PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Anton Black’s cause of death, however, was ruled accidental despite the police response. He died from a sudden cardiac event with a congenital heart condition and other factors listed, the official report said. Police pinning Black to the ground was also considered a factor, but the report stated there was no evidence that the police response caused his death. According to CBS News, however, a Johns Hopkins University expert later said that Black’s cause of death was “positional asphyxiation,” or the position of Black’s body and the weight of the officer. Meanwhile, the ACLU says one officer linked to Black’s case was decertified with a long history of abuse, and another police chief involved had been disciplined for misconduct in the past."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: (The Fowler Factor): "Crucially, Dr. David Fowler performed Black’s autopsy, and by 2023, Fowler had retired. In the meantime, Fowler went on to testify at the trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd, a Black man, under similar circumstances. Fowler also attributed Floyd’s death to heart arrhythmia, but when the jury convicted Chauvin of murder and manslaughter, many of Fowler’s past rulings in Maryland were reevaluated. Those included Fowler’s determination that positional asphyxiation did not directly cause Black’s death."
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STORY: "What happened to Anton Black?" by William Kennedy, published by WGTB (We got this covered), on March 21, 2024. (William Kennedy is a full-time freelance content writer and journalist in Eugene, OR. William covered true crime, among other topics for Grunge.com.)…"We Got This Covered is an entertainment website headquartered in Austin and Sydney, founded in 2010 and acquired by GAMURS in 2021. Ever since the acquisition, WGTC has shed its former skin, positively evolving into a global digital entertainment brand that covers movies, TV, celebrities, Marvel, Netflix, anime, and other entertainment verticals. It reaches as many as 15 million readers a month and operates a 24-hour newsroom with writers in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia."
SUB-HEADING: "Black's death changed the way autopsies are conducted in Maryland."
GIST: "In 2018, Anton Black died when one civilian and three officers who were investigating a reported kidnapping chased, tased, and pinned him to the ground. The ensuing cover-up and Black’s death while in police custody were similar to how George Floyd was killed in 2020, and subsequent lawsuits stemming from Black’s death changed how autopsies are conducted in the state of Maryland.
According to WBALTV.com, three officers approached Black about the reported kidnapping. The Greensboro, Maryland, 19-year-old with no known connection to the police investigation fled the scene and got into a car parked near his home. Officers smashed the window and dragged Black from the vehicle while a civilian wearing a Confederate motorcycle helmet got involved in the altercation.
After the windows were smashed, Black again eluded the officers. They gave chase, but eventually, Black was subdued and put in handcuffs and leg shackles. He was then pinned to the ground for six minutes, while witnesses said he called for his mother for help. Black, who was only months away from becoming a father, became unresponsive at the scene, and he was later declared dead at the hospital.
In a statement, Black’s family said, “[Black] had committed no crime. There was no reason to tase him, tackle him, restrain him, and shackle him. There was no reason to inflict 43 blunt trauma wounds. There was no reason for Anton Black to die.” Meanwhile, Black’s sister, LaToya Holley, added, “Anton did not deserve what happened to him. He did not deserve to lose his life. They stole it from him. They lied and tried to blame him for what happened. He was the nicest, sweetest boy.”
Anton’s Black’s was declared an accident:
Anton Black’s cause of death, however, was ruled accidental despite the police response. He died from a sudden cardiac event with a congenital heart condition and other factors listed, the official report said. Police pinning Black to the ground was also considered a factor, but the report stated there was no evidence that the police response caused his death.
According to CBS News, however, a Johns Hopkins University expert later said that Black’s cause of death was “positional asphyxiation,” or the position of Black’s body and the weight of the officer. Meanwhile, the ACLU says one officer linked to Black’s case was decertified with a long history of abuse, and another police chief involved had been disciplined for misconduct in the past.
Crucially, Dr. David Fowler performed Black’s autopsy, and by 2023, Fowler had retired. In the meantime, Fowler went on to testify at the trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd, a Black man, under similar circumstances. Fowler also attributed Floyd’s death to heart arrhythmia, but when the jury convicted Chauvin of murder and manslaughter, many of Fowler’s past rulings in Maryland were reevaluated. Those included Fowler’s determination that positional asphyxiation did not directly cause Black’s death.
The Anton Black lawsuits:
In 2020, Anton Black’s estate and the nonprofit Coalition for Justice for Anton Black filed a series of lawsuits against Greensboro police and city officials stemming from Black’s death two years earlier. In 2023, one lawsuit was settled as police and city officials were charged with Black’s “unconstitutional killing.” Meanwhile, in November of that year, Anton Black’s family and his estate settled another lawsuit, including a financial payout to Black’s family.
In that settlement, the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner also agreed to adopt national standards for how autopsies are conducted when suspects die in custody to minimize undue police influence on the outcome. Those guidelines also state any death be declared a homicide when the actions of another person are involved. A Maryland state law named after Black also made records concerning police disciplinary cases more accessible.
After the settlements, Coalition for Justice for Anton Black founder Richard Potter said, ” … I hope that with this settlement, agencies will begin to recognize their own wrongdoings, catch them, and change them before they cause harm. What is needed is a sense of shared ownership that can only come through trust and mutual accountability, with police confronting their own biases about mental illness, committing to de-escalation, and truly serving a diverse community.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://wegotthiscovered.com/true-crime/what-happened-to-anton-black/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
---------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
————————————————————————————
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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