Had Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in Colorado instead of Texas, a justice of the peace would not have been able to decide whether his body should be subjected to an autopsy.

“Only a coroner, coroner investigator, or a physician can pronounce death,” in Colorado, said Gordon Johnson, Jefferson County deputy coroner, on Monday.

Once death is pronounced, the decision whether or not to order an autopsy is made.

In Texas, Presido County Judge Cinderela Guevara pronounced the 79-year-old Scalia dead of natural causes over the phone, according to The Washington Post. She decided not to order an autopsy after investigators told her there were no signs of foul play.

Scalia’s family also decided a private autopsy wasn’t needed, and asked that his remains be flown home.

But the decision to not perform an autopsy has set the Internet afire with conspiracy theories and tales of foul play.

The Washington Post also reports that William Ritchie, former head of criminal investigations for the District of Columbia police, wrote in a post on Facebook Sunday, “as a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia.”

Johnson said he didn’t know if the death of someone as high profile as Scalia, a conservative icon whose decisions on the bench have made him a lightning rod for criticism from the left, would prompt him to consider an autopsy.

“I don’t know, that is hypothetical. The Colorado statute pretty clearly defines when an autopsy is done, but ultimately it is up to the coroner’s office.”

It is not unusual to forgo an autopsy when the deceased is older than 60, said former Douglas County coroner Lora Thomas.

“If this case had happened in Douglas County while I was a coroner, and he was under the care of a primary care doctor, I would not have brought him in for an autopsy,” Thomas said.

She noted that coroners typically speak with the deceased’s doctor, examine medical records and perform an investigation at the scene.

Coroners at the scene of a death have quick access to the deceased’s medical records, Johnson said.

“We would respond and do an investigation to make sure there is no indication of trauma, any foul play or medication overuse,” Johnson said.

“Barring that and we determine everything is on the up-and-up and we have documentation of a medical history, we release the body to the mortuary,” Johnson said.

The Washington Post reported that an official who couldn’t be reached at the time of Scalia’s death said she would have made a different decision about the autopsy, although the family made it clear they didn’t want one.

“If it had been me . . . I would want to know,” Juanita Bishop, a justice of the peace in Presidio, Texas, told The Washington Post.

But, Thomas said, without indication of foul play, an autopsy wouldn’t be necessary.

“Unless there’s a huge red flag, we should not have performed an autopsy,” Thomas said. “We would not have used taxpayer dollars for an autopsy unless there was some reason or suspicion.”

Katy Canada: 303-954-1043, kcanada@denverpost.com or @KatySusanna