SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 California is the first state to ban doctors and medical examiners from attributing deaths to the controversial diagnosis known as \u201cexcited delirium,\u201d which a human rights activist hailed as a \u201cwatershed moment\u201d that could make it harder for police to justify excessive force.<\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Oct. 8<\/a> to prohibit coroners, medical examiners, physicians, or physician assistants from listing excited delirium on a person\u2019s death certificate or in an autopsy report. Law enforcement won\u2019t be allowed to use the term to describe a person\u2019s behavior in any incident report, and testimony that refers to excited delirium won\u2019t be allowed in civil court. The law takes effect in January.<\/p>\n

The term excited delirium has been around for decades but has been used increasingly<\/a> over the past 15 years to explain how a person experiencing severe agitation can die suddenly through no fault of the police. It was cited as a legal defense in the 2020 deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis; Daniel Prude in Rochester, New York; and Angelo Quinto in Antioch, California, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a watershed moment in California and nationwide,\u201d said Joanna Naples-Mitchell, a lawyer with the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights<\/a>, who co-authored a 2022 report<\/a> on the use of the diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a wrongful death lawsuit, if excited delirium comes up, it\u2019s a big hurdle for a family getting justice if their family member was actually killed by police,\u201d Naples-Mitchell said. \u201cSo, now it will be basically impossible for them to offer testimony on excited delirium in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the new law makes California the first state to no longer recognize excited delirium as a medical diagnosis, several national medical associations already discredited it. Since 2020, the American Medical Association<\/a> and the American Psychiatric Association<\/a> have rejected excited delirium as a medical condition, noting the term has disproportionately applied to Black men in law enforcement custody. This year, the National Association of Medical Examiners rejected excited delirium<\/a> as a cause of death, and the American College of Emergency Physicians is expected to vote<\/a> this month on whether to formally disavow its 2009 position paper<\/a> supporting excited delirium as a diagnosis. That white paper proposed individuals in a mental health crisis, often under the influence of drugs or alcohol, can exhibit superhuman strength as police try to control them, and then die from the condition.<\/p>\n

In the case of Quinto, his mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins, had called Antioch police two days before Christmas because her son was experiencing a mental health crisis. She had subdued him by the time they arrived, she said, but officers held her 30-year-old son to the ground until he passed out.<\/p>\n

In a harrowing home video taken by Quinto-Collins, which was broadcast nationally after his death, she asked police what happened as her son lay on the floor unconscious, hands behind his back in handcuffs. He died three days later in the hospital.<\/p>\n

The Contra Costa County coroner\u2019s office, part of the sheriff\u2019s department, blamed Quinto\u2019s death on excited delirium. The Quinto family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and is seeking to change the cause of death on his death certificate.<\/p>\n

Quinto-Collins also testified in favor of the bill, AB 360, introduced by state Assembly member Mike Gipson, a Democrat. It sailed through the legislature with bipartisan support. No organization formally opposed the measure, including the California Police Chiefs Association, whose executive director declined to comment this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more work to be done, but it is a unique window into some of the corruption, some of the things that we\u2019ve allowed to happen under our noses,\u201d said Robert Collins, Quinto\u2019s stepfather. \u201cI think it\u2019s really telling that California is ending it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the problem with an excited delirium diagnosis is that delirium is a symptom of an underlying condition, medical professionals say. For example, delirium can be caused by old age, hospitalization, a major surgery, substance use, medication, or infections, said Sarah Slocum, a psychiatrist in Exeter, New Hampshire, who co-authored a review of excited delirium<\/a> published in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t just put \u2018fever\u2019 on someone\u2019s death certificate,\u201d Slocum said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s difficult to then just put \u2018excited delirium\u2019 on there as a cause of death when there is something that\u2019s underlying and driving it.\u201d<\/p>\n