Maryland’s attorney general will hire a group of independent experts to take a closer look at the cases of 100 people who died in jail or police custody under the leadership of the state’s former top medical examiner, David Fowler.

Fowler testified in defense of the police officer convicted of killing George Floyd. Medical experts found Fowler’s testimony in defense of Derek Chauvin in 2021 so alarming that Maryland officials announced a probe into his past work to check for inaccuracies and bias.

Last year, Maryland officials hired a seven-person audit design team to develop a process for reviewing the in-custody death determines made under Fowler’s leadership. The team looked at more than 1,300 cases where people died in custody during Fowler’s 17-year tenure at the office of the medical examiner. Maryland officials told the Washington Post last year that the scope of in-custody deaths includes “any cases in which an agent of government was involved in any way,” like deaths in police custody, deaths in jail, and people who died after a police vehicular pursuit.

Ultimately, the audit design team determined that a group of 100 cases that involved physical restraint merited a closer look. The 100 cases are ones where there was no “obvious medical cause of death,” like a knife wound, during the autopsy.

For the next steps of the review, the team recommended a group of independent experts should determine whether they agree with the medical examiner’s office on each person’s cause and manner of death, and whether they believe the medical examiner adequately investigated how the person died. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Thursday that he would follow that recommendation and assemble the team of experts to start their in-depth review of the cases.

Fowler’s work has been under intense scrutiny since he served as a witness in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020. Contrary to other medical experts, who testified that Chauvin definitely killed Floyd, Fowler testified that Floyd died from other causes — including a pre-existing heart condition, narcotics, exposure to police vehicle fumes, and a benign tumor found on his pelvis after he died.

Fowler’s testimony prompted concern from the country’s medical community. Maryland officials announced an investigation into Fowler’s work last year after former D.C. chief medical examiner Roger Mitchell and more than 400 other doctors from across the country wrote them a letter arguing that Fowler’s statements during the Chauvin trial were so concerning that his previous work merited a deeper look.

“If forensic pathologists can offer such baseless opinions without penalty,” they wrote, “then the entire criminal justice system is at risk.”

The letter urged officials to investigate whether Fowler’s cause of death determinations were motivated by bias.

Even before the Chauvin trial, Maryland families whose loved ones died in police custody were raising the alarm about Fowler, arguing that the medical examiner’s office had wrongly come to the conclusion that police were not responsible for their deaths.

Tawanda Jones, whose brother Tyrone West died in Baltimore police custody in 2013, told the Baltimore Sun that the review was “long overdue.” Fowler ruled that West’s cause of death was a heart condition exacerbated by his struggle with police, while witnesses said officers beat and pepper sprayed him.

The family of Anton Black, who died on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 2018, filed a lawsuit against Fowler, who signed a report that ruled Black’s death an “accident.” Black’s family has refuted this, arguing that police officers chased him and forced him to the ground.

This post has been updated to correct the year when Fowler testified in Derek Chauvin’s defense.