N.Y. CNT Law § 671

§ 671. General duties of coroner, or coroner and coroner's physician,\nor medical examiner; additional duties may be directed. 1. The coroner,\nor if he is not a physician duly licensed to practice medicine in this\nstate, the coroner and a coroner's physician, together, or in counties\nin which the office of coroner has been abolished, the medical examiner,\n (a) shall make inquiry into unnatural deaths within his county as\nprescribed by law;\n (b) shall make inquiry into all deaths whether natural or unnatural in\nhis county occurring to an inmate of a correctional facility as defined\nby subdivision three of section forty of the correction law, whether or\nnot the death occurred inside such facility.\n 2. The coroner shall perform such additional and related duties as may\nbe prescribed by law and directed by the board of supervisors.\n 3. In those counties in which the office of coroner has been\nabolished, the medical examiner shall perform such additional and\nrelated duties involving exercise of professional skills and training as\nmay be prescribed by the board of supervisors and the district attorney.\n