Maryland officials order the reinvestigation of about 100 deaths in police custody

A new audit of autopsies conducted under David Fowler's tenue "will determine whether independent experts agree or disagree with the [the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's] determination of cause and manner of death, whether such experts believe the OCME's determinations were based on adequate investigations," the panel's said. (AP)

After George Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020, Maryland's former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler was called in as a defense witness for the 2021 trial.

On the stand, Fowler testified that, based on his study of the forensic evidence, Floyd's death should be classified as "undetermined" and not a homicide, due to a medley of factors including heart disease, drug use and carbon monoxide exposure.