The new normal: persecuting an expert witness because he testified for the defense in a political-charged trial
David Fowler: persecuted by the government
for trying to do an honest job
They’re coming for you next: It appears it is now considered reasonable in today’s intolerant society to persecute any expert witness who dares testify honestly for the defense in any trial that the narrative demands a guilty plea, no matter what the facts might be.
The trial in this case was against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who in 2020 held George Floyd down by the neck during the arrest in which Floyd died. The expert witness is Dr. David Fowler, the former Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Maryland, who testified for Chauvin’s defense.
The persecution of Fowler was instigated by Dr. Roger Mitchell, former Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia, Deputy Mayor of DC, and now Chief of the Department of Pathology at Howard University. Mitchell was outraged that Fowler had dared express an opinion challenging the political narrative that insisted Chauvin killed Floyd for racial reasons, refusing to get off his neck even as the man was dying of suffocation. Mitchell wrote a open letter, signed by 400 others, calling for a full review of all of Fowler’s past cases in Maryland, with the clear intent of punishing Fowler by having his medical license revoked.
Soon thereafter, in April 2021, Maryland authorities agreed to Mitchell’s demand, forming a panel to review Fowler’s work and his right to continue to practice medicine of any kind.
[R]epresentatives for Attorney General Brian Frosh and Gov. Larry Hogan confirmed to NBC News that they agreed to a review. “We welcome an independent review of reports on deaths in custody issued during David Fowler’s tenure, and agree it is appropriate for the Office of the Attorney General to coordinate the workgroup,” Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci said in a statement.
The irony behind this kangaroo court is that Fowler’s testimony at the Chauvin trial was not simply his own. He was testifying as the representative for a panel of about a dozen medical experts, giving their consensus conclusions about the cause of George Floyd’s death. As William Oliver, a member of that panel and a retired assistant medical examiner explained to me in an email,
For the Chauvin case, the defense empaneled a team of around 14 (I don’t remember the exact number any more) experts, including forensic pathologists, physiologists, pulmonologists, and others to look at what happened. We came to a different conclusion about the mechanism than the prosecution experts regarding the pathophysiology of this death. That’s not uncommon.
Fowler was then chosen to outline their conclusions at the trial, for the defense. To try to destroy Fowler, and only Fowler, for his testimony is thus an act of dishonest evil so ugly words can hardly describe it. Despite having served for seventeen years as Maryland’s chief medical examiner without any serious blemish to his record, he is now to be Maryland’s scapegoat, punished not because he did anything fundamentally immoral or wrong but because he publicly disagreed with the shouts and screams of the mob that leftist politicians were using for political gain.
The willingness of so-called Republican Larry Hogan to endorse this show-trial tells us much about him. It also tells us that his fantasy of winning the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 election has about as much chance as a snowflake surviving in hell.
To explain in detail the conclusions of the Fowler panel, which was based on the fundamentals used in all medical forensic investigations, Oliver has written a long thirteen part essay and posted it on the web. If you want to deepen your general knowledge about the scientific process and the importance it places on always questioning everything, I urge you to read it all. It might not change your mind about the George Floyd case, but after reading it you will no longer find it so easy to jump to any conclusions when next a hot story hits the headlines.
The bottom line however is simple. Floyd was a very sick man, from many causes both natural and self-inflicted. Many factors during his arrest could have caused his death. The prosecution’s accusation, based on the ruling of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office, that Chauvin committed homicide by his actions might have been correct, but it was also an accusation that many could very reasonably question. And according to fundamental American law, the defense above all had the right to question it. The Fowler panel — explained by Fowler — simply provided the defense the evidence it needed for that questioning.
But reasonable doubt is no longer allowed in today’s blacklist culture. Nor are fair trials. The knives are out for Fowler, and even if Fowler survives this attack, notice has been given to other expert witnesses: You better not consider testifying for the defense in any case that has any political ramifications. If you do, you will face persecution and destruction. Better to shut up and let the innocent hang.
