What Really Killed Malice Green?
NEW!!!! The complete transcripts of the medical testimony from all three trials are now on the internet. You can access them using the link below. We have also recently added the autopsies of Malice Green and James Anthony Brooks, as well as links to articles about other cocaine related in custody deaths.
The
COMPLETE MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTS
The AUTOPSIES of Malice Green
and James Anthony Brooks
Other COCAINE related in custody deaths
In the original 1993 Nevers and Budzyn trial, five Doctors testified as to the cause of Malice Green’s death. Oakland County Medical Examiner L. Dragovic, Philadelphia Medical Examiner Haresh Mirchandani, and Lucy Rorke, a neuropathologist from Philadelphia’s Children’s Hospital with outstanding credentials, all testified that Green’s head injuries were all "superficial" and "could not have caused his death." They all agreed that Green had no fractures, no significant bleeding or bruising of the brain, and no swelling of the brain. They all testified that Malice Green died as a result of his consumption of cocaine and alcohol, combined with his physical struggle with police as he resisted arrest, and the minor head injuries. These things, in combination, caused a surge of adrenaline which overloaded the electrical circuits in Green’s brain resulting in brain seizure, respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and death.
Dr. Jiraki, the least qualified doctor to testify, performed the original autopsy. Without waiting for toxicology results, Jiraki determined that "blunt force trauma" had killed Green and he stuck to this story during the first trial. Jiraki told jurors that blows to Green’s head caused SWELLING OF THE BRAIN which lead to his death. When asked on cross examination whether or not Green’s brain was swollen, Jiraki replied that IT WAS NOT SWOLLEN. He attempted to explain by saying that it would have been if Green had lived longer. We have yet to figure out how a person could have died from a condition he did not have at the time of his death.
At the very end of the first trial, the prosecution called Dr. Michael Baden to testify as their rebuttal witness. Baden’s testimony was bolstered to the jurors by Judge Crockett against the Michigan Rules of Court, when the judge encouraged the jurors to take Baden’s testimony "on faith," then had Baden read the New Testament scripture verse stating that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Baden’s testimony generally agreed with Jiraki’s, that Green had died from the blows to the head. However, at a later pathologist’s conference, Baden explained that he came to his conclusion based on certain information surrounding the circumstances of Green’s death. This evidence was apparently provided to Baden by prosecutors, and was NON-MEDICAL and FALSE.
At Walter Budzyn’s retrial, the defense team made the decision not to challenge the cause of death, saying that since Walter had nothing do with the death, the cause was not significant. Dr. L. Dragovic and Dr. Charles Wetli testified for the defense, but not as to the cause of death. Dr. Jiraki did not testify due to mental illness. Dr. Bader Cassin, Jiraki’s boss, testified in his stead, and briefly concurred with Jiraki’s findings. He was not challenged by the defense attorneys, nor was he questioned about an affidavit he signed after the conclusion of the first trial stating that he disagreed with Jiraki and believed cocaine played a role in Green’s death.
For more on the medical evidence see Did You Know? and The Walter Budzyn Retrial Review.
COCAINE-INDUCED AGITATED DELIRIUM, FORCEFUL STRUGGLE, AND MINOR HEAD INJURY
A Further Definition of Sudden Death During Restraint
By Haresh G. Mirchandani, M.D., Lucy B. Rorke, M.D., Adrienne Sekula-Perlman, M.D., and Ian C. Hood, M.B., Ch.B.
In 1985, Wetli and Fishbain called attention to a syndrome of sudden death during cocaine-induced agitated delirium necessitating restraint (1). Under these circumstances, an agitated and often aggressive drug user sometimes sustains minor head injury that, in a number of cases, has been misinterpreted by pathologists and/or sensationalized by lay public and the press (2). In some instances, the primary cause of death has been attributed to this minor head injury, relegating the effect of cocaine, sometimes in combination with ethanol or other illicit drugs, to a secondary role.
Cocaine is well known to have sympathomimetic effects due to inhibition of neuronal reuptake of norepinephrine and dopamine. There is extensive documentation of disordered cardiovascular physiology secondary to cocaine abuse (3-6). Sudden death during restraint of individuals under the influence of cocaine is most likely the result of these sympathomimetic effects of cocaine. Moreover, there is also documentation of sudden death during acute exhaustive mania (17), sudden prisoner deaths and "capture myopathy" in animals (18), and sudden death in emotionally stressed individuals (19-23).
This review of case material from the Office of the Medical Examiner of Philadelphia calls attention to the presence of minor head injury in four individuals who died shortly after onset of agitated delirium caused by cocaine use with or without other illicit drugs. In all four cases, the head injury alone would not have been lethal. Recognition of this fact by the forensic pathologist confronted with necropsy of cocaine users is of crucial importance in determining the correct cause of death.
