Cr. P. '22 Section 184; Cr. C. '12 Section 1027; Cr. C. '02 Section 729; 1894 (21) 825; 1964 (53) 2367.
