671 - General duties of coroner, or coroner and coroner's physician, or medical examiner; additional duties may be directed.

§  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 county occurring to an inmate 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.