AR HB1158

Amends Arkansas Code § 12-12-317 to require the State Medical Examiner or designee to list the manner of death as "Pursuant to a judicial sentence of death — Execution" for persons executed for capital offenses.

Requires the cause of death to be listed as either "electrocution" or "lethal injection", as applicable, for executed individuals.

Establishes that the examiner or designee must sign the death certificate for executed persons and makes specific provisions for execution-related deaths separate from other investigated deaths.

Requires the State Crime Laboratory to be notified when a petition is filed to change the cause or manner of death on an executed person's death certificate, and allows the examiner to present evidence supporting the original death certificate entry.

Approved March 8, 2017.