There are (at least) two different kinds of problem experts.
There is the guy who, when reasonable minds can differ, always leans the same way.
And then there is the guy who just makes stuff up.
The letter from a few hundred doctors that spawned Maryland’s current investigation into Fowler seems to put him in the second group, but mentions only a couple of aspects of his testimony. Has anyone seen a more complete analysis (by qualified people)? I haven’t seen one yet, but would like to.
So, is this guy guilty of lying under oath? It sure looks that way, but what if he really is just that stupid, and didn’t do his job correctly in the first place? Is there an enforceable penalty for practicing forensic medicine while ignorant of forensic medicine?
You’re walking down the street, until one day someone calls the police because you look suspicious-Elijah McClain
You go out to play in a park one day, until someone looks out their window and call the police because they thought you might have something suspicious in your hand-Tamir Rice
You’re sitting in your living room, until someone kills you because… Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor
I don’t think he’s ignorant of forensic medicine, I just think he thought he’d be on the side of the police when it wasn’t a clear, straight up case of murder by cop. Even if he had to twist himself into some weird justification that Floyd had these health issues and…you know he was going to die anyway, and how was the officer suppose to know? (this is SNARK)
Yep, and that’s exactly my response when someone points to all the stuff Trump has gotten away with. Part of the reason “you get away with it until, one day, you don’t” is because the more you get used to getting away with it, the more reckless and brazen you become. That’s why this medical examiner thought he could get away with such obvious lies in one of the most high-profile trials in years. He’d always gotten away with it before. Unil he didn’t.
Also not a bad idea to find out how much the defense paid him for his “testimony.”
$50,000 or so? What’s the going rate to lie under oath at a trial?
I mean they killed a white guy.
I can’t imagine sitting with your family and you hear something outside, and being a white male you pick up your gun because, you know you have a right to defend yourself, but you end up dead because some prick on the coast thought it would be cool to mess you up by placing a prank call to the police.
About time!
He was hired to instill “reasonable doubt” about the cause of death and testified as to his expert opinion. His opinion may be ill founded to the point of being laughable, but it still just his opinion. It is up to the prosecutor to rebut his testimony with their own experts and trust the jury to sort it out.
So happy to see this. He was a slimy witness. Didn’t trust anything he said.
Carbon monoxide poisoning anyone???
To claim that this death was “undetermined,” you’d have to show that there was a very good chance that had the police never have been called, that George would have walked out of that convenient store, and dropped dead on the sidewalk.
Because that is the ONLY way that the cops wouldn’t have had any culpability in his death.
Experts give their opinions, which should, of course, be based on the facts and the science. But an opinion is just that, even if it’s ridiculous. It’s up to the other side and their experts to make the point that the opinion is not one to which the jury should give credence — which the prosecution did in this case. So, it’s very hard to accuse an expert of lying unless they actually falsify evidence (which some do).
I have, however, had the pleasure of seeing a federal judge instruct a jury that the other side’s expert’s testimony, after cross-examination, did not meet the minimum standards required by law and should be entirely disregarded.
Even that’s not enough. To remain kneeling on Floyd’s neck even after he stopped breathing – that right there is negligent homicide. Wouldn’t matter if the underlying cause were kidney failure. Chauvin prevented him from surviving
“If [the glove] doesn’t fit, you must acquit” and other defense fairy tales.
The prosecution should have asked “Doctor” Fowler if he would have survived what George Floyd was subjected to. Get him on the record.
You know it still chafes me that some yahoo in the WaPo comment section was running around on the day, demanding to know, So what were the police supposed to do, anyhow.
Protect and Serve, asshole. The job of the police is to protect and serve.
Shut him up at least
We are looking at you, Matt Gaetz.
Just when I thought the race for Blunt’s seat couldn’t get anymore weirder,
Yes Missouri Republicans elect an asshole that will sue anyone, anywhere, at the drop of dime because he’s just that crazy.