To end this essay on a somewhat vague positive note, it appears that the Maryland attorney general’s office has had enormous difficulty assembling its kangaroo court. Despite extensive searching on the web, I could find no specific information about the panel’s status or make-up, even as recently as this week. The only solid information I could glean was that in October 2022 a still unnamed panel recommended that the state narrow its investigation. Rather than looking at all 1,300 autopsies done by Fowler when he was Maryland’s medical examiner, the state should review just 100.
The user’s manual being used by
Larry Hogan, Maryland’s governor
Now the panel is recommending that the state hire independent forensic pathologists to further review the 100 cases. Fowler served as the state’s chief medical examiner from 2002 to 2019. “This review 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 report said.
Apparently, for this new review the state is still having trouble finding qualified experts. As wrote me Oliver in January, “The Maryland AG had a very difficult time getting any American forensic pathologists to be on the panel.” Instead, Maryland officials appear to be looking to the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand for experts, none of whom will be familiar with American law or forensic practices, and some of which appear to be generally hostile to the field of forensic pathology in general, according to Oliver. Appearing on such a panel and taking down Fowler will be great for their resume and political goals, but it will have nothing to do with coming to a fair and just decision.
We shall have to see how this plays out. Considering the eagerness in which those in power move to blacklist people in this day and age, if I was Fowler I would be prepared for a negative ruling, and have my own lawyers ready with knives sharpened. It is likely that any attempt to revoke Fowler’s medical license will be based not on any strong evidence of misconduct, but on an effort to destroy him for speaking truth to power. Such unjust punishment should be challenged strongly and quickly.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
David Fowler: persecuted by the government
for trying to do an honest job
They’re coming for you next: It appears it is now considered reasonable in today’s intolerant society to persecute any expert witness who dares testify honestly for the defense in any trial that the narrative demands a guilty plea, no matter what the facts might be.
The trial in this case was against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who in 2020 held George Floyd down by the neck during the arrest in which Floyd died. The expert witness is Dr. David Fowler, the former Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Maryland, who testified for Chauvin’s defense.
The persecution of Fowler was instigated by Dr. Roger Mitchell, former Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia, Deputy Mayor of DC, and now Chief of the Department of Pathology at Howard University. Mitchell was outraged that Fowler had dared express an opinion challenging the political narrative that insisted Chauvin killed Floyd for racial reasons, refusing to get off his neck even as the man was dying of suffocation. Mitchell wrote a open letter, signed by 400 others, calling for a full review of all of Fowler’s past cases in Maryland, with the clear intent of punishing Fowler by having his medical license revoked.
Soon thereafter, in April 2021, Maryland authorities agreed to Mitchell’s demand, forming a panel to review Fowler’s work and his right to continue to practice medicine of any kind.
[R]epresentatives for Attorney General Brian Frosh and Gov. Larry Hogan confirmed to NBC News that they agreed to a review. “We welcome an independent review of reports on deaths in custody issued during David Fowler’s tenure, and agree it is appropriate for the Office of the Attorney General to coordinate the workgroup,” Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci said in a statement.
The irony behind this kangaroo court is that Fowler’s testimony at the Chauvin trial was not simply his own. He was testifying as the representative for a panel of about a dozen medical experts, giving their consensus conclusions about the cause of George Floyd’s death. As William Oliver, a member of that panel and a retired assistant medical examiner explained to me in an email,
For the Chauvin case, the defense empaneled a team of around 14 (I don’t remember the exact number any more) experts, including forensic pathologists, physiologists, pulmonologists, and others to look at what happened. We came to a different conclusion about the mechanism than the prosecution experts regarding the pathophysiology of this death. That’s not uncommon.
Fowler was then chosen to outline their conclusions at the trial, for the defense. To try to destroy Fowler, and only Fowler, for his testimony is thus an act of dishonest evil so ugly words can hardly describe it. Despite having served for seventeen years as Maryland’s chief medical examiner without any serious blemish to his record, he is now to be Maryland’s scapegoat, punished not because he did anything fundamentally immoral or wrong but because he publicly disagreed with the shouts and screams of the mob that leftist politicians were using for political gain.
