The Lede
Excited Delirium: Medical Phenomenon or Convenient Cover for Deaths in Police Custody?

• Excited delirium, a controversial medical diagnosis with roots in 19th-century insane asylums, is the focus of the Observer's latest deep dive. Police are increasingly employing the term to justify deaths in custody.
   
• Vincent Di Maio, a former San Antonio medical examiner turned celebrity scientist, has brought the mysterious condition to countless courtrooms, using it as legal cover for killer cops.
   
• As reporter Michael Barajas puts it, "Di Maio is to excited delirium what Galileo was to telescopes: He didn’t invent the thing, but he showed the world how to use it."
   
• Barajas digs into the fatal case of Norman Cooper, a San Antonio man whom police tased nine times over three minutes.

This Week in the Observer
Jeff Sessions Bashed ‘Sanctuary Cities’ in Austin While Protesters Trampled a KKK Robe

• In a visit to Austin Friday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stoked fears of immigrant “pedophiles” and “drug dealers” and bashed “sanctuary cities” as havens for cop-killers.
   
• Outside, about 70 protesters chanted, held signs and eventually laid a Klansman robe in front of Session’s motorcade.
   
• Watch advocates trample the KKK robe with their feet and wheelchairs in a video of the protest streamed on the Observer's Facebook. 
   

• Federal Court Denies Undocumented Teen’s Request for an Abortion
   
• After Failing to Prop Up Coal in Texas, Rick Perry is Trying Again Nationwide
   
• Immigrant Workers in Texas Could Fill Farm Vacancies, but They’re Trapped in the Valley
   
• The Olive-Green Ceiling: Why Are So Few Women in the Border Patrol?
   
• ‘American Wolf’ Explores How People and Predators Should Coexist
   
• Federal Prisons Don’t Even Try to Rehabilitate the Undocumented

What’s Happening at the Observer

• The Texas Observer and the Austin Film Festival are teaming up to offer TxO readers a $10 discount on a Film Pass to the event, which runs October 26 - November 2. To take advantage of this offer, head on over to the AFF ticket site and enter observer10 at checkout. Join the Observer and Executive Producer Dan Rather for the world premiere of Fail State on October 28.

• The Texas Observer and BookPeople are proud to present Van Jones, CNN contributor and founder of The Dream Corps, on October 29 in Austin. He'll be in conversation with Observer editor Forrest Wilder to discuss his new book, Beyond the Messy Truth. Tickets are on sale now and include a pre-signed copy of the book!​