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American Autopsy
One Medical Examiner's Decades-Long Fight for Racial Justice in a Broken Legal System
Afterword by Peter Neufeld
Published by BenBella Books
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
A revealing history of covering up the true causes of deaths of BIPOC in custody—from the forensic pathologist whose work changed the course of the George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown cases
Dr. Michael Baden has been involved in some of the most high-profile civil rights and police brutality cases in US history, from the government’s 1976 re-investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the 2014 death of Michael Brown, whose case sparked the initial Ferguson protests that grew into the Black Lives Matter movement.
The playbook hasn’t changed since 1979, when Dr. Baden was demoted from his job as New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner after ruling that the death of a Black man in police custody was a homicide.
So in 2020 when the Floyd family, wary of the same system that oversaw George Floyd’s death, needed a second opinion—Dr. Baden is who they called.
In these pages, Dr. Baden chronicles his six decades on the front lines of the fight for accountability within the legal system—including the long history of medical examiners of using a controversial syndrome called excited delirium (a term that shows up in the pathology report for George Floyd) to explain away the deaths of BIPOC restrained by police.
In the process, he brings to life the political issues that go on in the wake of often unrecorded fatal police encounters and the standoff between law enforcement and those they are sworn to protect.
Full of behind-the-scenes drama and surprising revelations, American Autopsy is an invigorating—and enraging—read that is both timely and crucial for this turning point in our nation’s history.
Dr. Michael Baden has been involved in some of the most high-profile civil rights and police brutality cases in US history, from the government’s 1976 re-investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the 2014 death of Michael Brown, whose case sparked the initial Ferguson protests that grew into the Black Lives Matter movement.
The playbook hasn’t changed since 1979, when Dr. Baden was demoted from his job as New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner after ruling that the death of a Black man in police custody was a homicide.
So in 2020 when the Floyd family, wary of the same system that oversaw George Floyd’s death, needed a second opinion—Dr. Baden is who they called.
In these pages, Dr. Baden chronicles his six decades on the front lines of the fight for accountability within the legal system—including the long history of medical examiners of using a controversial syndrome called excited delirium (a term that shows up in the pathology report for George Floyd) to explain away the deaths of BIPOC restrained by police.
In the process, he brings to life the political issues that go on in the wake of often unrecorded fatal police encounters and the standoff between law enforcement and those they are sworn to protect.
Full of behind-the-scenes drama and surprising revelations, American Autopsy is an invigorating—and enraging—read that is both timely and crucial for this turning point in our nation’s history.
Product Details
- Publisher: BenBella Books (January 17, 2023)
- Length: 320 pages
- ISBN13: 9781637740477
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Raves and Reviews
"""In this book, Dr. Michael Baden exposes that the truth is always the objective no matter how much the powers that be try to ignore it. His autopsies in some of the most high-profile cases in the history of America spoke truth to power and exposed the implicit bias and racism as had never been done before in such a manner.""
—Ben Crump, civil rights attorney
""Dr. Michael Baden is the person you call for hard truths, and he spares no one in his story ofsix decades as a medicalexaminer. A powerfulnarrative on itsown, American Autopsy acts as a mirror in America's ongoing reform of its justice system.There isn't a more important book in 2023.""
—Kevin Maurer, New York Times bestselling author of No Easy Day and American Radical
""American Autopsy is the revealing history of a medical examiner's journey in the fight for social justice. Dr. Michael Baden has been involved in some of the most high-profile civil rights and police brutality cases in US history . . . A powerful narrative, American Autopsy helps explain the deep divisions in our nation related to race, class, policing, and the criminal justice system.""
—Chris Wallace, broadcast journalist
""Dr. Michael Baden, a leader and soldier in the social and justice movement, in writing this personal, riveting, moving book, takes the reader for a journey into the world of a forensic pathologist seeking justice. I could not put this book down once I started reading.""
—Ted Williams, FOX News contributor and criminal and civil attorney
""From the autopsy of slain Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers to the deaths of George Floyd and Eric Garner to the ‘Trial of the Century' involving O.J. Simpson, renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden has done it all. And now he shares the details of his incredible career in American Autopsy.""
—Jerry Mitchell, founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting
""A riveting read by Dr. Michael Baden documenting his quest to achieve social justice through forensic pathology.""
—Kathy Reichs, author of the Temperance ""Bones"" Brennan series"
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