The results of two separate autopsies released Monday corroborate that George Floyd’s manner of death was a homicide, but only one of them cites asphyxia as the cause.
Drs. Allecia Wilson and Michael Baden were commissioned by Floyd’s family to perform an autopsy independent of Hennepin County’s investigation, and although the doctors did not release a formal report, the family’s lawyer released a statement saying Floyd’s death was “caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.”
The other autopsy, performed by the office of the Hennepin County medical examiner, lists Mr. Floyd’s cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
The findings are largely similar: The manner of death was homicide, and police restraint was implicated. Their difference, though, on whether Floyd suffered asphyxia could, in theory, be a deciding factor in Derek Chauvin’s trial if it isn’t resolved.
Don’t call me a linguist or a rhetorician, but asphyxia would seem to ascribe more guilt to Chauvin than the more nebulous wording of cardiopulmonary so-and-so, especially when paired with other details of Floyd’s heart disease and state of intoxication, as listed in the county report.
Importantly, Baden told the New York Times that Floyd was in good health. The Hennepin County medical examiner obviously says otherwise.
Baden and Wilson indicated to the New York Times that they had used the video when making their determinations. It is unclear to me how important these differences are on either a medical or procedural level. But regarding Chauvin’s criminal liability, there will be questions. Perhaps a trial setting or more interviews with several medical examiners could clear up those matters. I guess we will have to wait and see.
The public has already reached a verdict on Chauvin — and his co-workers too. In many minds, he is guilty of first-degree murder, but the autopsies raise questions for trial lawyers. Hopefully, by the time it comes to assigning blame legally, a single story will have emerged.
