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Last February, Dennoriss Richardson filed a lawsuit against Sheffield, Alabama, police for brutality while he was in city jail. On September 28, 2024, the 39-year-old father was out on bond — but found hanging in an abandoned house. Official Alabama forensics labeled it a suicide. But his family’s private autopsy report isn’t so sure.
The rope wasn’t with Richardson’s body during the original examination. His hyoid bone, critical to determining a suicide by hanging, was missing. There’s a possibility of homicide staged as suicide.
According to historian Jay Driskell, “the trend of declaring [B]lack lynchings to be suicides stretches back to the 1930s,” with the help of cops, coroners, juries, and public figures. Blatant lynching advertisements, souvenirs, witnesses, and death certificate confirmations didn’t matter.
After the 1983 beating of Michael Stewart, a white doctor removed his eyes to hide evidence of an illegal chokehold. In 2021, the father of 23-year-old Lauren Smith-Fields paid for a second autopsy after police dismissed her Bumble date as “a nice guy.” Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp continues to provide free second autopsies for victims of police violence.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need it. But in this world, from cover-ups to collusion, police lie. When we get in the habit of questioning them, we weaken the idea that their power and authority are legitimate, let alone airtight.