Attorney, families demand charges in Jamal Sutherland death
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the family of Jamal Sutherland are calling for criminal charges in Sutherland’s January 2021 death at the Al Cannon Detention Center.
Crump and Sutherland’s family, joined by family members of other Black men whose families have fought for justice in high-profile incidents, spoke outside the office of 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson in downtown Charleston.
“It’s an indictment on the entire city of Charleston, S.C., that you won’t even give his family their day in court,” Crump said. “That’s all we’re asking for, their constitutional rights.”
Sutherland died while in custody at the Al Cannon Detention Center on Jan. 5, 2021. He had been arrested the night before by North Charleston Police in a disturbance at a mental health facility and was accused of assault. He became unresponsive the following morning while detention deputies forcibly removed him from his cell so that he could attend a bond hearing on the assault charge.
Wilson said in July she could not bring criminal charges against the former deputies because she would not be able to prove criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
“We are blessed to have so many people standing with us, and I don’t take it for granted that these people come, thousands of miles, because they know that this is a worthy cause,” said James Sutherland, Jamal’s father. “And don’t think that just because it’s happening to Black people, that it won’t happen to white.”
In addition to Crump and Sutherland’s family, the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Daunte Wright attended the news conference along with Rev. Nelson Rivers.
“I understand people will have a hard time with the decision not to prosecute,” Wilson said at a news conference last summer in which she announced she would not file charges. “Legally, though, once you see the analysis once you see all of the facts that go into these decisions, you know that there was no real choice as a prosecutor.”
Wilson called Sutherland’s death a “travesty” and said it should not have happened. She said about 24 hours after he checked himself in to a mental health facility, he attempted to check himself out, saying that he was worse then than he was when he went in.
“While armchair lawyers and judges, and even armchair law enforcement have made it seem as though the videos in this case are the only evidence that we would need, I know better,” she said, citing her experience in prosecuting cases.
She said the videos are “damning, disturbing and upsetting.”
Wilson said the first pathologist’s report and eyewitness testimony from a nurse who was present indicated in March that she did not have sufficient evidence for criminal charges, but she said she owed it to the Sutherland family to dig further.
She said she thinks they could prove the deputies had a hand in Sutherland’s death but added that it “doesn’t mean they committed a crime.”
“Jamal Sutherland was suffering from a mental health crisis when he was admitted to jail, where he was tased and pepper-sprayed repeatedly, dying shortly after,” Crump said in a statement released on Wednesday. “His last words were, ‘I can’t breathe.’ His death raises questions about how people with a mental illness receive treatment within the criminal justice system and what alternative strategies could have saved Sutherland’s life. To date, the detention officers who tasered and pepper-sprayed Sutherland before his death have not faced any criminal charges.”
Detention Sgt. Lindsay Fickett and Detention Deputy Brian Houle, who were initially placed on administrative leave then allowed to return to administrative duty, were terminated in May after the release of the video showing the incident.
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