DENVER — For decades, when someone suddenly died in law enforcement custody after forcible restraint, a two-word term came to the proverbial rescue: excited delirium.
Think of it like an idea that a body can become so excited and the mind so delirious that the heart just shuts down. Once cited in an autopsy or police report, “excited delirium” serves to offer a counter-narrative to the potential dangers of the restraint.
Officers trained on it, medical organizations backed it, prosecutors cleared officers due to it, and journalists bought it.
There’s just one big problem: Few bothered to question it.
That lack of skepticism fueled a yearlong investigation by 9NEWS that linked more than 225 deaths across the United States to the term. “Undetermined” – named after the proclivity of coroners to classify the causes of these deaths in such a way – prompted the state of Colorado to change how it trains all new officers in late November.
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Excited delirium no longer exists in the Colorado-mandated training curriculum. That’s a direct result of the 9NEWS reports.
In addition, during the next Colorado legislative session, a legislator has vowed to effectively gut the ability of coroners and law enforcement officers to cite it during death investigations.
“I think it’s been really important that you [9NEWS] brought something to light that’s actionable,” said state Rep. Judy Amabile.
In October, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) finally distanced itself from a 2009 ACEP-endorsed White Paper that had given medical legitimacy to the term for more than a decade.
The doctor who persuaded ACEP’s board to unanimously ditch its support for the White Paper during the group’s annual conference in Philadelphia credited 9NEWS' investigation.
“I believe that their coverage had a significant role in pushing historic policy changes this past October,” said Dr. Brooks Walsh, a longtime ACEP member.
The database built by 9NEWS represents the largest current collection of deaths connected to “excited delirium” in the United States. The database provided a starting point for other investigative units across the country. Television stations in San Diego, Sacramento, St. Louis, New Orleans and Tampa produced their own stories using names and documents contained within the database.
Among the major findings of the 9NEWS investigation:
- Less than 5% of the “excited delirium” deaths within the database resulted in criminal charges.
- Approximately 97% of the deaths happened after law enforcement involvement, restraint or both.
- Deaths connected to “excited delirium” disproportionately involved Black men.
- Coroners mentioned “excited delirium” on the autopsies of at least 179 of the 225+ deaths that 9NEWS identified as of late 2023.
In theory, “excited delirium” is a condition marked by severe agitation, profuse sweating, superhuman strength and occasional sudden death. The concept of it has existed in policing and EMS circles for decades.
Suspicion of it led officers in Aurora to request a ketamine injection for Elijah McClain in 2019. The following year, officers in Minneapolis held George Floyd facedown, falsely believing Floyd might have excited delirium.
Those deaths you know. This investigation found hundreds more that largely eluded public scrutiny. Less than 5% led to criminal charges. Almost all involved some form of restraint or law enforcement involvement.
“It’s got to be more than just a coincidence,” Joanna Naples-Mitchell, a spokesperson for Physicians for Human Rights, said after reviewing 9NEWS' findings.
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