By Tanya Terry
Chief Medical Examiner of the Nation’s Capital Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., professor of autopsy and forensic pathology at Howard University College of Medicine, is a national expert on deaths that occur while in the custody of law enforcement and is working to create real systemic change as it relates to this issue.
Mitchell recently told the Courier about the first case that inspired his work. In the case, Amadou Diallo, a weaponless 23-year-old West African immigrant with no criminal record, was shot and killed near his residence in the Bronx by four New York City Police Department plainclothes officers. They said had mistaken Diallo for a serial rapist.
The tragedy resulted in Diallo’s mother and father filing a $61 million lawsuit against the city and the officers, charging gross negligence, wrongful death, racial profiling and other violations of Diallo’s civil rights and an accepted a $3 million settlement.
“Amadou Diallo was 23 years old,” explained Mitchell. “He died Feb. 4, 1999. He was shot at 41 times when he was killed. I had just left the FBI as a forensic scientist there, looking to study violence as a public health issue. When this violent act in killing Amadou Diallo occurred, I wanted to begin studying death in custody as a public health issue. That probably could be one of the first and one of the most dramatic cases.”
Mitchell continued to be affected by current cases.
“A recent case that has been in the news that I’ve been part of is LaShawn Thompson,” Mitchell said. “He died in Fulton County Jail (in Atlanta). He was found to be dehydrated, malnourished and not being given his schizophrenic medications. He was allowed to self-neglect and was neglected on the floor of his jail cell. He was covered with thousands of body lice when he was found dead. The original medical examiner called the case ‘undetermined.’ I reviewed all the material and found the case to have been products of severe neglect. I suggested it was death at the hands of other persons and suggested that the manner of death be designated as a homicide.”
There is an active Department of Justice investigation into the case of LaShawn Thompson currently.
Mitchell has proposed a solution to addressing deaths occurring while in custody of law enforcement as a public health issue. His solution is a simple checkbox to the US Standard Death Certificate.
“We want to understand the burden of death that is occurring within our criminal legal system, and that is from arrest-related – when law enforcement is chasing after someone and puts them in handcuffs, to incarcerated people who are in jails or prisons. We want to know how many people are dying and from what. Right? It’s from homicides, suicides, naturals, accidents. If we want to understand that, we need to put a checkbox on the US standard death certificate. That checkbox is a very simple checkbox. It would say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether a death occurred in custody. Then, after that, it would say arrest-related or incarcerated. You can check ‘yes’ incarcerated, or ‘yes’ if they died in a jail or a prison. You can check ‘yes’ arrest-related if somebody died during an altercation with law enforcement or during a shooting. This would give us an objective way of determining cause, manner, as well as age, race, gender, and occupation. All of this information is gathered on a death certificate. That data allows us to do more in-depth analysis into policies and programs within jurisdictions that we see certain trends in.”
Mitchell stated the checkbox would not solve the problem of death in custody but would give the tools for researchers to be able to accurately capture deaths and circumstances to be able to start creating prevention constructs.
Mitchell added the other part of the public health approach is establishing Fatality Review Committees, such as those that exist in the domestic violence space nationally, and those of maternal mortality and infants and elderly fatality review committees.
To help ensure the checkbox and Fatality Review Committees come into being, Mitchell suggests individuals reach out to legislatures throughout their states and make sure there are hearings on the matter.
He pointed out model legislation was coming out of Pennsylvania now that is a good template on what legislation can look like statewide across the country for implementing checkboxes, adherence to the Death in Custody Reporting Act to report to the Department of Justice and Fatality Review Committees.
“You can also go to your registrar at your statewide department of health and talk to them about putting a box on the death certificate and starting to track the box on the death certificate.”
This year, the DOJ Inspector General released a report finding the Bureau of Prisons contributed to hundreds of prison deaths between 2014-2021.
Mitchell has performed over 2,000 forensic autopsy examinations. He has testified as an expert witness in over 65 cases.
Among numerous other accomplishments, he has recently co-authored the book, “Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do About It.”
