Legislature(1993 - 1994)
04/05/1993 09:20 AM Senate STA
| Audio | Topic |
|---|
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
April 5, 1993
9:20 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Loren Leman, Chairman
Senator Mike Miller, Vice Chairman
Senator Robin Taylor
Senator Johnny Ellis
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Jim Duncan
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 145
"An Act establishing the position of state medical examiner;
and relating to preparation of death certificates."
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 64(FIN)
"An Act creating the crimes of stalking in the first and
second degrees and providing penalties for their violation;
providing a peace officer with the authority to arrest
without a warrant a person the peace officer has reasonable
cause to believe has committed stalking; relating to the
release before trial of a person accused of stalking;
prohibiting the suspension of imposition of sentence of a
person convicted of stalking; relating to the crime of
assault in the third degree; and providing for an effective
date."
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
SB 145 - No previous action to record.
HB 64 - See Judiciary minutes dated 3/22/93, 3/24/93,
and 3/31/93.
WITNESS REGISTER
Margo Knuth, Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division
Department of Law
P.O. Box 110300
Juneau, AK 99811-0300
POSITION STATEMENT: Discussed amendment to HB 64
Cindy Smith, Executive Director
Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault
419 6th St., #116
Juneau, AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Supports Dept. of Law amendment
to HB 64
Betty Hargrave, Staff to Senate HESS Committee
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 145
Dr. Peter Nakamura, Director
Division of Public Health
Department of Health & Social Services
P.O. Box 110610
Juneau, AK 99811-0610
POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 145
Art Snowden, Administrative Director
Alaska Court System
303 K St.
Anchorage, AK 99501-2084
POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 145
Dr. Don Rogers
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed to SB 145
Ken Bishoff, Director
Administrative Services
Department of Public Safety
P.O. Box 111200
Juneau, AK 99811-1200
POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 145
Elmer Lindstrom, Special Assistant to
the Commissioner
Department of Health & Social Services
P.O. Box 110601
Juneau, AK 99811-0601
POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 145
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 93-25 SIDE A
Number 001
The meeting of the Senate State Affairs Committee was called
to order by Chairman Loren Leman at 9:20 a.m.
SENATOR LEMAN brought CSHB 64(FIN) (ANTI-STALKING LAW)
before the committee.
SENATOR MILLER moved that SCS CSHB 64(STA) be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the motion carried.
Number 040
MARGO KNUTH, Criminal Division, Department of Law, said that
if there is to be an affirmative defense specifically set
out for this crime, she believes it is important to
acknowledge that it is a question of law for the judge to
decide. She suggested adding a sentence that is patterned
after existing statute, AS 11.76.110, that would accomplish
that. It is the same principle that applies for the
affirmative defenses to entrapment, mistake of law, and the
question of whether somebody was exercising their
constitutional rights.
Number 075
SENATOR TAYLOR moved the following amendment suggested by
Ms. Knuth:
Page 2, line 27: Following the word "section" add "whether
an act of the defendant is a constitutionally protected
activity is a question of law to be determined by the court
before trial".
SENATOR MILLER objected for discussion purposes. He said he
thinks a jury should have the ability to determine whether
this is a constitutionally protected activity. Because of
political questions, the judge may decide it is not a
constitutionally protected activity when in reality it may
be. MS. KNUTH said it is actually a question of law whether
it was constitutionally protected, and that actually isn't
something that can be changed. There is a factual component
to it and that will always remain with the jury. Questions
of law are decided by judges and questions of fact are
decided by juries.
Number 112
SENATOR TAYLOR withdrew his motion to adopt the amendment,
saying he thinks that the current state of the law is such
that whether this is inserted now or whether it is never
inserted into the bill, the question is still one that lies
within the jurisdiction of the court to determine.
Number 148
CINDY SMITH, Executive Director, Alaska Network on Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault, stated the Network's support of
the Department of Law's position. She urged that the
committee consider adopting the amendment.
