Ala. Code § 45-49-171.64: Authority of Medical Examiner in Death Investigations.

While investigating a death hereunder, the County Medical Examiner of Mobile County shall be authorized to take charge of the dead body, and he, she, or a law enforcement officer having jurisdiction, or the medical examiner’s legal designee, may take possession and examine or have examined related physical evidence on or about the body at the scene as may be useful in establishing identity of the deceased or the cause, manner, and circumstances of death, or both. The county medical examiner shall examine the body and take, retain, and examine or have examined whatever tissues, biological fluids, or other evidence from the body he or she deems necessary to determine the cause, manner, and circumstances of death and the identity of the deceased.