Thomas has answered questions about a component of Baker’s autopsy that until recently seemed potentially problematic to prosecutors: his mention of Floyd’s heart problems and drug use as “contributing conditions” to the report.
Remember, prosecutors argue that Floyd died of asphyxiation, not from these conditions; the defense has seized his health problems and the presence of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his blood. Therefore, these “conditions” have largely appeared in the debate over the cause of death.
Through interrogations, prosecutors have tried to show that “contribution conditions” play more into public health data than into assessing the cause of death. “What does it mean, other conditions that contribute?” the prosecution requests this sentence in the death certificates.
“So the way forensic pathologists and forensic doctors usually use this, is that people often think that the death certificate is for that person, that specific person who died and their family. And it’s true, it serves a very useful purpose, ”says Thomas.
“But forensic pathologists also use death certificates for public health data purposes, so in any case, we’re not just thinking about that particular person and their cause and form of death. We are also thinking: the state and the federal government are collecting data.
As an example: Health authorities may want to know if an 85-year-old woman who died of natural causes had recently suffered a fall.
“That’s how I would see it,” he explains.
“So other contribution conditions are conditions that may have contributed, but weren’t the exact cause?” the prosecution asks. She answers in the affirmative.
When asked if he considered them to determine the cause of Floyd’s death, he insists, “again, this is the story of the terminal events.” That is, the circumstances that led to Floyd’s death, which, in his case, led to a police restraint.
Floyd’s description of the death in documentation, she said, does not “fit” into deaths caused by heart problems or drug overdoses.