Snell v. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the judgment of the county court denying Appellant's complaint for relief in the nature of mandamus, holding that the single justice neither erred nor abused her discretion by denying relief.Appellant was convicted of first in the first degree. Appellant later requested from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) twenty-seven categories of documents concerning the medical examiner who performed an autopsy on the body of the victim. The OCME denied the request. Appellant appealed to the supervisor of records. The supervisor instructed the OCME to redact the records where necessary, provide them to Appellant, and to the extent the OCME claimed the records were exempt from disclosure, provide a response to support the exemption claim. When the OCME did not do so in a timely manner, Snell filed his complaint. The single justice denied relief. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding that where Appellant made no showing that the OCME had a clear cut duty to produce the documents or that the OCME was refusing to comply with the supervisor's instructions, Appellant failed to show that he was entitled to relief in the nature of mandamus. View "Snell v. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner" on Justia Law