Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland (2018) - full transcript

Good afternoon,
my beautiful kings and queens.

It is Wednesday, April 8, 2015.

Hopefully, you are out there
or were out there this morning

doing something productive,
successful,

something that is going to help
establish your kingdom and queendom.

Today, "Sandy Speaks" is going to
focus directly on my white people.

White people. Yes.

Black people know
that all lives matter.

But what I need you guys
to understand is that

being a black person in America
is very, very hard.

I am not a racist. I grew
up in Villa Park, Illinois,



was the only black girl on an all-white
cheerleading squad, so I had to learn

how to deal with white people.

But I want the white folks to
really understand out there,

not all of us, but some of us,
are really doing as much as we can.

And we can't help but get pissed
off when we see situations

where it's clear
the black life didn't matter.

Because in the news
that we've seen as of late,

you could stand there, surrender
to the cops, and still be killed.

On Friday,
July 10, Ms. Bland was stopped

by the Texas Department
of Public Safety

for a traffic infraction.

The state trooper arrested Bland
for assault of a public servant,

then transported Ms. Bland
to the Waller County jail.

On Monday,
July 13, at 8:58 a.m.



jailers went to cell 95

and observed Ms. Bland hanging from
her privacy partition in her cell.

The Harris County of Texas
medical examiner's office

listed the manner of death
as a suicide.

However, there may be some
questions that cannot be answered,

since this investigation
is yet to be completed.

Ooh, Lord have mercy.

Okay.

Ooh!

Oh, here we go.
Here we go.

Aw, man.
It looks better in person.

Wow.

Hey, girl! I just can't get over, like,
how surreal it looks, you know?

Okay, sister. Losing you has been
the hardest thing that...

I thought I would ever have
to go through,

but I feel like it's made me a stronger
person.

So this is our letter that we
wrote to the attorney general.

And it says, "My name is Sharon Cooper,
and I am Sandra Bland's sister.

"My sister Sandra,
affectionately known as Sandy,

"was a vibrant,
outspoken, and intelligent

28-year-old
who was absolutely full of life.

"Since Sandra's death,
we have been in mourning,

"but candidly, our ability
to mourn has been paralyzed

"by the unusual and unsettling
circumstances surrounding her death.

That is why
I am writing to you."

You've got a
lot of people that's

down here standing with you and us.

People you know,
people you don't know.

A lot of people who you don't know.

I don't think Officer
Encinia knew whose you were

and who you belong to
when he pulled you over.

Well, each day, you let him know
what a mistake he made.

We're going to get
to the bottom of it.

No matter how long it takes.

And we gonna change history,
just like you wanted to.

An innocent daughter's life
was snatched,

in a building right behind us.

This is no longer
just a Ferguson issue.

It is not just a Baltimore issue.

This is an American issue.

And we will not go away
until it is answered.

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

Won't you say her name! Say her name!
Say her name! Say her name!

Say her name! Say her name!
Say her name!

The trip Sandy and I
took over the Fourth of July weekend.

She made all of this music
for Mom...

to sit in the car, and dance, laugh,

sing...

and when she was driving,

Sandy kept talking
about going back to Texas.

She said, "Now I know what
I'm supposed to be doing."

She talked about this
almost the whole ride.

She kept saying, "My purpose
is to go back to Texas,

and to stop all of the
injustices against blacks."

Sandy called me on July 11...

to let me know
that she had been arrested.

I said, "What are
you in jail for?"

She said, "You know,
I really don't know."

And she said, "My arm,
my arm is hurting really bad."

And I could hear her talking to
the guards in the background.

Then she said,
"I'll call you back."

And she hung up the phone,

and she never called back.

I wouldn't wish this hurt on anyone.

Anyone.

Monday morning, when
Ms. Bland was found in her cell,

and the ambulance and medical
help was being called,

then I was notified.

When I walked back to the cell,

the justice of the peace
was already here.

It's a devastating call...
to the Texas sheriff.

That's the last thing we want

in our jail is not
for everybody to come in here

and leave here the same way
they come in, if not healthier.

I got a phone
call from a friend of mine

who's in the media in Houston.

And he said, "Elton, what's going
on with this hanging at the jail?"

And I said, "Well. We had
a hanging at the jail.

"As far as I know, the Texas
Rangers are handling it,

and that's about all I know."

"They'll give me a report
when they finish it."

It got a lot stranger.

It was either that afternoon
or the next morning,

uh, everything hit
the proverbial fan.

