Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians activist, Rexdale Henry, was found dead in jail under nearly the same conditions as Sandra Bland. In fact, the circumstances surrounding both cases are eerily similar.
Henry, 53, was stopped and arrested on July 9th for failure to pay a fine that had resulted from previous minor traffic offense. Apparently, in the U.S. we are jailing individuals now for failure to pay small fines. Imagine if everyone with minor traffic offenses was jailed. Henry was jailed, and five days later on July 14th, found dead at 10a.m.. Just like the Sandra Bland case, he was noted in the jailing records to be alive and well just 30 minutes previous. Can you imagine serving 5 days in jail for a minor traffic offense?
An autopsy has already been performed, but results haven’t been released. The family of the activist and tribal council hopeful is paying for a private autopsy to be performed. After his funeral on July 19th, his body was flown to Florida for that autopsy to take place.
Syracuse University law professors Janis McDonald and Paula Johnson of the school’s Cold Case Justice Initiative remarked after the incident:
“At a time when the nation is focused on the terrible circumstances of the brutal death of Sandra Bland, it is critical to expose the many ways in which Black Americans, Native Americans and other minorities are being arrested for minor charges and end up dead in jail cells.”
The circumstances surround his death are suspicious in the least considering his arrest for a minor traffic offense and his high-profile as an activist, which was well-noted by local authorities. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case, after two other incidents in Mississippi of jailed inmates dying in custody.
Not coincidentally, the Neshoba County Jail where Henry was held is the same jail where three activists wound up dead, known as the Mississippi Burning murders, in 1964. The county is well-known for its ill-treatment of minorities and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is located nearby. Is anybody else concerned how all these individuals keep ending up dead while in police custody in such a short amount of time?
