Deaths
All suspicious, sudden and accidental deaths must be reported to the procurator fiscal, and they have a responsibility to identify if any criminal action has occurred and, where appropriate, prosecute. Where a criminal offence is suspected to have occurred the procurator fiscal will instruct the local police to investigate.
Fatal accidents can be subject to a Fatal Accident Inquiry, a form of judicial inquiry akin to an inquest but conducted without a jury. Fatal accident inquiries are conducted in the Sheriff Court. An inquiry must be held for all deaths in custody and fatal accidents, with other accidental deaths subject to inquiry at the discretion of the procurator fiscal.
Read more about this topic: Procurator Fiscal
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“I sang of death but had I known
The many deaths one must have died
Before he came to meet his own!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)
“You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes,
they waste their deaths on us.”
—C.D. Andrews (1913–1992)