Number 164
SENATOR MILLER moved that SCS CSHB 64(STA) be passed out of
committee with individual recommendations. Hearing no
objection, it was so ordered.
Number 180
SENATOR LEMAN introduced SB 145 (POSITION OF STATE MEDICAL
EXAMINER) as the next order of business.
BETTY HARGRAVE, staff to the Senate Health, Education &
Social Services Committee, read into the record a statement
by the committee chair, Senator Steve Rieger.
Currently, a coroner determines whether post mortem
examinations are necessary, physicians conduct the post
mortem examinations under a fee for service arrangement, and
the Department of Health and Social Services pays for the
exams and associated costs.
SB 145 creates a new position of state medical examiner in
the Department of Health and Social Services. It provides
that coroners may request the state medical examiner, under
regulations to be adopted by the department, to conduct an
external and/or internal examination of the body and to take
other appropriate actions to determine the cause of death
and to certify it.
It is the expectation of the Senate HESS Committee that a
state medical examiner will be able to reduce the total
number of post mortem exams performed by eliminating
unnecessary exams.
Number 225
SENATOR LEMAN asked if there was any existing procedure to
restrict the number of post mortem exams. MS. HARGRAVE
answered that at this time, the court system orders the
autopsy and the Department of Health and Social Services has
no choice as to whether or not they perform it.
Number 245
DR. PETER NAKAMURA, Director, Division of Public Health,
Department of Health and Social Services, explained that for
any determination of death, perhaps related to a crime or a
public health medical issue, the program allows that
determination to be made. Without this service, many crimes
and many public health issues would go unaddressed and
unidentified. He said they have a good system in place for
making these determinations. However, the monies made
available to support this program have been inadequate for
the past eight years. It is projected that without
additional resources they could experience a shortfall of
$250,000 this year.
The department's response to the absence of adequate funding
to run the program is to try to control these expenditures.
They feel that by having a medical examiner system in place
they would have the opportunity to have the fiscal
responsibility in the same location as the responsibility
for determining who should and who should not have an
autopsy performed.
Dr. Nakamura related that the State of Alaska ranks the
highest in the percentage of death autopsies. Part of this
is explained by the higher number of deaths that occur
outside of hospitals. However, even with that adjustment,
Alaska is still third in the nation in terms of the
frequency of examinations.
Dr. Nakamura noted that the bill calls for a licensed
physician, but he stressed the importance of having a
licensed forensic pathologist.
Number 355
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if there was a definition to the phrase
"cause of death." AL ZANGRI, Bureau of Vital Statistics,
Department of Health and Social Services, responded there
are two issues when a death occurs. The first is the manner
of death and that is a legal determination that addresses
the question and the coroner is responsible for answering.
The second issue is the cause of death and that is a medical
question. The problem that the system has right now is that
there is nobody internal to the system that is medically
qualified to make cause of death determinations and the
department has to contract out for all cause of death.
Number 460
SENATOR TAYLOR commented that he is in favor of the bill
because he wants a system that works more efficiently than
the current system, but he is concerned that there will only
be one medical examiner and that medical examiner is going
to have to rely heavily upon somebody at another site,
otherwise they will have to continue shipping bodies to
other locations to determine the cause of death. DR.
NAKAMURA said they will still have contractual arrangements
with the medical forensic pathologists in the state. By
having an individual who is responsible for this program,
their hopes are that there will be enough communication and
enough control of the program so that those forensic
pathologists under contract will be working very closely
with the state medical examiner system.
Number 485
ART SNOWDEN, Administrative Director, Alaska Court System,
stated the court system's support for SB 145.
Mr. Snowden said there are a number of magistrates in rural
Alaska that are charged under present law with being
coroners and that there must be a cause of death stated. So
there is someone who is completely untrained in medicine
trying to make a determination on the cause of death.
Because magistrates are not capable of giving medical
diagnosis on unattended deaths, the court system seeks
autopsies which creates tremendous problems in rural Alaska.
Mr. Snowden pointed out that approximately 35 to 40 states
have medical examiner types of organization. He said he
believes that Alaska should go to a medical examiner system
because the judicial branch of government is not qualified
to make those medical determinations.
