Gov. Little signs bill that will reform the roles Idaho coroners have in death investigations

The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise on Jan. 23, 2024. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)

Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Tuesday signed into law a bill to clarify Idaho coroners’ roles in death investigations.

Senate Bill 1101 — developed with Idaho county coroners — is in response to a critical state government watchdog report that found inconsistencies in death investigations across Idaho, driven by sparse guidance in state law.

The Idaho Legislature widely supported the bill, with only 16 votes against the bill compared to 85 votes in support across the House and Senate. 

The bill takes effect July 1.

In Idaho, coroners are an elected, county-level position outlined in the state’s constitution.

In 2024, a watchdog report by the Office of Performance Evaluations found deaths in Idaho were half as likely to undergo autopsies than the national rate — and that Idaho had the lowest homicide autopsy rate in the nation.

In December, a ProPublica investigation found a decades-long pattern of failed attempts to reform Idaho’s coroner system.

The bill was cosponsored by all eight lawmakers who serve on the Legislature’s bipartisan Joint Legislative Oversight Committee. The Idaho Sheriffs’ Association and the Idaho Association of Counties supported the bill.

“If we’re going to get justice for victims, this is an important part of the puzzle of criminal justice,” Idaho Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, who cosponsored the bill, said on the Senate floor.

Wintrow told senators her bill is addressing coroners’ duties, responsibilities and training, but doesn’t necessarily address the watchdog report’s oversight recommendation.

She said she was confident the bill was a good first step, but coroners will continue working to improve Idaho’s coroner system. 

The bill would expand the death conditions specified in Idaho law under which coroner investigations are required.

Clarifying the legal roles of coroners and law enforcement in death investigations was among several recommendations in the nearly 100-page watchdog report.

Under the bill, an Idaho coroner “shall be a medicolegal death investigator … charged with the responsibility of determining or certifying the cause and manner of death for those deaths properly the responsibility of the coroner.” 

Law enforcement will be responsible for criminal investigations, the bill says. 

Some Idaho coroners “rely on law enforcement to conduct death investigations on their behalf,” the watchdog report found, which is “contrary to established best practices that say there should be separate, though cooperative, death investigations conducted by law enforcement and coroners.”