No Indictments in Sandra Bland’s Death

The Vermont senator issued a brief statement Monday night after a Texas grand jury declined to indict any of the sheriff’s officials or jailers for their treatment of Bland, who was black.

Sandra Bland, 28, was found dead in a Waller County jail cell in Hempstead, Texas, three days after she was arrested for allegedly failing to use her turn signal on July 10, 2015.

But now, five months after national protests over her death, the grand jury decided Monday not to indict anyone, including the jail staff in connection with her death, Darrell Jordan, a special prosecutors for the case, told The Washington Post.

The case is not over, howevrer.

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis, who appointed the special prosecutors to review the case, has said there is nothing in that investigation “that shows anything happened but she killed herself”.

The family of a Naperville woman who died in a Texas jail cell earlier this year says a grand jury’s decision not to charge any of her jailers begs a number of questions that demand answers.

Encinia has said he arrested Bland because she kicked him during the traffic stop, the Houston Chronicle reported. Her death was ruled a suicide, but family members and protesters disputed the conclusions, alleging she was a victim of police brutality and racism.

In addition to dash-cam video from Encinia’s patrol vehicle and those of Prairie View police officers who responded to the traffic stop, investigators have reviewed video showing Bland’s arrival and processing at the jail. Her body also showed no signs of injuries sustained during a struggle, a Waller County prosecutor said. He said, “The only issue that remains is Officer Encinia”.

“My thoughts are with her family and loved ones tonight”.

All three Democratic presidential candidates-Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley-have made Bland’s death a clarion call for reforming a police system that they claim is racially biased and aggressively pursues minor offenses.

Lambert said late Monday he believes prosecutors’ decision to have the grand jury return in January is another attempt to delay releasing the report.

Sanders, who was campaigning in Iowa, says the US must reform “a very broken criminal justice system”. The case is set to go to trial in January 2017. The Bland family and their legal representatives also questioned the curious timing of the grand jury announcement so close to the holidays as well.

“I can’t be asked to accept what they want me to accept without seeing anything, as a mom”, Reed-Veal told The Associated Press on Tuesday during an interview in Chicago.

In August, Bland’s family filed a wrongful death suit against a Texas trooper, a sheriff’s office and her jailers, accusing them of being responsible for her hanging.

Many on social media responded with frustration and disbelief after the announcement.