Mr. Snowden said the bill will help save money and that it
will still take care of the public safety requirements and
the prosecution requirements.
Number 535
SENATOR LEMAN questioned if there really would be a savings
with this new system. ART SNOWDEN answered that it is
projected that there will be over a $100,000 savings a year
and that the savings may increase as time goes on.
DR. NAKAMURA added that part of the medical examiner system
will be the responsibility to train not only those within
the present coroner system but physicians in rural areas to
better be able to respond to these things in a way that they
can short circuit some of these referrals for autopsies. By
having a medical examiner in the state system, they would
have the ability to liaison and coordinate with the other
practitioners and other health care systems in the state.
Number 570
DR. DON ROGERS, a forensic pathologist testifying from
Anchorage via the teleconference network, related that he
has been practicing forensic pathology in the state for the
past 26 years and that he is one of three board certified
forensic pathologists in the State of Alaska.
Dr. Rogers stated his opposition to SB 145, saying he thinks
it sets up another layer of bureaucracy and will not help
anything. He said the fastest way to get a cause of death
now is to do it the way they are doing it now.
TAPE 93-25, SIDE B
Number 015
Dr. Rogers said he thinks that Alaska's high ranking in the
number of autopsies that are performed is good because he
thinks Alaska is doing a better job than any other state.
Dr. Rogers commented that he thinks that reductions in costs
can be made in the present system, and the only savings he
can see in this bill is possibly in the transportation
costs.
Number 080
SENATOR LEMAN asked Dr. Rogers if he had specific
suggestions on ways to save money within the present system
and if there would be any benefit to having the services of
the forensic pathologists to be under the court system
rather than under the Department of Health and Social
Services. DR. ROGERS answered that a couple of years ago
the court system shifted the burden of payment to the
Department of Health and Social Services, and he thinks the
payment function should be sent back to the court system and
then everything would be in the court system. He added that
it wouldn't save money, but it would streamline the system.
He suggested that perhaps a fee structure could be developed
for some kind of a limited autopsy. ART SNOWDEN said he can
see no savings under the court system. They are going to
order these autopsies anyway because the regulations demand
that those regulations are in the executive branch where
also the expertise is.
Number 175
KEN BISHOFF, Director of Administrative Services, Department
of Public Safety, voiced the department's support for SB
145, saying they would support anything that could help
control the costs because the department is directly
impacted by doing more than 60 percent of those autopsies in
their facilities.
Mr. Bishoff urged support of the Governor's amendment for
the crime lab related to the impact from this work which has
never been funded. Because the Department of Public Safety
happens to have a crime lab that is fairly well equipped for
this purpose it has become the major facility in state
government in recent years for this service to be provided.
He noted the competition for the crime lab's services is
tremendous in that they did 10 autopsies in 1988 and this
year they expect to do 600 autopsies.
Number 207
DR. ROGERS commented that they used to do the autopsies in
the funeral homes, but when the crime lab was built,
somebody decided that they needed to justify its existence,
so the crime lab set the policy at the beginning. KEN
BISHOFF responded that if they were doing a criminal case,
the funeral parlors were not exactly the best place to keep
control over the evidence so that it would withstand holding
up in court. ART SNOWDEN added that he did support the
crime lab and during all the testimony on the crime lab it
was envisioned that autopsies would be done at the lab.
Number 260
SENATOR LEMAN stated the committee would return briefly to
HB 64 for consideration of a proposed Senate Letter of
Intent.
SENATOR MILLER moved that the Senate Letter of Intent be
adopted. Hearing no objection, the motion carried.
Number 272
ELMER LINDSTROM, Special Assistant to Commissioner Mala,
Department of Health and Social Services, stated the
department supports the concerns and the fiscal note of the
Department of Public Safety.
Number 285
There being no further witnesses wishing to testify on SB
145, SENATOR LEMAN stated it would be held over until the
Wednesday meeting. He then adjourned the meeting at 10:30
a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|