Police say Bland was
arrested for resisting arrest

and assaulting an officer, but so
far the only video of the incident

shows Bland on the ground.

I don't believe I
saw the bystander video

until it was released to the public,
which was Tuesday.

I couldn't understand why she was on the
ground with this man's knee in her back.

I could not understand that.

As a sister, my heart, it hurts.

So, of course, when the
bystander video comes out,

now I have a ton of questions
because my mind goes to,

okay, what happened
before all of that

to get her to the point where
she's down on the ground...

with this guy towering over her.

And how do you go from
this very strong woman

to dead in jail by alleged suicide.

He got a hundred
percent on that other test,

so let him do what he--
he took care of it.

Dad, where's the sugar?

I'll see what happens. I'll let you know
when she--when he lets me know.

He said that he's
going to talk to her.

I love you.
Drive safely.

My wife and
I were in the car,

and my wife told me
Sandy Bland had passed,

and I said, "Sandy Bland? Show me a
picture of who you're talking about."

She showed me a picture of Sandy,

and I mean, you know,
your heart kind of stops

and you're...
you're in shock.

Sandy got rear-ended by a motorcycle

on the 5th of April, 2015,

and she contacted my office.

She had a big personality,

and it was a big,
bright personality.

See, I'm assessing people
when I talk to them,

trying to figure out what type
of witness they're going to be.

Is she going to be equipped
to think on her feet? She was.

Sandy died on the 13th of July.

And from that next morning when I
got a phone call from the family

asking whether or not
we could get involved,

I mean, uh, you felt compelled.

On Friday, we got down to Texas,

and it's seven o'clock at night.

-I'm about to pass out 'cause I'm
so hungry. -I know, baby. I know.

We were told,
once you get here,

it will be proven without a doubt.
You'll be able to see...

that she...

contributed in her own... death.

The Texas Rangers, they
walked us through footage,

so they claimed,
anyway, of the jail.

We were looking, trying
to see where Sandy was.

I didn't see her ever.

The video that we
viewed when we went down,

it was only for the morning
of Monday, July 13th.

There's no time stamps,
there's no dates.

Her cell was all the way
in the back corner.

She was in cell number 95.

The way they choose to phrase it is,
where she was did not have cameras.

But I would think that
that would be strange.

Then how are you monitoring
your inmates?

Why was she in a cell by herself?

That's a big cell for one person.

And when they were
wheeling the gurney out,

I went, "Whoa, she's going
to be on the gurney, right?"

Oh, no.
She wasn't on the gurney.

She was not on the gurney.

And then the lead investigator for the
Texas Rangers, Shane Ellison,

had told us that specifically Sandy made
upwards of 21 phone calls.

Yet they tell
us they don't know

what phones she used
to make these 21 calls.

That doesn't make sense to me.
If you know she made 21 calls,

then you've got to know what phones
she used to make those calls.

And then he also said
that when he was called

that that triggered a crime
investigation, a criminal investigation.

So I'm thinking that we're going to see
the documentation by way of photographs.

They showed us some photographs
of her body in the cell.

They did not have any photographs
that depicted her hanging,

and we were told explicitly
that they don't exist.

And she was hung from a trash bag.

The trash bag is the ligature.

I thought,
where did this woman

even get a plastic bag from?

When you're booking an inmate,

you're stripping them of anything
that would put them in a position

to harm themselves. You're stripping
them of their shoestrings.

You're stripping them of their belt.

You're stripping them
of their earrings.

You have a 30-gallon trash can,

in an inmate's cell,

that gives them access
to a plastic bag.

If she was in as much
pain as she says she was in,

I just don't see how she could
have tied that perfect,

very perfect noose.

I know that we were grieving, but...
we are a family of note-takers.

We take notes of things that were being
told to us that just didn't sound right.

We view the dashcam video on the 21st,
the day before we fly her home,

so now I've got a ton of questions.

Oh, I have a slew
of questions, right?

-For what?
-..send me another unit.

I'm sitting, I'm watching
all of these violations occur.

-Let's do this.
-Yeah, we're going to.

That man slapped her.

He slapped her, you can hear it.

We're going to.

He reaches into the
car, and you hear a smack,

and then you see her head
pulling away from him.

The reason that the slap is important
is because it's a battery.

When she's recording him,
"Put your phone down."

"I have the right to record.
This is my property."

You tell her to turn around,
she doesn't want to turn around.

She says, "Why do I have to turn
around?" two or three times,

but ultimately turns around
on her own.

Stop it!

I felt like, oh, my gosh,
if she was treated that way,

in public, cars are riding by,

she's treated that way,
on the road...

what was going on in the jail?

