The investigation into Kendrick Johnson’s death will be reopened, said the Georgia sheriff

The investigation into Kendrick Johnson’s death will be reopened, said the Georgia sheriff

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Johnson’s body, 17, was found upside down on the carpet at Lowndes County High School in January 2013. Local investigators determined that his death was an accident.

“It has been eight long years,” Johnson’s mother, Jacquelyn Johnson, told CNN on Tuesday. “I’m feeling hopeful.”

The initial investigation concluded that Johnson accidentally slipped to the center of the carpet while picking up a shoe and got stuck. An autopsy conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined that the cause of Johnson’s death was accidental positional asphyxiation.

But an autopsy conducted by a pathologist hired by the Johnson family determined that the cause of death was “unexplained, apparently not accidental, brute force trauma” to the neck.
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Paulk, who at the time of Johnson’s death was a retired retired sheriff, said on Tuesday that he “was not sure when this situation happened” that it was an accident.

“If there are questions – and they are legitimate – I need to know the answers myself. The only way to know is to look at the evidence myself, ”said Paulk.

After a two-and-a-half-year federal investigation, “the investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that someone or some group of people intentionally violated Kendrick Johnson’s civil rights or committed any other federal crime. processable, “the Justice Department said in a statement in 2016.
Paulk came out of retirement in 2017 and, in April 2019, requested that the information collected during the federal investigation be disclosed to his department.

“It is vitally important that we have access to any information about the KJ Johnson case that any federal agency has not previously disclosed,” Paulk wrote in a letter to the US Attorney for the Central District of Georgia.

Federal investigators refused the request in July 2019.

Paulk credited a November 2020 visit by the Johnsons to federal investigators for the eventual granting of the request.

“We are not asking for any favors. We are not asking anyone to lie for us. We just want the truth to be revealed,” Johnson’s father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN.

Paulk said his office had received 17 boxes of written and electronic evidence from the federal investigation.

“The investigation included, among other things, interviewing nearly 100 people; reviewing tens of thousands of emails and text messages; reviewing surveillance videos from Lowndes High School; and reviewing other available information about the January 10-11 events. 2013, “Justice Department officials said in their 2016 statement.

Paulk said that some of the original investigators will be used in conjunction with some new investigators for the reopened case. The first interview was held Monday, according to Paulk.

The investigation can take up to six months.

“My plan is to see if there is any discrepancy between the reports,” said Paulk, who is leading the investigation.

He added that he has no predisposition for the case.

“I hope he does the right thing,” said Kenneth Johnson of Paulk. “I just hope that the truth will be revealed.”

Lowndes County High School is located in Valdosta, about 15 miles from the Florida border. The county has an estimated population of 117,000, according to the US Census Bureau.

Steve Almasy of CNN contributed to this report.

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