Autopsies misclassified deaths in police custody that were homicides, Maryland officials say - WTOP News
Source: Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — An audit of Maryland autopsies has uncovered at least 36 deaths in police custody that should have been considered homicides, state officials announced Thursday following a comprehensive review of such cases spurred by widespread concerns about the former state medical examiner’s testimony in the death of George Floyd.
Medical examiners under Dr. David Fowler displayed racial and pro-police bias, according to the review. They were “especially unlikely to classify a death as a homicide if the decedent was Black, or if they died after being restrained by police,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said during a news conference.
The auditors reviewed 87 in-custody death cases after medical experts called Fowler’s work into question because he testified that police weren’t responsible for Floyd’s death. The Maryland team focused on cases in which people died suddenly after being restrained, often by police, officials said.
Three-person panels evaluated each autopsy and, in 36 cases, they unanimously concluded that the deaths should have been classified as homicides but were not. In five more cases, two of the three reviewers came to that conclusion.
Read more: https://wtop.com/maryland/2025/05/autopsies-misclassified-in-custody-deaths-that-were-actually-homicides-maryland-officials-say/
What raised flags? Besides local questions, Fowler was noticed after he retired and was called BY THE DEFENSE in the Minneapolis trial of police Officer Derek Chauvin, who attributed George Floyd’s death to a sudden heart rhythm disturbance as a result of his heart disease.
The prosecution's medical examiner tore that to hell and back!
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