The medical examiner is responsible for the identity of the deceased and the time, date, place, cause, manner and circumstances of death on the death certificate. Entries may be left "pending" if further study is needed; or, at the specific direction of the Attorney General relative to cases under investigation by the Attorney General's office, entries must be left "withheld" until such time as the Attorney General, in the Attorney General's sole discretion, determines that any criminal investigation and prosecution will not be harmed by public disclosure of such information. Notwithstanding section 2706, subsection 4, unless directed otherwise by the Attorney General as specified in this subsection, this information for which the medical examiner is responsible may be made available to the general public by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Sec. 3. 22 MRSA §2845, as amended by PL 2001, c. 574, §30, is further amended to read:

§2845. Certificate of death typewritten or hand printed

Any death certificate required to be filed by this chapter must be typewritten or handwritten in block type legibly hand printed prior to such filing.

Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this Act takes effect when approved.