Jackie Johnson, mom of Kendrick Johnson, speaks onstage in the course of the Justice For Kendrick Johnson Rally on the Georgia State Capitol on June 13, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Supply: Paras Griffin / Getty
The mom of a Black teenager who was discovered lifeless 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 associates and followers that Kendrick Johnson, 17, was “crushed to his loss of life January 10, 2013 and nothing has been accomplished 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 folks that her son “was discovered lifeless 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 heart 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 court docket granted a request to have Kendrick Johnson’s physique exhumed and re-examined by an impartial pathologist, the second post-mortem discovered hemorrhaging on the correct facet of Kendrick Johnson’s cheek and decided the loss of life was the results of a murder with proof of “blunt drive trauma to the correct 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 drive trauma, which was brought on by asphyxia, or suffocation. For the reason that state additionally supported the unique report, there have been no suspects within the loss of life.
Nonetheless, the second post-mortem revealed that Kendrick Johnson’s physique had been full of newspapers earlier than burial, sparking suspicions of potential organ harvesting.
“We have now been let down once more,” Kenneth Johnson, Kendrick’s father, mentioned in response to the gorgeous revelation. “Once we buried Kendrick, we thought we had been burying Kendrick, not half of Kendrick.”
The impartial pathologist who carried out the second post-mortem mentioned he was uncertain “who didn’t return the organs to the physique” earlier than including later, “after we received the physique, the organs weren’t there.”
T.I. attends the Justice For Kendrick Johnson Rally on the Georgia State Capitol on June 13, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Supply: Paras Griffin / Getty
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) — which carried out the primary post-mortem — and the Harrington Funeral Residence – which embalmed and buried Kendrick Johnson — each denied duty. A GBI rep mentioned the organs had been in Kendrick Johnson’s physique when it was given to the funeral house, which mentioned it obtained the physique with none organs.
Amazingly, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Division Of Justice mentioned in an announcement there was not “enough indication of a civil rights violation to authorize a civil rights investigation.”
Photographs 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 unintentional loss of life, 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 ultimately retained the authorized providers of civil rights and private damage lawyer 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 anyone corrupted this video.”
Within the video, Kendrick Johnson may 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.
Actress Jenifer Lewis attends the Los Angeles rally for Kendrick Johnson and the premiere screening of “Discovering Kendrick Johnson” at Laemmle NoHo 7 on October 29, 2021, in North Hollywood, California. | Supply: Robin L Marshall / Getty
Kendrick Johnson was additionally proven on video strolling throughout the basketball court docket with one other scholar trailing him. All of a sudden, a second clip jumps that reveals 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 guide a federal investigation into Kendrick Johnson’s loss of life.
The next yr, Kendrick Johnson’s household sued the funeral house accountable for the teenager’s stays, alleging that Harrington Funeral Residence was not solely negligent but in addition dedicated fraud whereas dealing with their son’s physique.
After the lawsuit was filed, greater than 100 individuals, together with Kendrick Johnson’s former classmates, had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating the teenager’s loss of life.
Proper across the second anniversary of Kendrick Johnson’s loss of life, his dad and mom filed a $100 million lawsuit towards elected officers and legislation enforcement officers, alleging {that a} native FBI agent inspired his sons—who had been schoolmates of the sufferer—to “violently assault” the teenager.
Branden and Brian Bell, the brothers accused of involvement in Kendrick Johnson’s loss of life, denied any wrongdoing.
Kenneth Johnson, father of Kendrick Johnson, speaks onstage in the course of the Justice For Kendrick Johnson Rally on the Georgia State Capitol on June 13, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Supply: Paras Griffin / Getty
That lawsuit, which was ultimately dropped, got here on the heels of a separate wrongful loss of life swimsuit filed by the household over the summer season towards native faculty directors.
The DOJ in 2016 introduced that its investigation had discovered “inadequate proof to help federal felony prices.”
So as to add insult to literal damage, Kendrick Johnson’s dad and mom had 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 lawyer, 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 advised 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 yr, 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 concept 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
‘Nothing’s Been Carried out’ Since Kendrick Johnson’s Gymnasium Mat Dying 12 Years In the past, His Mother Says On Anniversary
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