Sandra Bland death findings to be reviewed in second autopsy

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/24/sandra-bland-death-autopsy-review

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Sandra Bland’s autopsy report was released in full on Friday, which will allow the second autopsy conducted at her family’s request to move closer to completion.

Cannon Lambert, the family’s attorney, told the Guardian that an independent autopsy was conducted last Saturday morning but has not yet been finished because part of it involves analysing the original autopsy’s results.

Those parts were made public on Friday by the Waller County district attorney’s office. Interpreting the 11-page report pre-release, Warren Diepraam, a Waller County prosecutor, told reporters on Thursday that the autopsy classified Bland’s death as suicide by hanging and tests showed no evidence of a violent homicide, with an absence of injuries on her neck or face that would be consistent with an attack.

Related: Nothing in Sandra Bland autopsy suggests homicide, Texas official says

The 28-year-old’s death in the county jail on 13 July – three days after a routine traffic stop turned into an aggressive confrontation for which state trooper Bryan Encinia was placed on desk duty – has attracted nationwide attention amid scepticism of official accounts of her death and anger at the number of African Americans who have died after encounters with police.

Her mental health screening forms on the night she entered the jail indicate that she had been depressed and had attempted suicide last year after a “lost baby”. But her family has repeatedly said that she had no reason to kill herself, especially since she seemed in good spirits as she had driven to Texas from her Chicago home for a successful job interview.

The two separate intake forms which Bland completed differed on when she reported feeling depressed. The Guardian has sought comment from a Waller County sheriff’s office spokesman about the apparent discrepancies in the forms.

Bland complained during the traffic stop, which was recorded on the officer’s dashcam, that her head had been “slammed” to the ground. The autopsy does not note the presence of any significant head injuries, but there was evidence of a mark on her back, possibly caused by an officer’s knee. There was also evidence of bruising to her wrists that could indicate a struggle with the handcuffs.

The report – conducted in Houston because Waller, a rural county of about 45,000 people, does not have adequate medical facilities – suggests that first responders attempted to revive Bland: “Defibrillation pads are over the torso. An electrocardiogram adhesive pad is on the upper right arm,” it states.

Diepraam said on Thursday that Bland tested positive for what appeared to be a large amount of marijuana, and did not rule out the possibility that she had ingested it in jail. Toxicology reports, which might shed more light on when she took the drug, had not been released as of Friday afternoon. Asked why marijuana use might be relevant to the question of whether she took her own life, Diepraam said that the drug is a mind-altering “mood amplifier”.

Lambert, the attorney for Bland’s family, rejected the idea that she might have been under the influence of drugs at the time of her arrest. “I think that the video of the stop itself reflects clearly that she was lucid and well in control of her faculties, she knew exactly what she was doing when she was asserting her rights,” he said. The jail screening forms indicate that officers did not believe her to be under the influence of drugs.

Houston’s police chief condemned the behaviour of the trooper who stopped Bland, Brian Encinia. “His conduct and actions went over the line,” Charles McClelland said on Friday, according to the Houston Chronicle. “People can smoke in their car ... People can talk back to police.”