The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has ruled in favor of Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism director Brittany Hailer, who has long sought to liberate Allegheny County’s autopsy reports so the media and the public can hold public agencies accountable. This is a victory for transparency and for justice, especially for people who die in the custody of police or the county jail.

Ms. Hailer began this legal battle in December 2020 when she filed a Right-to-Know (RTK) request for the autopsy report for Daniel Pastorek, 63, who died in the custody of the Allegheny County Jail. The county rejected this request on the grounds that autopsy records, except for the name of the deceased and the cause and manner of death, are specifically exempted from the state’s RTK law.

However, the state’s Coroner’s Code directs county medical examiners to produce all autopsy records when they are requested and a fee is paid. Allegheny County had relied on ambiguous language in the code for first- and second-class counties to withhold these records, but the Commonwealth Court rightly determined that it is “absurd” that autopsy reports would be public records in every county except the two most populous, Allegheny and Philadelphia.

The decision means that any citizen or member of the media can receive a full autopsy report for $500, a toxicology report for $100 and other documents for other fees. More importantly, it means that the public can scrutinize the details of medical examiners’ records, which is essential because the cause and manner of death are technical determinations that, on their own, can be misleading.