Sudden Death and Closed Head Injury
In the four cases just reported, witnesses and medical personnel initially assumed that head injury was the cause of death. It is vital, however, that all aspects of the death investigation be weighed before making this decision. Foremost is evaluation of the brain injury itself.
CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY
Death during police restraint is generally viewed with extreme suspicion by authorities, the media and the public alike. It is, therefore, of extreme importance that the forensic pathologist obtain a detailed report of events surrounding the death and conduct a careful autopsy describing and photographing all findings considered to be of importance, and submit appropriate specimens for toxicologic analysis. If death is to be ascribed solely to head trauma, there must be objective evidence of the lethal lesions such as subarachnoid and/or lacerations, intraventricular hemorrhage and/or cerebellar and brain stem herniation, and/or primary brain stem trauma. Isolated, small subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhages or small, limited cerebral or cerebellar contusions are, under ordinary circumstances, insufficient to cause death. Just as important is the fact that such injuries and head injuries as a whole, excluding massive injuries, do not present as sudden death.
The syndrome of sudden death occurring during agitated delirium due to drugs associated with a struggle, with restraint, and with or without non-lethal blunt trauma should be correctly diagnosed as such. Those who try to restrain these agitated individuals, whether security guards, medical personnel, family, or police, most realize that sudden tranquillity in such situations should prompt medical attention. Sudden cardiorespiratory arrest during restraint procedures or shortly thereafter is not generally caused by the restraint or trauma. Forensic pathologists will be misled if they fail to appreciate that death sometimes results from physiologic dysfunction in the in the absence of significant anatomic changes.
In summary, we have reported four cocaine users who exhibited agitated delirium, struggled with police, sustained minor head injury, and died while in custody. This sudden death syndrome secondary to pathiophysiologic effects of drug use should be recognized as such by medical examiners. Non-lethal injuries sustained in the process of subduing the decedent should not be over-interpreted.
Check the following links for more about cocaine related deaths:
9/29/99 Death in
custody from "excited delirium"?
9/13/99 Study
examine cocaine's heart danger
6/26/99 Cocaine linked to
heart attacks
8/18/89 How cocaine may stop
the heart
Other incustody deaths related to cocaine:
05/26/01 Rite Aid guard is cleared in death_______________________________________________________________
The Kalvin Porter Case
05/25/00 Detroit
NAACP asks probe of beating trial
05/23/00 Gas clerk
acquitted in slaying
05/22/00 Jury
acquits second man in Detroit gas station slaying
05/18/00 Clerk
won't face murder charge
05/16/00 Girl,
13 can't recall words tied to killing
05/15/00 Vigil
marks killing at gas station
06/09/99 Despite
issues that divide, cycle of violence must end
05/29/99 Lawyer
for defendant in gas station killing says race is not an issue
05/25/99 FBI
joins probe in beating death
05/23/99 Media:
don't focus on race, but crime
05/21/99 Meeting
aim for Arab-Black understanding
05/20/99 Competition
means respect
05/19/99 Gas
station prompts city summit
05/18/99 Slaying
points to economic, social chasm, leaders say
05/18/99 Bail
denied in slaying
05/17/99 Killing
fuels race tensions
Autopsy Clears D.C. Police in Death; Medical Examiner
Blames Cocaine, Not
Excessive Force
(no link Washington Post article 1999)
The man who stopped breathing during an arrest by District police two weeks ago died
because he had been using cocaine and not because of excessive use of force by the
officers, D.C. Medical Examiner Jonathan L. Arden said yesterday.
Alvin Maurice Headspeth, 43, of no fixed address, died Dec. 12 after a struggle in which a
District police officer struck him with a metal baton. Police first approached Headspeth
because he refused to drop a bicycle lock that he had been banging against his mother's
apartment door.
The cause of death was attributed to agitated delirium that was due to acute cocaine
intoxication, Arden said.
"He did have some superficial injuries, but he did not have any fatal injuries that
caused or contributed to his death," Arden said. "Cocaine taken into your system
can alter your heart and brain, and that's what happened here."
Executive Assistant Chief Terrance W. Gainer said the results of the autopsy back up what
3rd District police officer Lawrence Heinz, 29, and Sgt. Antione Collins, 41, told the
department's Force Investigation Team.
The officers were not placed on administrative leave, and Gainer said the case is now
closed.
"It's not a time for cheers or tears. He died at his own hand," Gainer said.
"But our officers didn't use lethal force here."
Police said Headspeth was behaving in a "violent, irrational manner" when they
arrived at an apartment building in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood of Northwest Washington
shortly before 3 a.m.
But family members, who called police initially, accused police of excessive force and
recently said they had never known Headspeth to use drugs.
Use of force by police has been an ongoing issue in the District's 3,500-member
department.
Chief Charles H. Ramsey requested a Justice Department investigation and changed the
department's procedures for investigating shootings after The Washington Post reported
that D.C. police officers had shot and killed more people per capita during the past 10
years than any other major city's police department.
