{"data":{"id":"us-ri/r.i.-gen.-laws-23-4-4","jurisdiction":"us-ri","citation":"R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-4-4","heading":"Jurisdiction.","body":"The office of state medical examiners shall have the authority to make postmortem examinations, to undertake inquests, and to perform autopsies where there may be in its judgment a reasonable belief that the manner of death could be pronounced as:\n(1) Death by a homicide, suicide, or casualty;\n(2) Death due to a criminal abortion;\n(3) Death due to an accident involving lack of due care on the part of a person other than the deceased;\n(4) Death which is the immediate or remote consequences of any physical or toxic injury incurred while the deceased person was employed;\n(5) Death due to the use of addictive or unidentifiable chemical agents; or\n(6) Death due to an infectious agent capable of spreading an epidemic within the state.","path":["Title 23 Health and Safety","Chapter 4 Office of State Medical Examiners"],"source_url":"https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE23/23-4/23-4-4.htm","current_through":"site files published 2025-08-13","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T19:56:37Z","sha256":"1ef5563119544c048c4f1c1ae0016027edb105e4c2bd2f8def157f6d647d0bb9","source_id":"us-ri","stale":true,"prev":"us-ri/r.i.-gen.-laws-23-4-3.1","next":"us-ri/r.i.-gen.-laws-23-4-4.1"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}