The willingness of so-called Republican Larry Hogan to endorse this show-trial tells us much about him. It also tells us that his fantasy of winning the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 election has about as much chance as a snowflake surviving in hell.
To explain in detail the conclusions of the Fowler panel, which was based on the fundamentals used in all medical forensic investigations, Oliver has written a long thirteen part essay and posted it on the web. If you want to deepen your general knowledge about the scientific process and the importance it places on always questioning everything, I urge you to read it all. It might not change your mind about the George Floyd case, but after reading it you will no longer find it so easy to jump to any conclusions when next a hot story hits the headlines.
The bottom line however is simple. Floyd was a very sick man, from many causes both natural and self-inflicted. Many factors during his arrest could have caused his death. The prosecution’s accusation, based on the ruling of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office, that Chauvin committed homicide by his actions might have been correct, but it was also an accusation that many could very reasonably question. And according to fundamental American law, the defense above all had the right to question it. The Fowler panel — explained by Fowler — simply provided the defense the evidence it needed for that questioning.
But reasonable doubt is no longer allowed in today’s blacklist culture. Nor are fair trials. The knives are out for Fowler, and even if Fowler survives this attack, notice has been given to other expert witnesses: You better not consider testifying for the defense in any case that has any political ramifications. If you do, you will face persecution and destruction. Better to shut up and let the innocent hang.
To end this essay on a somewhat vague positive note, it appears that the Maryland attorney general’s office has had enormous difficulty assembling its kangaroo court. Despite extensive searching on the web, I could find no specific information about the panel’s status or make-up, even as recently as this week. The only solid information I could glean was that in October 2022 a still unnamed panel recommended that the state narrow its investigation. Rather than looking at all 1,300 autopsies done by Fowler when he was Maryland’s medical examiner, the state should review just 100.
The user’s manual being used by
Larry Hogan, Maryland’s governor
Now the panel is recommending that the state hire independent forensic pathologists to further review the 100 cases. Fowler served as the state’s chief medical examiner from 2002 to 2019. “This review 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 report said.
Apparently, for this new review the state is still having trouble finding qualified experts. As wrote me Oliver in January, “The Maryland AG had a very difficult time getting any American forensic pathologists to be on the panel.” Instead, Maryland officials appear to be looking to the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand for experts, none of whom will be familiar with American law or forensic practices, and some of which appear to be generally hostile to the field of forensic pathology in general, according to Oliver. Appearing on such a panel and taking down Fowler will be great for their resume and political goals, but it will have nothing to do with coming to a fair and just decision.
We shall have to see how this plays out. Considering the eagerness in which those in power move to blacklist people in this day and age, if I was Fowler I would be prepared for a negative ruling, and have my own lawyers ready with knives sharpened. It is likely that any attempt to revoke Fowler’s medical license will be based not on any strong evidence of misconduct, but on an effort to destroy him for speaking truth to power. Such unjust punishment should be challenged strongly and quickly.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Well, if Trump’s behavior about the top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago was “Obstruction of Justice”, then everything the Defense attorney says in court, every motion filed with the court, everything the Defendant, his witnesses, or his experts say in court is obstruction.
Every ruling the judge makes in favor of the Defendant is a miscarriage of Justice, then.
USAia. Where America, the land of the free used to be.
Why is it that politicians are so evil?
Liberals are fascist terrorists in word, deed, and belief. Treat them accordingly.
So, witness intimidation? Good to know.
George Floyd was already dead when the police arrived. If you look on the tape he is complaining I can’t breathe while he is standing up outside the store. His combination of meth and fentanyl taking one to counter the effects of the other ( how much did he take before he shoved off for his OJ) overwhelmed his nervous system and add on to that his bad heart, overweight, etc. Even if an ambulance was around the corner its hard to say anybody could have done anything to save him and that’s the tragedy. All that rioting and still nothing serious done to help the next drug abuser going right down George Floyd alley.
Vetmike
February 23, 2023 at 3:51 am
Why is it that politicians are so evil?
