|
|
 |
 |
  |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
'Retroactive legislation' Newspaper files new request to see autopsy photos
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A University of Florida student newspaper Thursday filed a new request to see the Dale Earnhardt autopsy photos. The new cross-claim filed by the Independent Florida Alligator against the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office addresses developments in the case that weren't present when the original request was filed last month. A Deland-based Web site also is seeking access to the autopsy photos. The new cross-claim challenges the constitutionality of a state law passed late last month restricting access to autopsy photos and argues that it can't be applied retroactively to the Earnhardt autopsy photos. "It is an improper attempt to adopt retroactive legislation that will deny [the newspaper's] substantive, statutory and constitutional rights of access to the documents requested," attorney Tom Julin wrote in the motion. The medical examiner's office needs to respond to the motion and then a hearing likely will be scheduled. Volusia County spokesman Dave Byron said the county will argue that the law and a judge's order keeps the medical examiner's office from providing the photos. "If you ask me for those photographs today, I can't give them to you or any other autopsy photographs," Byron said. Autopsy photos used to be public records in Florida, but Gov. Jeb Bush signed a measure late last month making it a felony for a medical examiner to make the photos public. The Orlando Sentinel and the Sun-Sentinel of South Florida challenged the constitutionality of the new law in a lawsuit filed late last month. In an editorial published Thursday, the Sentinel urged Florida lawmakers to require a full, independent investigation by law enforcement officers of any fatal crash at a speedway. The current system, which allows local law enforcement agencies to decide whether to investigate such fatal crashes, lends itself to abuse, the editorial said. "It allows a cozy relationship between a business and a city to compromise an important investigation," the Sentinel said.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