What was going on in there?

When Sandy
called me on Saturday,

she told me that her bond was $500.

And I told her that I had $100

and I would work on
getting the rest for her.

She knows that I'm gonna
come through for her.

I just don't see her
taking her own life.

I just don't see it.

Until we have concrete answers,
as to the time of her death,

and whether or not that death
could have been caused,

uh, by someone other than her,

until we have answers
to those sorts of questions,

all options are on the table,
they have to be.

Anytime there's a jail hanging,
a jail death,

that's treated as a homicide.

We're still waiting for a hard copy

of the Harris County
medical examiner's autopsy,

and toxicology will probably
be delayed about two weeks.

At this point, this is still fresh.

We're trying to respect
the family and realize

that they have a funeral
that they need to plan.

Ms. Bland's mother is anxious to get
her daughter's body back to Illinois.

As the
lieutenant governor of Texas,

yes, I want to be sure, we overturned
every stone and looked at every fact.

That's important for everyone, but
it's most important for that family.

-That's right.
-I want that family,

when they go back to Chicago...

for when this is resolved, that they
believe, they had justice in Texas.

Riding back on a plane...

I sent her out of here
on four wheels,

and now she's coming back,

under the plane, with the cargo.

Like these planes,
she was ascending.

She was going, going,

and she got to a certain level,
plateaued,

and then she was gone.

I am on the steps, if you can see behind
me, of the DuSable Museum.

I'm getting ready to walk in,
but it's very, very interesting

and amazing to know
how much black history

is truly right here in our own city.

Chicago was founded
by a man of color: DuSable.

There needs to be a statue of that
man in the heart of downtown.

The first open-heart surgery,
performed by Daniel Hale Williams.

That was right on the south side
of Chicago at Provident Hospital.

Y'all, our history is
so rich and deep,

but it is up to us to find it.

Sandy's number
four in the pack.

And Sandy was a helper.

What about like this?

Growing up, we
didn't have a lot of money.

Can you say,
"Please, Mommy, please?"

My mom had my first
sister when she was 15, and...

she had all of us
by the time she was 25.

And then if I get a chance
to taste it, I'll taste it.

My mother was very
strict about education.

If we were sick, we had to go
to school, it didn't matter.

I was called "The Warden."

I'm your mom.

I'm not your schoolmate.

But I don't remember
Sandy accepting "no."

She knew she
wanted to go to college.

The HBCUs came
to the Chicago-land area,

the Historically Black Colleges
and Universities.

And she happened upon Prairie View,

and they gave her a scholarship,
a band scholarship.

It's a big deal to be a part of a band
at an African-American institution.

But it also meant doing something
that nobody in this family ever did,

which was leave home,

and go miles away from
this very close-knit family... to Texas.

We're right on the
west side of Houston.

And most of our business here
is farming, but...

here at the sheriff's office, one of our
primary focuses is obviously the jail.

A county jail,
we're not here for punishment.

We're here to hold you
till you go to court,

and then decide
what your punishment is.

We are that guardian, that, "Okay,
we gotta get 'em through this."

Sheriff Glenn Smith
used to be chief of police in Hempstead.

Chief Smith had complaints
of racial intimidation.

They reprimanded him,

they sent him
to sensitivity training,

and in spite of all of that,
he continued to get reports.

But, eventually, he won the election
to be the sheriff of Waller County.

Taking a lot of classes?

Prairie View is over-policed.

Here's a
copy of the warning.

You are policed
by university campus,

city of Prairie View, you're
policed by the state troopers,

you're policed by
the sheriff, Waller County,

and the constables.
That's five people for this area.

This is the same county that me and
Sandy marched to vote, in 2008.

Because they didn't want
the student population to vote,

so we wouldn't offset their voting.

We're in Texas. It's always
been the good old boys system.

Good old boys taking care
of the good old boys.

This county unfortunately
goes all the way back

to the Civil War,
and it is a sensitive topic.

Do we have prejudice in this county?
Yes. You know.

Do we have it
across the country? Yes.

Sandy had come back from
Prairie View initially,

and was trying
to kind of find herself...

doing different jobs, trying
to figure out where she fit.

Hi, I'm Sandy, and I'm the
administrative assistant here at Cook's.

Today, I'm going to be talking to you
about copolymers and polycarbonates.

With Cooks, she found out
that one of their biggest accounts

was the penitentiary system.

And she said,
"I can't work for a company

that's doing this kind of stuff."

