19-05-2025
Maryland families see hope in new autopsy reviews of in-police custody deaths
Maryland families hope to see change as the attorney general's office reviews more than 40 deaths in police custody across the state.
WJZ Investigates is continuing to follow a landmark audit that revealed many of the cases should have been classified as homicides but were often misclassified as accidents initially.
ACLU response
The cases, including the deaths of Anton Black and Tyrone West in police custody, hinged on the opinion of Maryland's former chief medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler.
The audit found possible pro-police and racial biases in determining why someone died when they were restrained by officers.
"I'm not aware of anything this sweeping in its scope and this damning in its findings," Sonia Kumar, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said about the audit.
Sonia Kumar and the ACLU previously secured a landmark settlement for the family of Anton Black, a teenager restrained by police on the Eastern Shore. It required the chief medical examiner to follow new standards.
"From our perspective, we wanted more," Kumar said. "There were a lot of changes further that we thought were needed. You had a teenager who died after being restrained by three police officers, and the official cause of death at the time was listed as an accident. …The medical examiner claimed he died of bipolar, which is a mental health condition that does not cause death, and a heart condition that the family later learned was something that was completely benign."
Fowler's testimony
Despite Black's family sounding the alarm since 2018, it was not until 2021, when Dr. Fowler testified for Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, that there was a push to look more closely at past cases.
"Dr. Fowler's testimony in that case was really important to educating the public about what was happening in Maryland," Kumar said.
WJZ Investigates reached out to Dr. Fowler for comment, but he did not immediately respond. He retired in 2019.
Now, it's up to the attorney general to go back through the cases in the audit and determine if any criminal charges are warranted.
"Each of these cases presents an opportunity for reconsideration, and we'll be closely following," Kumar said. "So much of how we've gotten here is families not giving up… I hope the family members who have been engaged in advocacy and have really sort of put themselves out there feel vindicated, heard, and acknowledged for the first time. I think we can only go from there."
