Opinion No. (2010)

EDMUND G. BROWN JR. Attorney General MARC J. NOLAN Deputy Attorney General THE HONORABLE JAN SCULLY, DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR THE COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO, has requested an opinion on the following questions: 1. For purposes of forensic data collection under the DNA and Forensic Identification Database and Data Bank Act, may a county coroner's office 1 lawfully provide the Department of Justice DNA Laboratory with access to blood specimens or other biological samples that it has obtained, in the ordinary course of its postmortem investigation, from a deceased inmate or parolee who died while under the jurisdiction of *Page 2 the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after having been convicted of a qualifying criminal offense? 2. If a county coroner's office may lawfully provide the Department of Justice DNA Laboratory with access to forensic identifying material from a qualifying deceased inmate or parolee, is it required to notify the decedent's next of kin before doing so? 3. If a county coroner's office may lawfully provide the Department of Justice DNA Laboratory with access to forensic identifying material from a qualifying deceased inmate or parolee, can it be…