Morgan County coroner Jeffrey S. Chunn is urging Alabama lawmakers to amend pending legislation to include coroners and death investigators in new legal protections for first responders.
Chunn, who has served as coroner for Morgan County, Alabama for 15 years after retiring from law enforcement, said the current version of Alabama Senate Bill 293 excludes coroners from protections that would apply to police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel.
The bill, sponsored by State Sen. April Weaver (R-Brierfield), would create a new criminal offense for interfering with a first responder while they are performing their duties.
Under the proposal, individuals who remain within 25 feet of a first responder after being ordered to leave, and who impede, threaten or make physical contact with the responder, could face a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $6,000.
Chunn said coroners regularly face similar risks at death scenes but are not currently included in the bill’s definition of first responders.
“What many lawmakers may not fully appreciate is how routinely coroners and death investigators respond to scenes without any law enforcement present,” Chunn said. “A coroner arrives, works and leaves alone.”
Chunn said that in rural and suburban counties, it’s common for coroners to arrive at a scene before deputies or to remain alone once law enforcement determines a death is non-criminal.
In his experience, he said that can leave coroners vulnerable when dealing with grieving family members, bystanders or others who may interfere with a death investigation.
“I have personally been surrounded by hostile individuals demanding I leave a scene, had evidence disturbed by those who refused to comply with my lawful authority and been placed in situations where I had no legal mechanism to compel cooperation,” Chunn said.
He argues the current law creates what he describes as a two-tiered system of protection, where interfering with police, firefighters or EMS personnel carries criminal penalties, but similar actions against coroners do not.
“This disparity is not theoretical,” Chunn said. “It places coroners at measurably greater risk simply because the law has not kept pace with the reality of how death investigation is conducted in the field.”
Chunn said he and representatives from the Alabama Coroners Association and the Alabama Coroners Training Commission recently met with legislators to request an amendment to the bill that would extend protections to coroners and medicolegal death investigators.
Advocates say other states, including Texas, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, South Carolina and Indiana, have already moved to recognize death investigators as first responders.
Chunn said the designation would not only provide criminal protections but could also open access to mental health and support resources commonly available to other emergency personnel.
“Coroners are legally mandated to respond to every death — homicides, accidents, suicides and mass casualty events,” he said. “Every individual legally required to respond to death in this state should be afforded the dignity and protection that duty demands.”
As the legislation continues moving through the Alabama Legislature, Chunn said he hopes lawmakers will reconsider the bill’s language and include coroners among those protected under the proposed law.
