§ 671. General duties of coroner, or coroner and coroner's physician,
or medical examiner; additional duties may be directed. 1. The coroner,
or if he is not a physician duly licensed to practice medicine in this
state, the coroner and a coroner's physician, together, or in counties
in which the office of coroner has been abolished, the medical examiner,

(a) shall make inquiry into unnatural deaths within his county as
prescribed by law;

(b) shall make inquiry into all deaths whether natural or unnatural in
his or her county occurring to an incarcerated individual of a
correctional facility as defined by subdivision three of section forty
of the correction law, whether or not the death occurred inside such
facility.

2. The coroner shall perform such additional and related duties as may
be prescribed by law and directed by the board of supervisors.

3. In those counties in which the office of coroner has been
abolished, the medical examiner shall perform such additional and
related duties involving exercise of professional skills and training as
may be prescribed by the board of supervisors and the district attorney.