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IN-CUSTODY DEATH  PROJECT

Death under the U.S. Medical Examiner-Coroner System

This project investigates the history and current practices of the American death investigation system. I am working with impacted communities, social justice organizations, data scientists, legal scholars, and media to gather and analyze autopsies from individuals killed while in-police custody around the nation. This collaboration has produced several reports on in-custody deaths and also serves as the basis for my forthcoming book, States of Loss: Police Violence and the Limits of Death. Investigation in America. Click here for the complete roster of BCS lab members.  

Los Angeles Autopsy Report

Reports

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"Report: In-Custody Deaths in Ten MD Detention Centers, 2008-2019"
 2023
 

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"Report: Los Angeles County Jail Deaths 2009"
 2023
 

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"Natural Causes Fact Sheet"
 2022
 

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"Natural Causes? 59 Autopsies Prove Otherwise"
 2022
 

Media

Testimony for the MD State Senate

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"Medical examiners impacted by relationships with police, study finds"

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Terence Keel on "Tavis Smiley"
 

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"UCLA Researchers Say More Than Half of 'Natural' LA Jail Deaths Studied Show Evidence Of Physical Harm" 
 

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"Study: Deaths of Black and Latino men in LA County jails misclassified"
 
 

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"Study of Inmate Autopsies Renews Call to Close LA County Sheriff’s Men’s Central Jail" 

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"Study: Deaths of Black and Latino Men in LA County Jails Misclassified"

 

Collaborators

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Helen Jones

Community Activist and Organizer | Robert Wood Johnson IRL Fellow

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Jonah Walters
PhD

BCS Lab Postdoctorate Fellow

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Lauren Brown PhD, MPH

Gerontologist  and Data Scientist|  USC

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Maggie Woodruff
JD

Legal Scholar and Anthropologist | University of California, Irvine

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Aziza Ahmed PhD

Professor of Law | Boston University School of Law

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Anna Robinson-Sweet

Information Studies PhD Researcher | University of California, Los Angeles

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Carmen Johnson PhD

 Founder of Helping Ourselves to Transform

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Elizabeth Rossi

Lawyer and Director of Civil Rights Corp's Strategic Initiatives 

Partners

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