'Overdose killed Anna Nicole's son'

A Bahamas jury ruled that the death of Anna Nicole Smith's son in September 2006 resulted from an accidental drug overdose and recommended no criminal charges.

The seven-member jury deliberated for less than two hours before delivering the unanimous verdict in the inquest into the death of 20-year-old Daniel Smith.

Magistrate William Campbell said the decision by the Coroner's Court jury ends the case as far as the courts on the Atlantic islands were concerned.

Mr Smith lost consciousness and died at his mother's bedside while visiting her in the Bahamas on September 10 2006. The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star had given birth three days earlier to a girl, Dannielynn, in a Nassau hospital.

Police had said there was no evidence of murder, and post-mortem examinations found that Mr Smith died from a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants. But Bahamian authorities ordered the inquest amid widespread speculation over the circumstances surrounding his death.

In its ruling, the jury said the cause of death was "non-dependent use of drugs," meaning that Mr Smith was not addicted and was not aware the drugs in his system would kill him.

Ms Smith died in Florida in February last year at the age of 39 from an accidental drug overdose.