Family demands federal investigation into mysterious death of student

Al Sharpton, who spoke at an event demanding an investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson

The family of Kendrick Johnson is demanding a federal investigation into his death.

While the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has ruled the death of an accident, his family disagreeing, arguing that Johnson was murdered at the school.

According to a story on ABC local station WALB News 10, officials believe Johnson, who died back in January, “was in the gym alone, reached into the mat to get something he dropped, and got stuck.”

The final autopsy report ruled the death accident as a result of “positional asphyxia.”

The family is not convinced. A Facebook page and organizations like Atlanta's National Action Network, have brought attention to the case, claiming that it was bungled: the coroner's office wasn't notified until hours after Johnson's death; that the body was moved and his clothes misplaced.

The sheriff denies that the body or clothes were moved, butt the coroner's office has expressed anger at not being contacted sooner.

"We want an independent investigation, let's just say by an agency with higher credentials than Lowndes County," chapter president Marcus Coleman told WALB.

"There's been a number of what we feel are inconsistencies, are mishandlings, and for that very reason is why we want another set of eyes," he added.

The family has organized community protests in Valdosta, one attended by the civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

The reverend started a fund, for which he contributed $500, to give to anyone who had evidence that would prove the 17-year-old’s death not to be accidental.

"It puts Valdosta on the map for real,” Johnson’s aunt, Susie Kier, said. She added, “It lets the people of Valdosta Georgia know that Kendrick Johnson's life stood for something. Let them know that he was a great little boy. That we loved him dearly."

According to the Examiner, the family has requested a coroner’s inquest, and Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson agreed to proceed.

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Judge declines to drop death penalty for Fort Hood shooter

By Don Bolding and Jim Forsyth

FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - A military judge on Thursday again denied a request from accused Fort Hood gunman Army Major Nidal Hasan to remove the death penalty as a punishment option in his forthcoming court-martial on charges of killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting rampage.

At a pre-trial hearing, judge Colonel Tara Osborn also denied requests from the defense that Hasan's trial be pushed back until September 1 and that a media affairs expert be appointed at government expense to assist the defense in jury selection.

Selection of the panel of officers who will act as the jury is set to begin on May 29, although Osborn said Thursday that interviews with prospective jurors might not begin until the following day.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is facing the death penalty for opening fire in Fort Hood, Texas, on a group of soldiers who were preparing to deploy to Iraq on November 5, 2009.

In addition to the 13 killed, 32 were wounded, and Hasan, 42, is paralyzed from the chest down from gunshots fired by two civilian Fort Hood police officers who ended what was the worst shooting at a U.S. military installation.

The defense requested the trial delay because recent media reports about the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings have mentioned Hasan.

"Media coverage was saturated again," Lieutenant Colonel Kris Poppe, the lead defense lawyer, told the judge. "The comparisons are striking and troubling."

But Colonel Steve Henricks, one of the prosecutors, said prominent stories about the Boston bombings had only mentioned Hasan briefly, and Osborn said: "How do we know that nothing else will happen between now and the time of the trial that will bring this case to public attention again?"

Osborn previously denied a request by Hasan's lawyers that the death penalty be removed from consideration in return for a guilty plea. The Uniform Code of Military Justice, the unique law code that governs the armed forces, does not allow a guilty plea to a capital charge.

"The evidence is overwhelming, so the defense has always concentrated on two things: How can we delay this trial and how can we get a reduced sentence?" said Jeffrey Addicott, a former legal adviser to the Army Special Forces and a professor of law at St. Mary's University in Texas.

"The defense is hoping that the more time that goes by, they can just get the government to throw up their hands in frustration and say, OK, we'll just accept a guilty plea."

Osborn has been trying to get the trial schedule on track after extensive delays while the military justice system debated whether Hasan, who is Muslim, should be required to shave his beard to comply with military rules. Osborn has put that issue aside.

Opening arguments in the trial are expected to begin on July 1. Security is being ramped up at Fort Hood's Lawrence J. Williams Courthouse in preparation for the trial. Officials have placed bullet-proof sand-and-fiber barriers close to the building.

Fort Hood is a 340-square-mile (880-square-km) Army post located about 60 miles north of Austin, Texas.

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan, Scott Malone, Mohammad Zargham and Andre Grenon)

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Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock And Coalition Of Faith And Community Members To Call On Congress To End Gun Violence On The Anniversary Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Releases New Ad and Research on How Weak Gun Laws Turn Domestic Abuse into Murders; www.DemandAction.org

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

NEW YORK, April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Kimberly Brusk, a domestic violence and gun violence survivor and Halsey Knapp, a member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church and lawful gun owner, will call on Congress to support comprehensive and enforceable universal background checks. 

In conjunction with this event, Mayors Against Illegal Guns released on Wednesday new research findings highlighting the disturbing link between guns and violence against women and an ad featuring Elvin Daniel, a gun owner and NRA member whose sister Zina Daniel was murdered in the Brookfield, Wis., spa shooting in October 2012.  Several days after she obtained a restraining order against her violent estranged husband – which made him a prohibited purchaser – he bought a semiautomatic handgun from a private online seller without a background check, which he used the next day to murder her and two other people.  If Zina and her husband lived in nearby Michigan, where a background check is required for every handgun sale, she and the other victims might still be alive today.  In fact, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has found that in states that require a background check for every handgun sale, 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners.

The event in Atlanta is part of a series of events hosted by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, in conjunction with Organization For Action and other groups supporting background checks, to continue the push for commonsense gun laws like comprehensive and enforceable background checks while members of Congress are back in their home states on recess. The bipartisan coalition has been hosting events across the country featuring mayors, faith leaders, moms, law enforcement officials, gun violence survivors and family members of victims who will speak about the need for comprehensive gun laws and the disturbing link between domestic violence and guns. 

WHAT: Coalition of faith leaders, community members and gun safety advocates will call on Congress to support comprehensive and enforceable background checks.

WHO:  Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock
Kimberly Brusk, a domestic violence and gun violence survivor
Halsey Knapp, a member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church and lawful gun owner

WHEN:  Thursday, April 4 at 2:30 PM

WHERE: Ebenezer Baptist Church
Horizon Sanctuary
400 Auburn Ave, NE
Atlanta, GA 30312

About Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Since its creation in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 members to more than 900 mayors from across the country. We have more than 1.5 million grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country.  The bipartisan coalition, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, has united the nation's mayors around these common goals: protecting communities by holding gun offenders accountable; demanding access to crime gun trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other dangerous people to get guns.  Learn more at www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org

CONTACTS
Christina Freundlich: christina.freundlich@gmail.com or 314-302-0602
Erika Soto Lamb: esotolamb@rabengroup.com or 646-580-5281

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns

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