Colin Kaepernick has created a new program to help families affected by police violence. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who protested against police brutality while playing in the NFL, has now launched the Autopsy Initiative, a program that allows families to get a free second autopsy for all “police-related” deaths.

A group of five board-certified pathologists conduct the free autopsy, which is offered through Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Campaign. While private autopsies cost around $5000, Kaepernick’s program helps families find justice without taking a financial burden, the Los Angeles Sentinel reports. The Autopsy Initiative also strives to make sure families can receive evidence without manipulation and bias.

“We know that the prison industrial complex, which includes police and policing, strives to protect and serve its interests at all costs,” Kaepernick said in a statement to Newsweek. “The Autopsy Initiative is one important step toward ensuring that family members have access to accurate and forensically verifiable information about the cause of death of their loved one in their time of need.”

According to Kaepernick’s initiative, police-related deaths includes violence caused by a wide range of law enforcement agencies and occurs when an individual is harmed by officers who use deadly force. The program also seeks justice for in-custody deaths. In-custody deaths, according to the initiative, include “deaths that arise during contact with law enforcement officers during arrest, pursuit, booking, transport, or incarceration.”

Relatives, partners, friends, lawyers or other people with a “close relationship” to the victim can request an autopsy for someone they know who died in police custody. 

“I am extremely enthusiastic about this truly unique program,” said Dr. Cyril Wecht, one of the pathologists on the initiative’s panel. “The opportunity to have unbiased second autopsies performed by independent, experienced forensic pathologists in police-related deaths will provide victims’ families with knowledge that the true facts of any such case have been thoroughly analyzed and prepared for appropriate utilization whenever deemed necessary.”

Multiple families have used a second autopsy in recent to find inaccuracies in the initial report. In 2019, a second autopsy for Ronald Greene proved that he did not die on impact in a car accident as police had claimed. Advocates for Greene learned that he was wounded and later died because of injuries he sustained when officers removed him from his car and engaged in a physical altercation.

In the case of George Floyd, the initial autopsy stated that his death involved factors of fentanyl, heart disease, and methamphetamine. Floyd’s family, however, hired a private pathologist for a second autopsy and learned that their loved one died of asphyxia due to restraint by law enforcement.

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