Inquests

For the sake of just giving general information, I am going to use Wikipedia as my only source. Please don't faint!

I was a little curious about these inquests that happen after every murder, and was kind of surprised that the process is not much changed in modern day England. The purpose of an inquest, is to ascertain the following:

• "Identity of the deceased;
• Place of death;
• Time of death; and
• How the deceased came by his [or her] death."

Basically, in questionable deaths, a coroner conducts a inquest to answer those questions but not anything else. Some are held with juries, some are not. Obviously coroners seem to have more responsibility in England than in the US.

Source