How UCLA Students Use Autopsy Reports to Help Keep Police Accountable
Through public records requests, Terence Keel’s lab has secured nearly 1,000 autopsy reports of people killed by police in the U.S.
“On a recent rainy afternoon, a handful of students gathered in a small UCLA classroom to pore over autopsy reports and death records.
They took turns presenting different cases, sharing what they’d gleaned from documents about people who died at the hands of police. After an overview, they honed in on the reports’ details.
Terence Keel, a professor in the Department of African American Studies and the Institute for Society and Genetics, founded the lab in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. After watching police take Floyd’s life, Keel wondered how many others died under similar circumstances.
Together, Keel and his students have produced multiple reports about in-custody deaths. Through this work, the professor has learned that every day in the U.S., about five people die in jail or during arrests.
The reports, coupled with conversations with community activists and people who’ve lost loved ones across the country, underpin Keel’s new book, The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence”….
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