§12-19-193. Fees for inquest; fees, etc., for postmortem examinations; payment of fees to coroners for services rendered in discharging duties of sheriff.

(a) Fees for holding inquest shall be paid out of the county treasury, when the inquest has been held under the order of a judge of a court of record or district attorney, and such fees must be also certified by the coroner to the clerk of the circuit court of the county and must be taxed as costs against any person who is convicted for killing the person on whose body the inquest was held and be collected like other costs in criminal cases and, when collected in cases in which the county has paid the same, shall be paid to the county treasurer for the use of the county and, in other cases, to the coroner.

(b) No fees shall be paid for an inquest when it is publicly known before the jury is summoned who caused the death of the deceased or when the slayer has been arrested for the homicide; but, in such case, if the immediate cause of the death is uncertain, a physician or surgeon may be summoned to make a postmortem examination, who shall give his opinion in writing as to the cause of the death, which must be returned by the coroner as inquests are returned by him, and such coroner, physician or surgeon shall be entitled to the same fee and mileage, to be paid in the same manner as for attending an inquest.

(c) Such fees as accrue to coroners for services rendered by them in discharging duties of sheriffs must be paid in the same manner that sheriffs' fees for like services were paid on December 18, 1973.

(Code 1852, §791; Code 1867, §4342; Code 1876, §5046; Code 1886, §4876; Code 1896, §4573; Code 1907, §6649; Code 1923, §3752; Code 1940, T. 11, §95; Acts 1959, No. 601, p. 1490, §2; Acts 1975, No. 1205, p. 2384, §16-153.)