George Floyd’s autopsy report is not new, does not say he died of an overdose
Tributes are displayed on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square, Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Minneapolis. A page from the autopsy report for Floyd being shared by social media users was released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office in 2020. It does not prove anything new about Floyd’s death. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
CLAIM: A new autopsy report for George Floyd has been released in 2023, revealing he died from a drug overdose, not from the actions of arresting Minneapolis police officers.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Social media users are sharing a page from the 20-page autopsy report that was publicly released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office in full on June 3, 2020. It has not been changed since. While the page says he had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, and did not have “life-threatening injuries,” the full report concludes Floyd died from “cardiopulmonary arrest,” not an overdose.
THE FACTS: As the three-year anniversary of Floyd’s death arrived on Thursday, some social media users shared what they erroneously claimed was new evidence about the circumstances of his passing.
Many of the posts presented a page from an autopsy report that supposedly had not been made public before. One section on the page lists the drugs that were in Floyd’s system when he died, while another states, “no life-threatening injuries identified.”
“BREAKING NEWS: George Floyd full autopsy released,” reads one tweet. “Says ‘no life threatening injuries identified’ and reveals high levels of multiple additional toxic drugs on top of the Fentanyl that was initially reported.” It had received more than 48,000 likes and more than 16,000 shares by Friday.
Another tweet that had received more than 29,600 likes and more than 6,600 shares stated that “the coroner’s report says Floyd died from drugs - not COPS.”
But the image being shared online simply shows the second page of the autopsy report released three years ago by Hennepin County. It does not prove anything new about Floyd’s death, and ignores that the prior page concludes that it was a homicide due to “cardiopulmonary arrest” from “law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
Carolyn Marinan, a spokesperson for Hennepin County, confirmed that the report “has not been amended or changed since it was finalized on June 1, 2020.”
John Stiles, deputy chief of staff for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, said that the image “is a page ripped from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s 2020 autopsy” and shows “nothing new.”
During his murder trial, defense attorneys for Derek Chauvin, the officer captured on video placing his knee on Floyd’s neck during the fatal arrest, put a major focus on the presence of fentanyl and other illicit substances in Floyd’s system. Chauvin was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison. Three other former Minnesota cops — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — have also been given prison time for their role in Floyd’s death.
Expert witnesses called by prosecutors during the trial concluded that Floyd did not die of an overdose or because of his drug use.
Independent experts have previously told the AP that underlying medical problems and drug use revealed in the autopsy report don’t change the conclusion that Floyd’s death was a homicide, explaining that these conditions simply made it more likely that he would not fare well under stress.
They have also noted that the fact that no major bruising or damage to the muscles, cartilage or bones in the neck was found — as indicated under the phrase “no life-threatening injuries identified” in the autopsy — does not mean that asphyxia did not occur. Only that there are no signs of it on the body.
Stiles called use of the phrase in the false posts spreading online “cherry-picked” and said that it “demonstrates the limitations of an autopsy by itself in diagnosing death by asphyxiation.”
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.