Black Teen found Hanging in Mississippi Jail cell- NAACP and ACLU Want Investigation

Looking for answers
Robert James Smith's family question how the teenager died in Pascagoula's jail
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
By AMBER CRAIG
PASCAGOULA -- The family of an inmate found dead in the Pascagoula City Jail said they have too many unanswered questions and conflicting stories about the teenager's death to simply accept it as a suicide, especially when they know in their hearts that he would not kill himself.
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is joining the family of Robert James Smith to investigate what happened in the moments preceding his death while he was an inmate at the jail. Smith was found dead in his cell on May 18.

 The Pascagoula Police De-partment reported that a jailer found Smith about 11:47 a.m. sitting on the floor of his cell, with a blanket tied around his neck like a noose. The other end of the blanket was tied to a bar on the top bunk of the cell bed. Police said an officer last spoke to Smith at 11:25 a.m.

 Police said Smith was unresponsive and was transported to Singing River Hospital, where he later died.

 Smith, 18, of Moss Point, was arrested May 16 and charged with two counts of burglary.

 "There are just some unanswered questions we'd like to get to," Nsombi Lambright, an attorney with the ACLU of Mississippi, said at a press conference Tuesday at the Pass Point Social Club in Pascagoula.

 Curley Clark, president of the Moss Point-Jackson County NAACP, said that the agencies will be requesting the death certificate, autopsy report and "anything that can provide factual information about the death."

 In 2006, the agency also aided the families of two men, Jessie Lee Hubbard and Billy Ray Evans, who were found dead in Moss Point City Jail. Both of those deaths were ruled suicide, but the NAACP presented reports that showed wounds consistent with choke holds.

 "Any time you have a lapse of procedure like this, you can always make a case for better training," Clark said.

 Family members present at the conference described Smith, who would have been a senior at East Central High School next year, as a happy person with no reason to kill himself and no history of depression or suicide attempts.

 "Every time you saw him, he was smiling," Smith's father, Morris Woods said.

 Smith's aunt, Tonya Smith, said her nephew, who she said had been in jail two days and had not even made his initial court appearance, knew his grandmother was on the way to bail him out of jail.

 She said several family members had talked to him just hours before he was found dead.

 Tonya Smith alleges that police have not contacted family since the death to let them know specifically what happened.

 "We just need answers, that's all I want," Tonya Smith said, close to tears. "If it was your nephew, you would want answers."

 One of the biggest problems the family and the organizations cited with the way the police has handled the incident is that they have reported conflicting stories to the family and media outlets.

 Even Woods said he has heard different stories from the police department about his son's death. He said he also wants to know more information about a possible cell mate of Smith's, who may have been transferred to the jail soon before the incident.

 Woods noted that one person told him Smith was found lying on the floor, while another told him Smith was found still hanging, and he also said he doesn't know for certain if Smith was discovered by a jailer or a police officer.

 Woods would not assign any blame or speculate on what exactly happened, but he said, just from knowing the nature of his son, he suspects something did go terribly wrong.

 "In my heart, I just don't believe he did it," Woods said. "He had no reason to." [MORE]