“The case is not over,” repeated special prosecutor Darrell Jordan today [Monday, December 21] as he explained to media the (heart)breaking news grand jurors had declined to indict anyone in connection to the July death of Sandra Bland, 28, while she was in police custody.
Jordan said grand jurors would reconvene next month to discuss “other aspects” of the case. He explained the jury’s decision not to indict anyone related specifically to Ms. Bland’s death and to the conduct of the jail staff. “It’s all in the way you phrase it. The case is not over. That’s what I’m stressing right now. The case is not over.”
Activists are furiously calling for charges to be brought against Texas state trooper Brian Encinia, who contentiously arrested Ms. Bland during a “routine traffic stop.” As reported, Bland was driving to her new home in Texas (she had accepted a new job at her alma mater, Praire View A&M University) from Illinois (where she was born and raised) and was pulled over by Encinia on July 10. Her mysterious death just days later set off protests and her family immediately disputed the authorities’ claims she committed suicide in Waller County jail.
Cannon Lambert, a lawyer for the Blands, said the family first learned there had been no indictment shamefully through news media reports. “We are unfortunately disappointed by the fact that our suspicions regarding this sham of a process have come to fruition.”
In reference to the grand jury returning in January, Lambert commented: “We would like very much to know what in the heck they’re doing, who they’re targeting and if it has anything to do with Sandy and her circumstances.”
