The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence

Apr 9, 2026

Dr. Terence Keel, UCLA scholar of human biology, society, and African-American studies, examines how death investigators and records obscure in-custody deaths. He discusses origins of the book, barriers to autopsy and records access, reading autopsies against the grain, families forcing accountability, and the scale and suppression of police-related deaths.

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ANECDOTE

Mother Who Refused Suicide Ruling

Helen Jones discovered violent injuries on her son John Horton III after his death in Men's Central Jail and refused the official suicide narrative.
Terence Keel learned from Helen how families uncover contradictions in autopsies and how community pressure forces further scrutiny.

INSIGHT

No Guaranteed Right To Know The Dead

There is no constitutional right to access autopsy or death records and state laws vary widely, blocking transparency.
Keel's lab had to compile names from NGOs and journalists, then file FOIA requests to obtain autopsies in open-record states.

INSIGHT

Autopsy Language Conceals Causality

Autopsy reports often use passive language and misdirect causality to obscure police actions, shifting blame to victims' health or behavior.
George Floyd's report exemplified this by implying cardiac issues made him hard to subdue, despite video evidence.

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Each year, police officers kill over 1,000 people they’ve sworn to protect and serve. While some cases, like George Floyd’s and Sandra Bland’s, capture national attention, most victims remain nameless, their stories untold. The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence (Beacon Press, 2025) reveals a disturbing truth about these cases: coroners and other death investigators are often complicit in obscuring the violent circumstances of in-custody deaths. Through rigorous research—including critical records analysis, public health studies, and interviews with victims’ families—this book unmasks the systemic failures within forensic medicine. Dr. Terence Keel shows how incomplete autopsy reports, mishandled medical documents, and strategically lost evidence effectively shield law enforcement from accountability.
The Coroner’s Silence uncovers how the current system of death investigation operates as a mechanism of institutional safeguarding. By highlighting the structural powerlessness of coroners and their disconnection from the communities most affected by police violence, Dr. Keel demonstrates how bureaucratic processes can render human suffering invisible. True accountability requires more than procedural reform. It demands a fundamental reimagining of how we investigate, document, and understand deaths at the hands of state institutions. The Coroner’s Silence is a crucial intervention that challenges us to confront the deeply ingrained mechanisms that perpetuate systemic violence.

Our guest is: Dr. Terence Keel, who is an award-winning scholar, the founding director of the BioCritical Studies Lab, and a professor of human biology, society, and African-American studies at UCLA. He received fellowships from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health, and is the author of Divine Variations, and The Coroner’s Silence.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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