Maryland officials will conduct an independent review of reports of deaths in police custody during the tenure of retired chief medical examiner Dr. David Fowler, …
Maryland officials will conduct an independent review of reports of deaths in police custody during the tenure of retired chief medical examiner Dr. David Fowler, representatives from the offices of the governor and attorney general confirmed to NPR on Saturday. Fowler served as Maryland’s chief medical examiner from 2002 to 2019. He was in the spotlight as a defense witness in the trial of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted on murder and manslaughter charges this week in the death of George Floyd. Fowler testified that he believed Floyd had died of a sudden cardiac event due to his underlying heart disease while being restrained by police, citing multiple possible contributing factors such as drugs in his system and potential exposure to carbon monoxide from vehicle exhaust. While the Hennepin County medical examiner concluded that Floyd’s death was a homicide, Fowler argued the manner of death should be classified as « undetermined. » That testimony alarmed Washington, D.C.’s former chief medical examiner Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., who wrote an open letter calling for investigations into Fowler’s medical license, as well as a review of the Maryland medical examiner’s office under Fowler’s leadership. At least 458 physicians have signed the letter, Mitchell tells NPR. Signatories of the open letter criticized Fowler’s testimony about Floyd’s cause of death — and especially the suggestion that carbon monoxide exposure may have contributed to it — as « baseless, revealed obvious bias, and raised malpractice concerns. » Fowler’s opinion that Floyd’s death during police restraint should be classified as « undetermined » was outside the standard conventions for investigating and certifying in-custody deaths, the letter says, adding that it raises concerns about his previous handling of such cases.
