Coroner, Discovery Studios forge deal to tell life-and-death stories from Sin City morgue

10/29/2011
BY KEN RITTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS — A producer and Clark County have inked a deal to bring stories about life and death in the Sin City coroner's office to cable TV.

Coroner Michael Murphy says the goal is to show how the choices people make when they're alive can affect when and how they die.

Most deaths aren't violent. Murphy says diabetes, heart disease and prescription drug abuse top the list of cases his office sees.

The Clark County Commission approved the deal with Discovery Studios LLC after a promise that the county will get $5,000 per episode.

County officials will screen edits to avoid showing personally identifiable characteristics.

A project executive calls the science, forensics and problem-solving the interesting part.

The deal also lets Murphy feature one unidentified death case each episode.