The improper use of a spit hood could have left an Indigenous man, Wayne Fella Morrison, struggling to breathe and may have contributed to his death, according to a pathologist giving evidence to an inquest on Tuesday into his death.
Dr Cheryl Charlwood had told the inquest last week that while no one single condition caused the death of the 29-year-old Wiradjuri, Kokatha and Wirangu man, five factors had contributed: physical exertion, acute psychological stress, excited delirium, genetic susceptibility and a “potential positional element”.
“All these factors need to be considered, and some have more weight than others, but I can’t pathologically determine the exact extent or contribution of all those,” Charlwood said.
However, under cross-examination on Tuesday, Charlwood said she had not considered whether the improper use of a spit hood may have been another contributing factor to Morrison’s death, even though it would have “potentially” caused him to partially asphyxiate as he was experiencing cardiac arrest.
Charlwood also said there was not enough information – particularly regarding what occurred during the 125-second ride in the back of an internal prison transport van – to make additional comments about what led to Morrison’s death.
Last Thursday Charlwood firmly rejected the suggestion that “positional asphyxia” had been a factor in Morrison’s death, instead placing more weight on “excited delirium”.
Positional asphyxia describes what happens when the positioning of a person during restraint leaves them unable to breathe correctly.
Excited delirium is an alleged medical state said to be characterised by increased aggression, overwhelming strength and an apparent immunity to pain that can lead to death in cases involving drug use, mental illness or previously unknown heart conditions.
The coroner has previously heard both are covered in training programs for police and corrections officers in South Australia.
While the family has sought to draw the coroner’s focus to the manner and method of Morrison’s restraint, lawyers for the guards have sought to highlight his behaviour in the holding cells just prior to their use of force.
On 23 September 2016, Morrison was wrestled to the ground in a hallway outside his cell, restrained by his wrists and ankles, placed in a spit hood and carried in the prone position to a prison transport van where he was positioned face-down on the floor in the back.
Though Charlwood said she was not an expert on positional asphyxia, she previously rejected suggestions it could be solely responsible for Morrison’s death, saying studies in the US had shown there was no relationship between prone restraint and inability to breathe.
“This has largely been disproved now and there has been a lot of papers that have addressed this to varying degrees,” Charlwood said.
“We use it more commonly to refer to people who have gotten themselves in a situation where they can’t breathe. It’s more common in drugs or alcohol.”
Instead Charlwood said excited delirium was more a factor in Morrison’s death and that he was made vulnerable as he suffered from advanced coronary artery disease that was “very rare” for a man of his age.
Charlwood said excited delirium was “controversial” but still represented a “consensus” view among pathologists in South Australia and that she had drawn the conclusion by relying on medical literature from the US.
Police officers in the US charged with murder over the death of George Floyd unsuccessfully attempted to rely on the condition to defend the charges, but Charlwood said she had no familiarity with the case when asked.
“[Excited delirium] is often described in association with an acute psychiatric event or drugs,” she said. “Obviously in Mr Morrison’s case the toxicology was negative so it’s not relevant but I considered it because of his history perhaps within his cell because he was having an episode with his mental health.”
Morrison had no known history of drug use and a toxicology report conducted at the time of his death came back negative.
The coroner heard that excited delirium occurs in people experiencing extreme psychological duress, which then results in a flood of hormones associated with adrenaline that “increases the work of the heart”, leading to sudden death.
Police and corrections offers are increasingly trained to look for signs of excited delirium which is said to involve aggression, overwhelming strength and an apparent immunity to pain.
Closing submissions are expected to be heard from 4 August.