The number of police shootings this year has declined, Ramsey said. Through November, 11
people were injured by police--four of them fatally--compared with 32 during the same
period in 1998.
COCAINE CAUSED DEATH OF MAN UNDER ARREST
A man who stopped breathing during an arrest by D.C. police officers two weeks ago died because he had been using cocaine and not because of excessive force by the officers, the city medical examiner said. Alvin Headspeth, 43, died Dec. 12 after a struggle in which an officer struck him with a metal baton.
Police said they first approached Mr. Headspeth because he refused to drop a bicycle lock that he had been banging against his mother's apartment door.
Medical Examiner Jonathan Arden said the cause of death was attributed to agitated delirium that was due to acute cocaine intoxication.
The autopsy backs up what Officer Lawrence Heinz and Sgt. Antione Collins of the 3rd District told authorities, police officials said.
The officers were not placed on administrative leave, and officials termed the case closed.
_______________________________________________________________
The Morris Pina Case:04/06/01 http://www.s-t.com/daily/04-01/04-06-01/a12op085.htm
01/01/01 http://www.s-t.com/daily/01-01/01-29-01/zzzddobi.htm
http://library.northernlight.com/AG19981027010346427.html?cb=0&sc=0#doc
http://www.s-t.com/daily/03-96/03-09-96/1apina1.htm
http://www.standardtimes.com/daily/06-96/06-03-96/a01lo038.htm
http://library.northernlight.com/BM19981015070226600.html?cb=0&sc=0#doc
ANOTHER INCUSTODY COCAINE DEATH
Police captain: `I'm sorry Pina died'
By Reggie Sheffield, Standard-Times staff writer
BOSTON -- The captain on duty the night Morris Pina Jr. died in New Bedford police custody
apologized for his death yesterday, but said he died of a drug overdose.
"I feel sorry that Morris Pina died," Capt. Robert Devlin said in federal
District Court. "I don't want anybody to die. It's the worst thing that can happen.
We don't want any of that." Capt. Devlin, a 30-year police veteran, resumed
testifying yesterday after spending most of Monday describing how Mr. Pina was locked in
police
headquarters Cell 18 at about 10:10 p.m. June 16, 1990.
Mr. Pina's family claims police beat the 32-year-old city man and left him to die. His
sister has filed a lawsuit against police and the city.
Hours before he died, police arrested Mr. Pina, who had a known drug history, for assault
and battery on police and being a disorderly person. Three hours later, EMTs found his
body face down in a pool of blood and vomit.
Capt. Devlin said he was sure Mr. Pina died from an overdose and that injuries found on Mr. Pina's body were probably incurred by him striking his head on the bars and from him falling off of a bench in the cell.
"It is my belief that Mr. Pina slipped backwards and hit his head on the door," Capt. Devlin told jurors.
He said he reached his conclusion after conducting his own investigation after learning he was among those being sued. Before the suit was filed, it was only an internal police investigation.
After learning of the suit, he immediately visited the cell and photographed it to figure things out, he said.
Capt. Devlin said he was convinced Mr. Pina died of a drug overdose after speaking with Detective Sgt. Steven Forand, who was investigating Mr. Pina's death for the city.
Capt. Devlin said Sgt. Forand told him there were 131 milligrams of cocaine and traces of heroin in Mr. Pina's system, "enough to kill him," he quoted the detective as saying -- and said there were another 800 milligrams of undigested cocaine in his stomach.
"(Sgt. Forand) stated at that time that it was enough to kill him eight times over," he said.
Capt. Devlin's testimony clashes with what the booking officer on duty that night testified that the detective told him. Last week, booking Sgt. Stephen Oliveira testified that Sgt. Forand told him Mr. Pina died of multiple injuries and not a drug overdose, although Sgt. Oliveira later admitted to making contrary statements. Sgt. Forand is expected to testify.
Other parts of Capt. Devlin's testimony mirrored that of other officers and cell attendants. All are sure Mr. Pina was not injured when placed in the cell -- except for a small abrasion on his forehead that bled slightly -- but none can say how Mr. Pina was injured, except to say he threw himself around the cell.
A state medical examiner's autopsy concluded Mr. Pina died of a drug overdose, but noted numerous injuries, including a cut to the back of Mr. Pina's head and a compression injury to his neck that a medical expert testified could have been caused by a choke hold.
Despite his personal investigation into Mr. Pina's death, Capt. Devlin said he never inspected the police photographs of Mr. Pina's body lying on the cell floor and also said he could not precisely trace his steps that evening after leaving Mr. Pina in the cell.
Capt. Devlin disputed the impact of the most graphic of the police photographs of Mr. Pina. "What I see there is a lot of blood about his face but not substantial injuries," he told attorney Robert A. Griffith, who represents Mr. Pina's family.
NOTE on the PINA case:
A jury concluded that the city was liable and awarded 500,000 dollars to the family. However, no
The next link in consecutive order is The Appeal Issues.