Eighteen-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells disappeared on July 4 after he went out on a boat trip to Horn Island, a remote area on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, with three white friends. Wells' case immediately drew national media attention, with many people wondering whether Mississippi officials would conduct a transparent investigation. Colin Kaepernick is paying for an independent autopsy. And this isn't the first time the former NFL quarterback has done this.
Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp has provided free secondary autopsies for victims of police-related deaths since 2022. That includes people killed by police and in custody. Why? Because these investigations — and conditions under which autopsies are conducted — are rife with conflicts of interest.
Depending on the state or county, the officials who conduct and oversee autopsies can be elected, tied to the sheriff's department, or even sheriffs themselves. Only four states require their coroners to be physicians, and only 16 have laws with training requirements.
As a result, autopsies have been used to shift the blame from law enforcement to other causes of death, such as hypertension, sickle cell, and drug overdose. That's what happened with Elijah McClain and George Floyd. Now, Nolan Wells' body is being transported to Washington, D.C. for an independent autopsy.
Colin Kaepernick's autopsy initiative is a beautiful example of solidarity. In this liberation struggle, sticking together is a non-negotiable.