Mother's side of Kindra's family accept suicide verdict.
Lawyers for Chapman's mother released this statement on Thursday: "We are so grateful for the outpouring of support for Kindra. We are devastated that she is gone, and we miss her terribly,'' according to a family statement released to AL.com from the Birmingham law firm of Marsh, Rickard and Bryan. "We want the world to know what a wonderful soul she was. At the same time, we want the world to know that her death was a suicide. We have hired lawyers to investigate how this could have happened while she was in police custody."
Native American Activist Found Dead in Jail Cell After Traffic Fine Arrest
A Native American activist was recently arrested and found dead in jail under conditions very similar to those of Sandra Bland in Texas.
Rexdale W. Henry, 53, was recently found dead inside the Neshoba County Jail in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on July 14th. He had been arrested over failure to pay a minor traffic citation.
Local WTOK, reported that corrections officers reported Henry dead around 10 a.m.. But reports and logs reveal that he was seen alive and perfectly fine only half an hour before that.
Reports say that the state crime lab in Jackson are currently conducting an autopsy. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation also says that they are “looking into” Henry’s death.
But that hasn’t satisfied Henry’s fellow activists, friends and family. Just after funeral services were held on July 19th, in Bogue Chitto, Henry’s body was flown to Florida for an independently-funded autopsy paid for by anonymous donors. They hope that this autopsy will get to the bottom of what really happened.
Syracuse University law professors Janis McDonald and Paula Johnson of the school’s Cold Case Justice Initiative comment that, “at a time when the nation is focused on the terrible circumstances of the brutal death of Sandra Bland, it is critical to expose the many ways in which Black Americans, Native Americans and other minorities are being arrested for minor charges and end up dead in jail cells.”