[Bubba_Leroy]

I am pretty sure it is state law here that anyone who dies outside a hospital or not under the care of a physician has to get an autopsy?

Nope. Unless the circumstances are suspicious (such as in a fire) there generally is never an autopsy. In rural counties without a medical examiner, when a death occurs outside of a hospital, the local Justice of the Peace is called to pronounce the death and cause of death. Most JPs have no medical training.

In the case of the death of a Supreme Court Justice, I think an autopsy would have been warranted regardless of the circumstances, but the fact that no autopsy was performed in not surprising or unusual.

[Talisker]

Unless the circumstances are suspicious (such as in a fire) there generally is never an autopsy.

Please read post #18 and get back to us on that. Thanks.

[Quickgun]

I guess since this was a fire, and yes only a justice of the peace came to the scene, (if I remember correctly), that is why an autopsy was ordered.