From her residence in Baltimore final 12 months, Tawanda Jones watched police officer Derek Chauvin stand trial in a Minneapolis courtroom for the homicide of George Floyd. Whereas the content material of the extensively televised proceedings in 2021 was disturbing, for Jones probably the most troubling half was the testimony of skilled pathologist Dr. David Fowler. 

Showing on behalf of the officer accused in Floyd’s loss of life — documented within the notorious video displaying Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck — Fowler testified that the reason for loss of life couldn’t be decided: “That is a kind of instances the place you might have so many conflicting manners,” Fowler mentioned. “So I might fall again to undetermined.”

Fowler testified it was inconceivable to say what killed Floyd. 

Jones watched in disbelief. “I wished to knock my TV off the wall,” she mentioned.

Jones had seen Fowler log off on an identical conclusion within the case of her brother, who died in police custody in 2013 in Baltimore after a site visitors cease. As Maryland’s chief health worker for over 17 years earlier than leaving in 2019, Fowler oversaw greater than 1,300 instances involving deaths in custody.

Outrage about Fowler’s testimony on the Chauvin trial was felt each at residence in Maryland and throughout the medical group. Dr. Roger Mitchell, who was chief health worker in Washington, D.C. for seven years, wrote a letter to the Division of Justice and the Maryland Legal professional Common’s workplace accusing Fowler of “apparent bias” and “malpractice” within the Floyd case. 

Mitchell advised CBS that he felt compelled to behave. “To have that kind of study being proffered on the stand, I used to be appalled,” he mentioned. “I knew I needed to do one thing.”

Mitchell referred to as for an unbiased evaluation of the health worker’s determinations in 1,300 loss of life in custody instances that occurred throughout Fowler’s 17-year-long tenure in Maryland. Greater than 400 different medical professionals signed Mitchell’s letter. 

“There’s a tradition of deciding when there’s an altercation with regulation enforcement, that their manners of loss of life are referred to as accidents and undetermined,” Mitchell defined, including that prosecutors usually will not pursue attempting officers in instances the place the reason for loss of life was dominated unintended or undetermined. 

These questions have given rise to an uncommon — if not unprecedented — evaluation of autopsies in about 100 instances wherein folks had been restrained and died within the custody of police or corrections officers in Maryland. In response to the letter, the Maryland Legal professional Common’s workplace determined it ought to take a better look to verify the post-mortem studies precisely mirrored the causes attributed to the tons of of deaths in police custody throughout that point interval.

“Whenever you get a letter from 400 consultants saying, ‘One thing’s incorrect,’ there is a fairly good likelihood that they’ve one thing that you need to take a tough take a look at,” Maryland Legal professional Common Brian Frosh mentioned. “The massive query for us was: What occurred in Maryland?”

Fowler didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark from CBS Information. He beforehand mentioned in a press release that he’s “assured that any truthful evaluation will verify that the Workplace met or exceeded all relevant skilled requirements.”

Frosh has proceeded with an audit of some 1,300 instances, using consultants from across the nation. That effort has since narrowed to deal with about 100 instances wherein somebody died whereas in bodily restraint, and the health worker’s workplace discovered the reason for loss of life undetermined. He mentioned while you couple the questions on Fowler’s posture on the Floyd case “with the complaints of households of people that died in police custody saying ‘the identical factor occurred to my child,’ or ‘my father,’ or ‘my brother’ … it turns into apparent that one thing must be checked out.”

Jones believes her brother’s case is among the many 100 being reviewed, though neither Frosh nor others concerned would verify which instances have been chosen. She says the case warrants a evaluation.

Whereas chief health worker for Maryland, Fowler had signed off on a ruling that the way of loss of life “couldn’t be decided” in her brother’s case. Tyrone West  died in July 2013 after a site visitors cease resulted in an altercation with police. In accordance with the autopsy report from Fowler’s workplace, West ended up “inclined on the bottom,” however reportedly continued to withstand officers makes an attempt “to restrain and subdue him with using handcuffs and baton strikes.”

The wrestle continued till West “out of the blue grew to become unresponsive.”

“They only mentioned that my brother had some kind of well being situation and died in police restraint. That was their phrases. And we’re like, ‘What well being situation? Like, what are you speaking about?’” Jones mentioned. “They had been protecting up.”

Jones and her household wished a second opinion. An post-mortem commissioned by the household concluded that her brother died from an officer’s knee in his again leading to positional asphyxia. That is the identical means George Floyd died. 

Not one of the officers in West’s case confronted prison fees after an inner investigation cleared them of wrongdoing. In 2014, Jones, on behalf of her brother’s property, filed a wrongful loss of life lawsuit and reached a settlement settlement with the Metropolis of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. As a result of the settlement contained a non-disparagement clause, Jones mentioned she eliminated herself from the case so she might proceed to talk out. She advised CBS Information that she didn’t financially profit from the settlement, however the cash from the settlement went to West’s kids.

Frosh, who’s leaving workplace in January, wouldn’t verify whether or not West’s case was amongst these being reviewed, however West’s sister stays hopeful that he is not going to be forgotten. Frosh mentioned his purpose for not confirming the names related to instances below evaluation is that the method should stay uninfluenced by grieving households or cops. If any errors are present in these put up mortem rulings, officers concerned in these instances might be topic to prison fees. 

Frosh’s successor, Congressman Anthony Brown, will take over as legal professional common in January. He declined a request from CBS Information to touch upon the continuing evaluation.