Because the people let them be so.
Floyd killed himself by ingesting fatal amounts of drugs. The sheer criminality of the Chauvin trial makes the Emmitt Till trial appear as a paragon of judicial probity and due process by comparison. Chauvin, like the J6 protesters, is a political prisoner. Minnesota and Minneapolis will NEVER be able to erase this stain on their escutcheon. Every lawyer in Minnesota should be deeply, DEEPLY, ashamed of what happened in this case.
Related:
WHO BEST SYMBOLIZES THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION?
What is the Biden administration all about? *SYMBOLISM* Nothing more nothing less.
The Biden administration is not for one second about competency and the best person for the job for the country and the American people. No, no, no, it is all solely about symbolism. That is what they believe is their major accomplishment in governance.
The first trans gender four-star admiral, the first gay transportation secretary, the first black female supreme court justice, the first female black vice president, the first black secretary of defense, the first Hispanic this, the first native American that, and on and on it goes.
But IMO this person, Sam Brinton, the first trans, non-binary “pup” master Department of Energy official that is theee ultimate symbol of this clearly very flawed and dangerous method of selecting the people who fill essential spots in our government delivered by the Biden administration (D). If they did not know they certainly should have and therein lies their incompetence by design. Low standards is no standards.
Fashion designer claims Sam Brinton wore her stolen clothes (nypost.com)
Now I will recognize that this young man has some serious personal issues, and he is apparently a survivor of conversion therapy ‘torture’ at hands of Southern Baptist missionary parents, oy. (Like it or not the man is gay, accept him as he is, let him be gay. And you wonder why the LGBT and the radical Marxists have a problem with religions?)
Plainly Mr. Brinton has some very serious personal issues and reasons to have them. And I truly wish him well, but this current administration has chosen him just for one reason, they are using him solely symbolically because he like many of the others were chosen not for their qualifications and competence but for their personal differences only.
And that fact about symbolism over actual qualifications and some degree of verifiable mental stability puts every American and most of the rest of the world in real danger. Symbolism has its place, but not at this level of governance where symbolism driven by “political correctness” and “social justice” two products of subjective highly skewed opinion and manipulation is the only thing you have built your entire reactionary administration upon. Not good.
America has real adversaries in the world, and they are serious as a heart attack players and in “political correctness” and “social justice” we are either owned, or we all die. Are you paying attention yet America?
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/NYPICHPDPICT000003910848.jpg?resize=1536,1024&quality=75&strip=all
The first time I saw the video of George Floyd with Derek Chauvin’s knee on his neck/shoulder I was infuriated; but I also knew there had to be much more to this episode and I wanted to know the whole story. Days later when I saw the video of Floyd being cuffed on the sidewalk I thought, ” Ok, we’re getting it narrowed down, but there’s still more to see.” Then, weeks later, cop’s body cam footage was finally made public and the whole narrative was turned upside down for any thinking person. If Floyd wasn’t in the throes of a serious drug-induced panic attack, then he certainly deserved a posthumous Honorable Mention at the next Cannes Film Festival based on his performance.
When the cops began to put severely agitated Floyd into the rear seat of the cop car, Floyd said, “Please don’t put me in there. I’m claustrophobic. I can’t breathe. I need to lie down.”
Floyd was therefore NOT forced into the car and was ALLOWED TO LIE DOWN in the street. The fact that Floyd was always able to speak, proves that his airway was not severely restricted enough to stop his breathing. You stop someone’s breathing by chest compression with a knee on their chest or back.
If Chauvin had allowed an arrestee in his custody to thrash around in the street and get hit by a passing vehicle, he would have surely been on trial for that negligence.
When the official autopsy determined Floyd died from fentanyl and meth ingestion based a witness who claimed to have seen him do it, and on a consensus of a dozen doctors, medical examiners, or forensic pathologists, how could that not cause “reasonable doubt?”
