The Scottish equivalent of an inquest is a Fatal Accident Inquiry, held where there is a sudden, suspicious, accidental, or unexplained death, which is ordered by a Procurator Fiscal and presided over by a Sheriff without a jury.
Under the Coroners Act 1988,[1] a jury is only required to be convened in cases where the death occurred in prison, police custody, or in circumstances which may affect public health or safety.
This change came about after a coroner's jury charged Lord Lucan in 1975 in the death of Sandra Rivett, his children's nanny.
[2] A coroner's jury deemed Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and their posse guilty in the death of Frank Stilwell in March 1882.
[4] A coroner's jury ruled that the 2018 Hart family crash in Mendocino County, California was deliberate.