In 2023, Dr. Christopher Tape ran unopposed and was elected coroner of St. Tammany Parish. In St. Tammany, the Coroner’s Office doesn’t just investigate deaths – it also provides some mental health services and runs a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) team that serves St. Tammany’s 270,000 residents as well as four other neighboring parishes. A SANE nurse is specially trained to collect the evidence needed to prosecute sexual assault and care for survivors throughout the process.

Just before taking office in March of 2024, Dr. Tape announced that he would shut down the SANE program, firing all its nurses, and local hospitals would take over sexual assault response. The program was funded almost entirely by grants and federal money, but he said the reasons for the shutdown were financial. The decision sparked immediate backlash from nearby parishes and a lawsuit from an advocacy group, which argued that he didn’t have the authority to end a multi-parish program. The local hospitals also hadn’t been informed of the change in advance and were unprepared to take on the additional responsibility, officials said. A judge agreed with the lawsuit, temporarily blocking the shutdown, and by May of 2024 the program was officially transferred to the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office, which now employs the whole team. 

Opposition had already been building to Dr. Tape remaining in office, after a local news investigation uncovered that he had been charged with child sexual abuse decades earlier, and that he had previously been fired from his job as a pathologist at the St. Tammany Coroner’s Office, the very same office he now ran. His decision on the SANE program fueled calls from many local officials for him to resign, an organized recall effort to remove him from office (which eventually failed when the campaign didn’t meet the required amount of signatures), and even a state law specifically intended to disqualify him from running for reelection. Dr. Tape remains in office as of 2026, but organizers of the recall stated that the ordeal had shed light on the importance of this often-overlooked local position which would “undoubtedly influence future elections” and encourage the community to get involved.

Sources: the Guardian US; Louisiana Illuminator; the New Orleans Times-Picayune; Fox 8 News; Family First St. Tammany; Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:5771

Term limits: none; terms are four years

Eligibility: to run for Coroner, you must be eligible to vote in Louisiana, and must be a licensed physician who either lives in or runs a full-time medical practice in the parish you want to serve in. The requirement that a Coroner be a doctor can be waived if there are no doctors in the area who are willing to take on the job. The St. Tammany Parish Coroner has additional requirements.

Each parish in Louisiana has a Coroner, who is elected at-large by all the parish’s voters. Their main responsibilities are:

• Running the office and appointing deputies
  Deputies must have the same qualifications as the coroner does (mainly being a licensed physician), and Coroners can also hire outside experts to help with specific investigations
• Death investigations
  Coroners are required to look into any deaths that are violent, accidental, suspicious, or possibly connected to a crime
• Autopsies
  State law requires an autopsy when there’s a “reasonable probability” that the death was connected to a crime, or when ordered by a court; they also have the option to perform one whenever they feel it’s warranted
• Sexual assault investigations
  In some parishes, the Coroner oversees a team of specially trained nurses who collect evidence and care for survivors
• Orders of Protective Custody
  Coroners have the power to issue these orders, which allow police to force a person into mental health or substance use treatment if they’re posing an immediate danger to themselves or others

Sources: the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Qualifications of Candidates guide; the Louisiana Constitution; Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:5771; the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 101 and 102; the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the East Baton Rouge Coroner

Term limits: none; terms are four years

Eligibility: to run for any office in North Carolina, you must be at least 21 years old and eligible to vote in the state

Every county in North Carolina has officials who are responsible for investigating deaths, conducting autopsies, and determining cause of death. Traditionally an elected County Coroner carried out these duties, but in the 1960s, North Carolina created a centralized system where a state-level Chief Medical Examiner appoints deputies to investigate deaths in every county. Because of this centralized system, most counties have abolished the office, but as of 2026, at least one county (Yadkin) still elects a Coroner.

Because of the statewide Medical Examiner system, elected Coroners are not responsible for doing initial death examinations anymore. Coroners do have the power to convene inquests, which are more formal investigations involving witnesses and juries, to establish cause of death in cases where it’s unclear; state law also says that Coroners serve as Acting Sheriff if the elected Sheriff has to step down for any reason, until the county government can appoint a replacement. Most of the time, though, elected Coroners help members of their community out with the logistics involved in losing a loved one, such as helping family members get in touch with the state Medical Examiner’s office or request death certificates, and coordinate with Medical Examiners to file necessary paperwork. The role is part-time and either unpaid, or paid a small honorarium.

Sources: the North Carolina Constitution, Article VI; the North Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 130A, Chapter 152, and Chapter 162; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the News & Observer

Term limits: none; terms are four years

Eligibility: to serve in local government, you must be a registered Pennsylvania voter and have lived in the county you want to represent for at least one year. New Coroners must complete a 32-hour required course and pass an exam, unless they are already a licensed forensic pathologist. All Coroners also must complete at least 8 hours of continuing education a year.

Every county in Pennsylvania has a Coroner (a few are called Medical Examiners instead), and in every county except Allegheny and Philadelphia, Coroners are elected. The Coroner’s most important job is investigating deaths that occurred under potentially suspicious circumstances, and in other situations where a closer look is needed. Their main responsibilities are:

• Investigating potentially suspicious deaths
  Coroners must investigate deaths that are sudden, unexpected, potentially violent or traumatic, suspicious, or might have been caused by drugs, medical treatment, an operation, and/or contagious diseases or public health risk
• Investigating other types of deaths
  Including deaths where the body is unclaimed or unidentified; deaths that occurred in a prison, jail, penal facility or in police custody; stillbirths and deaths of babies due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; and deaths where the bodies are set to be cremated or disposed of in a way that will make it unavailable to be examined later
• Conducting autopsies for deaths that are sudden, violent, or suspicious, or where the cause can’t be determined after an initial investigation
• Appointing and supervising Deputy Coroners
  Deputies need to have the same qualifications and training as the Coroner. Depending on the size of the county, the Coroner might be a one-person office, have a few deputies, or supervise a large office
• Collaborating with law enforcement and other investigators
  When it’s suspected that a death might be connected to a crime, the Coroner works closely with agencies that are investigating

Sources: Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 16, Chapter 123 Section 12313 and Chapter 139; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Pennsylvania State Coroners’ Association; Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General