It took the high profile of the George Floyd case to get Maryland officials to finally listen to the families of 36 people whose deaths in police custody should have been declared homicides, according to a new audit. Even worse, the study found that if the victim was Black, the medical examiner was less likely to declare their death as murder.
The former Maryland Chief Medical Examiner David Fowler was an expert witness for police officer Derek Chauvin in his trial for the murder of George Floyd. His evidence was so outrageous that more than 400 medical professionals published a letter demanding that all his cases be re-examined. They said his testimony about the cause of George Floyd’s death “was baseless, revealed obvious bias, and raised malpractice concerns.” Once it could no longer avoid investigating Fowler’s office, an audit began of the cases Fowler oversaw – the list of 36 homicides it improperly classified is the result. It’s shameful that it took this national publicity for the state to listen to what the victims’ families have been saying all along. One of the 36 victims was Tyrone West, whose sister Tawanda Jones has been campaigning for justice since his murder in July 2013. Her West Wednesday protests are famous in Baltimore – she’s held more than 600 to keep attention focused on her brother’s case.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the case is that Fowler’s office attributed nearly half of deaths to “excited delirium.” Police were allowed to get away with murder by saying that “excited delirium” made them agitated, erratic, and even impervious to pain, all while giving them super-human strength. The main organizations of psychologists, doctors, and even medical examiners have now all rejected the idea of “excited delirium” – this is a totally unscientific, baseless diagnosis. The damage it has done is immense though – especially to Black men, whose distress and fear at being targeted by police has been twisted into reasons to murder them. There’s even evidence that the makers of Tasers played a big role in promoting the lie of “excited delirium” to push their products and encourage people like Dr. Fowler to make legal excuses for them.
Throughout U.S. history, police have been used to enforce slavery and segregation and attack workers when they try to organize. And along the way, there are always companies like Taser, making a tidy profit from the whole disgusting thing. Never forget: The “order” in law and order is the capitalist order.
