The Maryland Attorney General’s office announced Friday that it would undertake a review of cases overseen by former Chief Medical Examiner David Fowler after Fowler testified for the defense in the Derek Chauvin trial, the Baltimore Sun reports.

The state AG’s office received a letter, written by Roger A. Mitchell, the Medical Examiner of Washington, DC and co-signed by more than 400 other doctors from around the country, stating that Fowler’s conclusions in his testimony were far outside the bounds of medical science and called into question his conclusions in other cases.

“Dr. Fowler’s stated opinion that George Floyd’s death during active police restraint should be certified with an ‘undetermined’ manner is outside the standard practice and conventions for investigating and certification of in-custody deaths. This stated opinion raises significant concerns for his previous practice and management,” the letter said.

One of the most high-profile cases Fowler worked on was the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, whom Fowler determined died by homicide due to police negligence in failing to secure him in the back of a police van.

In Floyd’s death, Fowler determined that Floyd had died of a sudden heart rhythm problem while being restrained by police.  He declined to call the method of death a homicide, as other experts overwhelming concluded, and instead said it should have been listed as “undetermined.”

Fowler’s statement in the Floyd case calls into question his conclusions in other cases.  In the 2018 death of 19-year-old Anton Black on Maryland’s Eastern Shore was ruled to be a “sudden cardiac event” even though Black was restrained and held down by police for six minutes before he died.  The police incident with Black was also caught on video by a bystander.

In a 2013 case, Fowler determined that Tyrone West had died of natural causes during a struggle with Baltimore police officers following a traffic stop.  Fowler’s determination was cited as a reason BPD allowed the office back on duty.

“We agree that it is appropriate for independent experts to review reports issued by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) regarding deaths in custody,” Raquel Coombs, a spokeswoman for Frosh, said in an statement to The Baltimore Sun. “We are already in conversations with the Governor’s Office about the need for such a review, and have offered to coordinate it.”