Michael M. Baden (born July 27, 1934[1]) is an American physician and board-certified forensic pathologist known for his work investigating high-profile deaths and as the host of HBO's Autopsy.
[8][9][10][11][3][12][13] In 1979, Baden's onetime lawyer Robert Tanenbaum defended his autopsy methods, while also acknowledging his lack of cooperation with the New York establishment.
[16] Afterward, Baden was hired as deputy medical examiner for Suffolk County, but was dismissed for allegedly making inappropriate comments about how to commit the perfect murder.
[8][10][9] An article in Oui Magazine quoted him describing how to get away with "high tech murder," but Baden strongly denied making the statement.
[7] The decision to let him go was rescinded shortly thereafter, as the circumstances of his alleged comments were unclear, but Baden chose to leave the position nonetheless.
[10] He has been hired to conduct private autopsies in a number of cases, including the shooting of Michael Brown[18] and the deaths of New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez,[19] civil rights lawyer and politician Chokwe Lumumba,[20] George Floyd[21] and African-American artist Ellis Ruley.
"[14] Baden's independent autopsy findings are often in conflict with the local authorities' opinions; as such, many consider him to be a headline-seeking physician as opposed to a legitimate source of information.
[32][33] At the subsequent civil trial the following year he disowned that claim and admitted it was absurd to think that someone would stand still without moving their feet while their throat is being slashed and not fight back.
[34][35][36] Baden then claimed that Ron Goldman remained conscious[37] and fought with his assailant for at least ten minutes[38] with a severed jugular vein.
Their results conflicted with the autopsy performed by Andrew Baker, a pathologist and the chief medical examiner for Hennepin County since 2004, which found that the cause of death was "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."
Baden's first marriage, which ended in 1997, was to Judianne Densen-Gerber, a physician and founder of the drug treatment program Odyssey House; together they had four children.