Yeah, pretty camping there. And river rafting. You mean things are done the old-fashioned way,?
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at a remote West Texas ranch and the bureaucratic confusion that followed it have sparked conspiracy theories and doubts about local officials’ decision to forgo an autopsy while turning national attention to the minutiae of Texas law regarding death.
A review of state and federal statutes and interviews with experts indicate that Presidio County officials followed the law in handling Scalia’s death. Whether they made the right decision in not ordering an autopsy, however, is up for debate.
Scalia was found dead Saturday morning while vacationing at the Cibolo Creek Ranch resort south of Marfa. The area’s justices of the peace, who usually handle death inquests, were unavailable. Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara took the case instead and, although she hadn’t seen Scalia’s body, declined to order an autopsy. The family of the 79-year-old justice, who has been ill, also declined an autopsy.
State law gives county judges the authority to handle death inquests in the absence of justices of the peace, it doesn’t prohibit death inquests from being done over the phone, and it doesn’t require autopsies for unattended deaths. Federal law requires autopsies for sitting presidents and vice presidents, but not for Supreme Court justices. Consequently, whether Guevara should have ordered an autopsy is a subjective matter, not a legal one.
https://www.statesman.com/news/20160816/was-justice-antonin-scalias-death-handled-properly