Lord Bracadale has resigned as chairperson of the Sheku Bayoh inquiry, more than two months after he refused to quit the post.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF), which represents rank and file officers, had previously questioned the former judge's impartiality.
The SPF raised concerns about Lord Bracadale's private meetings with the family of Mr Bayoh.
The father-of-two was 31 when he died in May 2015 after being restrained by six police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
Lord Bracadale confirmed his resignation in a letter to Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.
He said it followed a move by the SPF to raise a judicial review of his decision, on 13 August, to continue in his role.
Lord Bracadale wrote: “As the judicial review process developed it became clear that the concerns about my conduct had not been allayed by my decision and that the criticisms have persisted.
“As a result, it is now * clear to me that many of the core participants have lost confidence in my conduct of the Inquiry to such an extent that it cannot be retrieved.”
The inquiry has been examining what happened before and during the death of Sheku Bayou, who died in police custody.
It has been looking at how the police dealt with the aftermath, the investigation into Mr Bayoh's death and whether race was a factor.
Members of the public called the police after Mr Bayoh was spotted carrying a knife and behaving erratically in the streets of Kirkcaldy on 3 May 2015.
He was not carrying the knife when officers arrived at the scene but a violent confrontation followed, with up to six officers restraining the 31-year-old on the ground.
Mr Bayoh lost consciousness and later died in hospital.
