The U.S. Attorney for Georgia’s Middle District announced Thursday he has joined the search for answers in the case of a Valdosta teen found dead inside a rolled up wrestling mat.
“I am of the opinion that a sufficient basis exists for my office to conduct a formal review of the facts and investigation surrounding the death of Kendrick Johnson,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Moore.
Johnson’s parents, joined by civil rights activists, had pushed for the probe for months. They have never accepted the official conclusion that the 17-year-old was killed in a freak accident. A private pathologist hired by the family bolstered their suspicions when he determined the Lowndes High School sophomore died from a blow to his face that triggered a heart attack.
The family’s theory: Johnson was killed by someone with connections to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department.
“This is more about a cover-up and a conspiracy than race,” said the Johnson family’s co-counsel Benjamin Crump, who previously represented the parents of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot dead by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.
But it’s not just the Lowndes sheriff’s department that believes Johnson’s death was accidental.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Chief Medical Examiner Kris Sperry’s autopsy found that the teen had suffocated after getting stuck reaching into an upright mat for a shoe. Those who’ve worked with Sperry, who once testified against the state in the case of a Gwinnett County teen charged with murder, find it difficult to believe he’d be involved in any sort of cover-up.
“Kris Sperry has an impeccable reputation,” said Decatur criminal defense attorney Bob Rubin.
Yet significant questions remain.
“There’s a tragic familiarity to this case,” said Georgia NAACP President Francys Johnson. “The nation is watching to see whether justice is determined by one’s social status or the color of one’s skin.”
Moore said his review doesn’t mean he’s “accepting nor rejecting the opinions of anyone who has previously investigated the circumstances of Mr. Johnson’s death.
“My objective is to discover the truth,” he said.
Johnson’s attorneys hope some of those answers will be found in almost 1900 hours of surveillance video taken inside and outside the Lowndes High School gymnasium, where Kendrick’s body was discovered by students on Jan. 11
On Wednesday, a judge ordered the release of the surveillance footage over the objections of Lowndes Sheriff Chris Prine, who had objected on privacy grounds. He contends the unreleased video sheds no new light on Johnson’s death.
“We appreciate Mr. Moore’s interest in these tragic circumstances and applaud his urging of the community to come forward with facts and evidence rather than feelings or opinions, no matter how sincere they may be,” the sheriff’s attorney, Joe Elliott, said in a statement. “While Sheriff Prine has every confidence that his office’s investigation was handled with the necessary diligence to assure that all leads were examined and exhausted, he welcomes the U. S. Attorney’s further review of the case.”
Moore cautioned that federal jurisdiction is limited.
“Should sufficient information be developed to warrant a criminal civil rights investigation, I will ask the FBI to open a civil rights, or any other appropriate, investigation,” he said.
Race is not the only factor in determining whether Johnson’s civil rights were violated, according to his parents’ attorney.
“If there was some sort of cover-up to protect the guilty individuals, as we believe, that’s a violation of his right to due process,” Crump said.
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