At some point in his closing remarks the defense attorney, looking right into the eyes of the jurors, should have asked them “If you think that what Derek Chauvin did was the WRONG thing, then what exactly was the RIGHT THING? And, please, do not render a verdict that will send a man to prison for possibly the rest of his life without first answering this question to yourself, ‘Had I been in Derek Chauvin’s shoes that day WHAT EXACTLY WOULD I HAVE DONE.”
You can watch videos on Youtube constantly of bully cops on an ego trip who don’t know the law or don’t care what the says; I do not believe this is one of those cases.
Yes, that’s right, I FOUND THE PERFECT METAPHORE FOR POLITICS
No talking, just production: https://youtu.be/_pQm0bxeBnE 3 min.
The perfect metaphor for politics and its resulting accomplishments.
Politics: The dirtiest, filthiest most corrupt game that human beings play.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/71/da/a871da13ae44ca5e41f9545345c4915e.jpg
It’s been extremely dangerous to be an ‘expert’ witness for the prosecution for years now. Apparently the legal industry’s figured a way to make money out of the other half. The idea of competing ‘experts’ is laughably ritualistic and inefficient–set up primarily to support the legal industry anyway–so to see it all backfiring on the naive participants is both ironic and darkly amusing.
Mitchell’s actions are despicable and indicative of the prevailing view of “narrative over facts.”
He’s a disgrace to his profession and position.
Robert,
This is what I mean by Obama’s America. He set up a system of rewards and punishments that allow these kinds of biases to flourish, not just to exist. He changed the attitude of Americans so that enough of them favor such prejudiced actions, and the right kind of Americans to favor them, that it is politically difficult to argue against them. Obama made it seem as though this is what it takes for the victims to fight back.
You are right that it started earlier than Obama, as the Fabian Socialist movement is more than a century old (it is mentioned in the 1912 book Daddy Long Legs). President Linden Johnson set up a system that led to this; he made it so that the people that he was prejudiced against would vote for his Democratic Party for decades, thinking that his party was their savior, but in reality his party was holding them back in an assiduous and nefarious way. These same people have wholeheartedly joined in on their own demise, because the Johnson strategy contains a reward system for participating in the strategy. These people do not see how accepting rewards for participation can hold them back, because accepting presents has been drummed into us as only a good thing; birthdays and Christmas are good and desirable, and accepting gifts is the main attraction and joy for both. Johnson’s strategy had the same attraction. Who can argue against a year-round Christmas?
These gifts keep the victims downtrodden, because in order to receive them you have to be deserving, and to be deserving you have to be downtrodden. If you don’t have a job, you can get welfare gifts, but you have to continue to not have a job. Who wouldn’t want to sleep in as late as he wants, and who wouldn’t want to play all day and not pay taxes and live off of other people’s taxes? What a sweet deal, and you deserve it besides!
This blacklisting takes Johnson’s strategy to a higher level, and allows the Democratic Party to be justified in unAmerican attacks against its enemies while making it look like they are rewarding the party’s own victims. The victims think that the party is on their side when the truth is that they are continuing to be held back.
The Democratic Party was founded explicitly to defend the institution of Slavery in the south. Although they lost that war, they continue to fight. This fight was why the Ku Klux Klan was founded. It first attacked Republicans in the American South, and when it ran out of those, it turned on others. The Klan has been replaced in years since, as Johnson’s strategy supplanted its purpose with a better, more legal, methodology. No hoods necessary, and it even came with a cushy government job. Obama has introduced the next strategy, one that prevents pushback despite its obvious tyrannical nature.
Obama’s new strategy uses the emotion of revenge to keep the victims from realizing that they are still the Democratic Party’s victims. The best part of this strategy is that the Democrat’s own victims are used to vengefully attack the party’s enemies. Causing Obama to be elected rather than Hillary Clinton was a brilliant move on the party’s part. It helped to reassure the victims which side the party appears to be on, and it solidified their dislike of the party’s enemies. Their victims became violent, and the party cheered on the violence, calling it “mostly peaceful.”
These blacklisting attacks will continue as long as the victims do not see that they are being used by their true enemies, the ones who put them in the downtrodden position that they are in.