New Jersey's Attorney General is backing legislation to overhaul the state's decentralized medical examiner system.
The legislation transfers oversight of the medical examiner system from the Attorney General's office and creates an independent Office of Chief State Medical Examiner within the New Jersey Health Department.
Senate Health Committee chairman Joe Vitale says the key factor of the transfer is that it will ensure the independence the person in that new position.
"The medical examiner is really the chief pathologist for the state and his or her findings really ought to be the final word. And their investigations should not be impaired or impeded by any other department or anyone else's perceived or real agenda."
Some residents have questioned the findings of local medical examiners in death investigations.
Vitale says the Chief Medical Examiner would have supervisory authority over all medical examiners throughout the state and establish uniform procedures.
"Many of them do a great job and this isn't about them doing a good job. But at the end of the day there has to be the final word and the final say and the final arbiter and person in charge if any of those offices don't perform."