District Attorney Mathis: Sandra Bland's death "will go to a Grand Jury."

[pnwmom]

Do suicides normally go to Grand Juries?

There seems to be some disagreement among the authorities.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/da-early-woman-died-texas-jail-cell-32583925

"It is very much too early to make any kind of determination that this was a suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete," Mathis said.

He said he's asked the Texas Rangers to do extensive scientific testing for fingerprints, touch DNA and use any other valid investigative techniques "so we can figure out and say with certainty what happened in that cell."

"This investigation is still being treated just as it would be in a murder investigation. There are many questions being raised in Waller County, across the country and the world about this case. It needs a thorough review," Mathis said, noting, "It will go to a grand jury."

Capt. Brian Cantrell, head of the sheriff's department criminal investigation division, said at the same press conference that Bland's death "was a tragic incident, not one of criminal intent or a criminal act" but that he welcomed the investigation.

SNIP

[msongs]

1. grand juries, where the dead person is tried and convicted of his/her own death...in secret nt

[Suich]

2. Good!

How did she get the plastic bag in the first place?

This whole thing stinks.

[Igel]

4. For trash.

A lot of cells have been suicide proofed. You don't get trash bags. Towel hooks are very weak. Push button spigots and flush controls on toilets. Built-in resin toilet seats with no projections. No doorknobs, hinges are on the outside. Plumbing is either all in the wall or encased in metal that's welded closed. Fire extinguisher nozzles are flush with the ceiling. There's nothing you can tie anything to--no pipes, no projections. No gaps between shelves and bedframes and the wall. Prisoners have been known to feed a sheet or blanket between gaps and then knot them. No doors on cupboards, because between the door and the frame there's a crack that can be used to tie something to.

It's expensive to refit cells like this. Most smaller jurisdictions haven't. Waller county has something like 50k people living in it. I've driven through part of it. Pretty countryside. Not many people.

Anti-suicide jail protocols include never leaving a door open--you're locked in your cell or under escort and observation elsewhere. No plastic bags. No shoe-laces. You're stuck giving them sheets and blankets.

This doesn't say that Bland committed suicide. But it explains how suicide in that cell is completely plausible. It makes "How is that possible?" from an implicit claim that it's impossible to a question that has a ready answer.

I read up on this a few days back when they said Bland committed suicide and that in 2012 there was another suicide by hanging but he wasn't found in the usual position of swinging/feet of the ground. He was mostly recumbent. Had to find out how that made sense, but that's the case in about half of prison hanging suicides: their feet are on the ground, sometimes they're standing, sometimes kneeling, sometimes they're mostly laying down. Those are still called hangings by most people, but I think the legal term in most jurisdictions is asphyxiation or suffocation because you don't get the same kind of neck injuries.

[pnwmom]

5. What trash? From your description it doesn't sound like they have stuff in there with them. n/t

[COLGATE4]

6. When I practiced in Michigan I heard a number of Prosecutor

friends comment from time to time on the phenomenon of young people being arrested for what most of us would consider minor infractions and then attempting suicide. More modern jails make a point of asking the detainee at booking whether '(s)he wants to harm him/herself' and if any positive (or equivocal) answer is received, the prisoner is put on suicide watch. This isn't potentially as rare as some might think.

[davidn3600]

3. They can. Many times grand juries are used as an investigative tool

...Mainly because the grand jury can issue subpoenas and get people to testify under oath or help organize evidence. Ultimately also the grand jury can make decisions that perhaps the prosecutor doesn't want to make alone.