2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 3 - Executive
Chapter 8 - Department of Justice
§ 115. Medical Examiners; general duties; investigation; advice; consultation, examinations; analyses and reports

(a) There shall be in the Department such Medical Examiners as the Governor deems necessary for the requirements of the Virgin Islands. A Medical Examiner shall be duly licensed to practice medicine in the Virgin Islands and shall have the following powers and duties:

• (1) to make inquiry into unnatural deaths as prescribed by law;

• (2) to investigate the death of every person dying within the Virgin Islands, or whose body is found within the Virgin Islands which is or appears to be:

  • (i) a violent death, whether by criminal violence, suicide or casualty;

  • (ii) a death caused by unlawful act or criminal neglect;

  • (iii) a death occurring in a suspicious, unusual or unexplained manner;

  • (iv) a death caused by suspected criminal abortion;

  • (v) a death while unattended by a physician, so far as can be discovered, or where no physician able to certify the cause of death as provided by law can be found;

  • (vi) a death of a person confined to a public institution other than a hospital, infirmary or nursing home;

• (3) to perform such additional and related duties involving the exercise of professional skills and training as may be prescribed by the Governor or the Attorney General.

(b) Whenever there is reason to believe that a death has occurred under any of the circumstances set forth in subsection (2) of subdivision (a) hereof, the Commissioner of Health or the Police Commissioner or their duly authorized representatives shall report the case to the Medical Examiner in the Judicial Division in which the death occurred. When the Medical Examiner is so informed of a death within his jurisdiction he shall go at once to the place where the body is and take charge of it. The Medical Examiner shall have the authority to the extent required for the investigation to remove and transport the body upon taking charge of it.

(c) The Medical Examiner shall fully investigate the essential facts concerning the death, taking the names and addresses of as many witnesses thereto as it may be practicable to obtain, and before leaving the premises shall reduce all such facts to writing. He shall take possession of any portable object which, in his opinion, may be useful in establishing the cause or means of death.

(d) In the course of the investigation, the Medical Examiner shall make or cause to be made such examinations, including an autopsy, as in his opinion is necessary to establish the cause of death, or to determine the means or manner of death, or to discover facts, which is requested in writing by the Attorney General, the United States Attorney or the Police Commissioner; Provided, however, the Medical Examiner, shall perform an autopsy, as provided under the provisions of this subsection, within 24 hours after he has taken charge of a body as provided under subsection (b) of this section. The authority to make any examination as provided in this section includes authority to remove, retain and transport or send, for the purpose of the examination, any tissue or organs and any portable object.

(e) The Medical Examiner shall have power to subpoena and examine witnesses under oath in the same manner as a court.

(f) The Medical Examiner shall have authority when necessary in his opinion to consult with and to request advice, consultation or other assistance from any officer of a department of the Virgin Islands, Government or from the head of any Department of Health or the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department (V.I.P.D.) or from any member of the staff of such laboratory designated for such purpose by the head thereof, or from any physician qualified to make postmortem examinations and to testify thereon; and to request from any such person such tests, examinations or analyses and reports with respect thereto as are necessary in his opinion, with respect to the body of the deceased or any part thereof or with respect to any other matter related to his investigation.