No Justice 12 Years Later, Mother Says

The mom of a Black teenager who was discovered useless inside a rolled-up wrestling mat in his Georgia highschool gymnasium 12 years in the past marked the somber anniversary partly by renewing requires accountability in a case for which nobody has been held accountable.

Jackie Johnson took to Fb on Friday to remind her pals and followers that Kendrick Johnson, 17, was “overwhelmed to his dying January 10, 2013 and nothing has been executed as of January 10, 2025.”

Calls for for justice within the case have endured since that fateful day in 2013 at Lowndes County Excessive College, as Johnson’s household has persistently raised consciousness. That features this previous September when Jackie Johnson traveled to Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Kendrick Johnson Basis to carry a press convention and remind those who her son “was discovered useless from extreme accidents together with proof of a two-prong stun gun use.”

What occurred to Kendrick Johnson?

An preliminary report by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Workplace concluded that the teenager reached for a free shoe that fell within the middle of the mat. Kendrick Johnson then turned trapped within the mat, which was propped upright behind bleachers, and died from being the wrong way up for an prolonged interval, the report mentioned. Officers additionally mentioned Kendrick Johnson was alone on the time.

However Kendrick Johnson’s household maintained that the teenager had been murdered, noting his bloated head and face in the course of the first post-mortem.

When a courtroom granted a request to have Kendrick Johnson’s physique exhumed and re-examined by an unbiased pathologist, the second post-mortem discovered hemorrhaging on the precise facet of Kendrick Johnson’s cheek and decided the dying was the results of a murder with proof of “blunt pressure trauma to the precise facet of Kendrick’s neck, close to the jaw.”

Nonetheless, Lowndes County Coroner Invoice Watson mentioned he stood by the unique post-mortem and dominated that Kendrick Johnson died from “unexplained,” non-accidental blunt pressure trauma, which was attributable to asphyxia, or suffocation. For the reason that state additionally supported the unique report, there have been no suspects within the dying.

Nonetheless, the second post-mortem revealed that Kendrick Johnson’s physique had been filled with newspapers earlier than burial, sparking suspicions of potential organ harvesting.

“Now we have been let down once more,” Kenneth Johnson, Kendrick’s father, mentioned in response to the beautiful revelation. “Once we buried Kendrick, we thought we have been burying Kendrick, not half of Kendrick.”

The unbiased pathologist who performed the second post-mortem mentioned he was not sure “who didn’t return the organs to the physique” earlier than including later, “after we received the physique, the organs weren’t there.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) — which carried out the primary post-mortem — and the Harrington Funeral House – which embalmed and buried Kendrick Johnson — each denied duty. A GBI rep mentioned the organs have been in Kendrick Johnson’s physique when it was given to the funeral dwelling, which mentioned it acquired the physique with none organs.

Amazingly, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Division Of Justice mentioned in a press release there was not “enough indication of a civil rights violation to authorize a civil rights investigation.”

Pictures from the highschool gymnasium in Valdosta, Georgia, confirmed Kendrick Johnson’s shoeless legs trapped within the mat. One other picture, which locations doubt on the declare of unintended dying, confirmed Kendrick Johnson’s face bloated with pooled blood, a few of which had poured out of his physique and onto his locs and the ground.

Kendrick Johnson’s household finally retained the authorized companies of civil rights and private damage legal professional Ben Crump.

Months later, video footage of Kendrick Johnson within the Lowndes Excessive College fitness center confirmed that the teenager was not alone on the day he died. Crump mentioned the video footage “is proof that there’s some conspiracy to hide the reality from this household and the general public as to who killed Kendrick Johnson. We consider that any person corrupted this video.”

Within the video, Kendrick Johnson could be seen strolling down a hallway after which turning into the college’s fitness center. As soon as Kendrick Johnson enters the fitness center and veers proper, he isn’t seen on the surveillance video once more. The video ends with college students leaving the college.

Kendrick Johnson was additionally proven on video strolling throughout the basketball courtroom with one other pupil trailing him. All of a sudden, a second clip jumps that exhibits Kendrick Johnson operating and different college students seem within the shot later, making it seem as if a fast edit was made, contemplating how abruptly different college students appeared.

That new video proof prompted U.S. Lawyer for the Center District of Georgia Michael Moore to announce his intention to steer a federal investigation into Kendrick Johnson’s dying.

The next 12 months, Kendrick Johnson’s household sued the funeral dwelling in command of the teenager’s stays, alleging that Harrington Funeral House was not solely negligent but additionally dedicated fraud whereas dealing with their son’s physique.

After the lawsuit was filed, greater than 100 folks, together with Kendrick Johnson’s former classmates, have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating the teenager’s dying.

Proper across the second anniversary of Kendrick Johnson’s dying, his dad and mom filed a $100 million lawsuit towards elected officers and regulation enforcement officers, alleging {that a} native FBI agent inspired his sons—who have been schoolmates of the sufferer—to “violently assault” the teenager.

Branden and Brian Bell, the brothers accused of involvement in Kendrick Johnson’s dying, denied any wrongdoing.

That lawsuit, which was finally dropped, got here on the heels of a separate wrongful dying go well with filed by the household over the summer time towards native college directors.

The DOJ in 2016 introduced that its investigation had discovered “inadequate proof to assist federal felony fees.”

So as to add insult to literal damage, Kendrick Johnson’s dad and mom have been subsequently ordered to pay authorized charges for the lawsuit that they dropped. The judgment sided with attorneys searching for to reclaim $850,000 after the Johnsons and their legal professional, dropped the $100 million lawsuit towards the college and metropolis and county leaders.

“It’s like we’re having to pay for my son being murdered,” Jackie Johnson, Kendrick’s mom, later informed Roland Martin in an interview for NewsOne Now.

In 2021, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk reopened the case as a way of restorative justice for Kendrick Johnson’s household.

The next 12 months, Paulk launched a 16-page report discovering no proof of “foul play” and affirmed prior findings within the case, to the chagrin of Kendrick Johnson’s dad and mom. A copy of the report confirmed that Paulk dismissed the thought of a cover-up or any conspiracy theories. Paulk, in flip, provided a reward of $500,000 for any info that results in an arrest and conviction for Kendrick Johnson’s alleged homicide.

As of 2025, Kendrick Johnson’s household is not any nearer to having the solutions they search.

SEE ALSO:

Remembering Kendrick Johnson On His Birthday

Unsolved Black Deaths That Nonetheless Hang-out The Tradition