Deposition of Medical Examiner: was there conscious pain and suffering?

This deposition is from our March 2024 wrongful death trial in Atlanta, Georgia. Our client, "Kisha," was in bed asleep inside an apartment. Outside the apartment there was a shooting, and a stray bullet flew into the apartment and hit and killed Kisha. The shooting had nothing to do with Kisha or the people inside the apartment.

We filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kisha's family against the apartment complex--this is referred to as a negligent security case. We had to prove (1) there was dangerous activity in the past that would have made it foreseeable to the apartment complex that Kisha's shooting would happen (essentially, there was so much crime in the past, it was likely to happen again) and (2) the apartment complex could have prevented Kisha's death if it would have taken reasonable steps to prevent and deter crime, given what it knew about in the past.

One very important issue in the case was whether Kisha suffered conscious pain and suffering between when the bullet hit her and when she passed away. This deposition is of the County Medical Examiner who performed an autopsy on Kisha. The video starts with the apartment complex's lawyer's direct examination, where the Medical Examiner testified that Kisha did not experience conscious pain and suffering. The second part is Mike Rafi's cross examination, where he shows the Medical Examiner's testimony is not reliable. This deposition was played for the jury as evidence at trial.

During the trial, the jury also heard testimony from Dr. Bennett Omalu, who testified Kisha did suffer conscious pain and suffering. Dr. Omalu is a world-renowned pathologist and is portrayed in the movie Concussion by Will Smith. You can find a video of his testimony on our channel as well.

The jury determined that Kisha did experience conscious pain and suffering and awarded $1 million. The jury's total award in the case was $3.8 million.