Grand Jury Returns No Indictments in the Death of Sandra Bland


A grand jury met for eight hours Monday to consider evidence in the death of Sandra Bland.

They decided not to return any indictments.

"After reviewing all the evidence in the death of Sandra Bland, a Waller grand jury did not return an indictment in the death of Bland, nor were any indictments returned against any employee of the Waller County Jail," said Darrell Jordan, a special prosecutor handling the case.
The grand jury will reconvene in January to consider other indictments.

Bland, an African-American woman, was found dead in her cell three days after she was arrested for allegedly failing to use her turn signal on July 10. She was 28.

Officials in Waller County, Texas, have said she hanged herself with a plastic bag. Her family and others have questioned that account.

Those questions continued Monday night.

"We are not going to allow what they have done in a limited, secret capacity to prevent us from doing what we need to do to get answers for the family," Bland family attorney Cannon Lambert told CNN affiliate KPRC.

Even before the grand jury's decision, Bland's family in Chicago called the grand jury system in Texas flawed, saying the testimony should be open to the public.

"Right now, the biggest problem for me is the entire process," Bland's mother, Geneva Read-Veal, said. "I simply can't have faith in a system that's not inclusive of my family that's supposed to have the investigation."