| ESPN Network: ESPN.com | RPM | NFL.com | NBA.com | NHL.com | ESPNdeportes | ABCSports | EXPN | FANTASY | |
|
|
|
| |
 |
  |
 |
 Start your engines! Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge! Win a Honda S2000! Play The CART Challenge powered by Honda! |
Wednesday, March 21 Judges could allow viewings Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Senate committee unanimously approved a bill written on behalf of Dale Earnhardt's widow that would keep autopsy photos sealed. The legislation is needed to keep autopsy photos of the NASCAR driver and others off of Web sites like the Gallery of the Grotesque, Death n Dementia, Celebrity Morgue, Faces of Death and the Dead Body Picture Page, said bill sponsor Sen. Jim King. "Twenty years ago there was no such thing as the Internet," said King, R-Jacksonville. "Today we live in a world where a picture taken from your own home can be transmitted almost galactically." The bill (CS SB 1356) approved by the Senate Governmental Oversight and Productivity Committee requires a person to get a judge's permission to inspect autopsy photos or videos. It also gives surviving spouses the first right of access to the materials, followed by the surviving parents and adult children. The full Senate is expected to take up the bill next week. A companion bill (HB 1083) was scheduled to be heard in the House on Thursday. Teresa Earnhardt asked King to file a bill after the Orlando Sentinel requested copies of her husband's autopsy photos. The newspaper said it did not plan to publish the photos, but wanted an independent expert to review them. Teresa Earnhardt sued to keep the photos sealed and reached a settlement with the newspaper last week. Earnhardt died last month in a crash in the Daytona 500. Under the agreement, an independent medical expert will look at the photos and then submit a report to the newspaper and the Earnhardt family on the cause of death and an explanation of certain head injuries. The photos then will be permanently sealed as requested by Teresa Earnhardt. Thom Rumburger, an attorney for Teresa Earnhardt, said the bill would still give the public access, but would "prevent them from just walking in and grabbing the photos." Autopsy photos are public records under Florida law. Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville, a former state attorney, argued that tabloids have the same access as other newspapers to public records and might not show as much restraint in publishing the gruesome details of celebrity deaths. "The issue is who has to start the process," said Smith, who prosecuted Gainesville serial killer Danny Rolling. A judge allowed the gruesome photos of Rolling's five victims to be viewed by the public under strict supervision at a courthouse over the privacy concerns of the victims' families. Also Wednesday, the president of a Web site that is seeking access to Earnhardt's autopsy photos requested all audio recordings from the autopsy. Michael Uribe, president of websitecity.com, filed a motion in Volusia County Circuit Court requesting audio copies of any videotape or cassette tape recordings the medical examiner's staff made during the autopsy. But Dave Byron, a Volusia County spokesman, said it would be impossible to make a copy of the audio report that the staff made during the autopsy because the audio system used is digital and goes straight into a computer. Uribe, who was unavailable for comment, already has a transcript of the tape and could schedule an appointment to listen to the recording at the medical examiner's office, Byron said. David Bralow, an attorney representing the Sentinel, told the Senate committee the newspaper wanted to determine if a head restraint device would have assisted in preventing the driver's death. The Orlando Sentinel will get a chance to air its concerns that a NASCAR medical expert viewed the autopsy photos while the newspaper didn't get the same chance. Lawyers for the Sentinel and Earnhardt's widow have scheduled a mediation session for Thursday in Daytona Beach. "This case isn't about the Internet," Bralow said. "This case is about NASCAR looking at the records, sealing the records and trying to control who has access." But Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, disputed that. "I don't think this has anything more to do with NASCAR than it does with a Pulitzer Prize," Posey said.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Copyright ©2001 ESPN Internet Ventures. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information are applicable to this site. Click here for a list of employment opportunities at ESPN.com. |
