Texas grand jury refuses to issue indictment in Sandra Bland’s death

Sandra Bland was found hanged in a prison cell at the Waller County jail in Texas on July 13 three days after she was arrested for failing to signal while changing lanes.

Bland’s family sued Waller County for negligence in her death, but county attorneys said jail officials weren’t responsible. The incident quickly escalated and Bland was ultimately taken from her vehicle and arrested.

About two dozen people have gathered outside of a Texas courthouse to protest a grand jury’s refusal to indict any sheriff’s officials or jailers in the death of a Sandra Bland.

Video footage from the jail did not show what happened inside Ms Bland’s cell, but did suggest no-one entered or left it until someone found her unconscious. “We know that nothing could replace losing a loved one, but we will continue to show the family support over the next year as the legal process continues to play out on their pursuit towards justice”.

“Sandra Bland’s case shows that we need to do more than #SayHerName”, O’Malley said on Twitter, referring to the campaign that sprang up after her death. In her lawsuit, Reed-Veal also contends that Encinia falsified the assault allegation to take Bland into custody and that jail personnel failed to keep her daughter safe.

So, questions about Sandra Bland’s treatment certainly aren’t over, but the fear that Encinia won’t face any charges seems warranted. He declined to discuss which charges the grand jury has already considered and which it may when it reconvenes. A medical examiner ruled her death suicide, but her family disputes the finding. A federal judge has set a 2017 trial date for a wrongful death suit filed by the family of Sandra Bland.

Bland was on her way to a job interview when she was pulled over by Waller County state trooper Brian T. Encinia.

Late Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said in a statement that Bland wouldn’t have died in police custody “if she were a white woman”, according to CNN. Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw has said the 30-year-old trooper violated internal policies of professionalism and courtesy during the stop, the Associated Press reported.

“A secret process where secret evidence is presented to secret grand jurors is not one we can trust or have confidence in”, Sharon Cooper, Bland’s sister posted to Facebook a day after the decision, criticizing the inability to access the evidence the grand jury reviewed.

Prosecutor Darrell Jordan said Monday that the Waller County grand jury will return in January to consider “other issues” and warned there could be indictments. A popular hashtag, #IfIDieInCustody, became a forum to express that skepticism and the fear of being disappeared into a jail-or, like Freddie Gray, a police wagon-and emerging dead or near death, with no explanation and little evidence to explain what happened beyond the official account.