If a person confined in the penitentiary or the North Dakota youth correctional center dies, the warden or superintendent immediately shall notify the coroner of Burleigh County or Morton County, as the case may be, or when there is a vacancy in the office, or the coroner is absent or unable to act, the state forensic examiner. The coroner or the state forensic examiner so notified immediately shall take possession of the body of the deceased and remove the body from the penitentiary or North Dakota youth correctional center and retain the body for at least twenty-four hours, and shall hold an inquest thereon and inquire carefully into the cause of the deceased’s death, in the manner provided by law in cases of persons supposed to have died by unlawful means. No officer or employee of the penitentiary or North Dakota youth correctional center may be placed or permitted to serve on the jury at the inquest.