Colin Kaepernick has launched a new initiative called Autopsy Initiative and it’s all part of “fighting against those social injustices that he initially took a knee for in 2016 as a member of the San Francisco 49ers.”
The Shadow League got details;
In 2021, Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp organization launched his Autopsy Initiative, which is centered on providing second autopsies for people who have been killed by the police or while in police custody. The idea came to him to start the initiative after the family of George Floyd hired two independent pathologists. Their reports contradicted the county medical examiner’s autopsy report that stated, it revealed “no physical findings to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.”
Kaepernick mentioned that three main reasons behind his initiative are: the bias that could arise in state issued reports, the use of faulty forensics, and the significant financial burden can place on friends and family of the deceased typically ranges between $10,000-$15,000. He plans to fund his nonprofit through charitable donations. He realizes that this is a team effort, so his longtime girlfriend Nessa Diab and attorney Ben Meiselas are helping.
Kaepernick hired Nicole Martin in August 2021 to become the initiative’s legal program director and its first full-time employee. She noticed the level of diligence Kaepernick had when he would sit in on interview calls to make sure that the people hired are the right fit for what he is trying to do. Martin is a graduate of UC Riverside and devoted her senior thesis to analyzing the connection between race and police brutality. That caught the attention of Kaepernick during the interview process, and he knew she would be a perfect fit.
Mitchell told Sports Illustrated, “Subsidizing autopsies for those who died in connection with the criminal legal system, that doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
The program has helped over 42 families to date, SI reports, and the biggest lawsuit filed because of their efforts was for $100 million by the family of 23-year-old Robert Adams against the city of San Bernardino, California.
Flip to the next page for more…