The softness of the material

is important because it means it will
not shatter

and it cannot be easily
sharpened into a weapon.

You find so many
meal delivery products...

It was in direct
conflict with her morals,

in terms of mass incarceration
of disenfranchised people.

After that, she'd had a couple of job
opportunities that she didn't get,

even though she felt like
she did great, so,

that would frustrate her sometimes.

You've spent four
years at a university

and wracked up all this debt
and you can't find a darn job?

In your field?

You're not going to be
too happy about that.

I've been really stressed out
over these past couple of weeks,

suffering from depression.

And I started crying,
and in the middle of my tears,

in my head, I just heard
the song, "God Blocked It."

It let me know that everything
was going to be okay. It will be okay.

God let me know
that you have got work to do.

I always knew
what she was capable of,

which was harnessing her voice,
being anchored in it.

and doing something about things
that she just felt wasn't right.

-Hold on, hold on, hold on.
-Don't touch me.

The most recent case of
alleged police brutality here...

...their safety and don't feel that
they can trust the police officer,

and then police officers...

Hey, y'all. So...
I don't know where to look.

And if I'm lookin' a little crazy,
it's 'cause this is a test. Um...

I wanted to make this video message

and plant my seed
of "Sandy Speaks."

I know my head probably looks
a little crazy right now,

but, um...
with the police brutality

and all of the things that
have been going on in the news

somewhere along the way, we've
forgotten about an important group,

which are the kids. Um...
I don't have any kids.

I do have an eight-year-old
and a 14-year-old nephew.

Sorry, my battery about to die.
I ain't even got my cord. Um...

Through "Sandy Speaks," we are going
to open up a gateway for the kids.

Educating them on
interacting with police.

I don't think it's ever too early.

And if you're a cop out there
and you're watching this,

here is your chance to say
something and educate these kids,

'cause again, I'm here
to change history.

This thing that I'm holding in my
hand, this telephone, this camera,

it is quite powerful.

Social media is powerful.
We can do something with this.

If we want to change, we can really,
truly make it happen. "Sandy Speaks."

When she first posted
her "Sandy Speaks" on Facebook,

I got all these notifications from
Sandy. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

That was her channeling that energy.

This fight for civil rights,
it still goes on right now.

Although it's not called civil
rights, that is what it is.

Your right to be a civilian.

We are still in that fight today,

so please
don't think it's over. 'Cause it's not.

You are going to have to stand before
God, and he is going to ask you,

were you able to show love
to your white man.

Because that's the ultimate
test. I really, I believe that.

We are so valuable to this country,
to this nation as a whole,

but we will never succeed and we
will never thrive as a culture,

as a country, if we don't wake up.

Black-on-black crime numbers
are extremely high.

These gangbangers and drug dealers,
the people that they're shooting

are not other gangbangers
and drug dealers.

They are killing our babies.

Why do we keep acting like niggers?
Excuse my French.

But that is what
we keep acting like.

She was speaking
some real powerful stuff,

that some people would not have
dare been able to even speak.

We have to just stop icing
these things over.

We have to stop acting
like they don't matter.

And so Sandy is going to speak
whenever I see something wrong.

I thank you guys, I love you guys...

What she was really
saying in her messages,

we can no longer be passive
about these things.

Not somebody has to do
something about it.

We have to do something about it.

She gets a
call from Prairie View

that there is a job opportunity.
It was a temp job.

And they said, we need you to be
here to do this job interview.

Well, at first I was like,
"You know, you just left.

"You didn't tell us
or anything." And she was like,

"It was going to be too emotional
and I needed to do this, for me."

To be successful in this world, you have
to know how to work with white people.

What "Sandy Speaks" wants to do

is let my kings and queens
know, you can do it.

We can be successful.
It is up to us.

I'm here! I am
in Prairie View, Texas.

Back at the crib. See the
sign for PVAMU right there.

I'm home!

Exiting 10-98 now.

Welcome back. Oh, Lord.

I'm about to go over
Waller County line.

Hi Mommy, it's me.

Just wanted to let you know
that I made it, I am here!

I am here. Call me when you get a
chance. Love you. Bye-bye.

When I got to my house,
she was already in the driveway.

Said, "Interview
at one o'clock."

So she went in, she changed, she
showered. She said, "How do I look?"

I said, "You look like you're
about to get a job."

Today, y'all, we're going
to talk about hair.

I don't know if many of y'all
saw my post

about how ready I am for my
locks, but if you could see,

yeah, I got my natural back.

My fellow kings and queens always find
something to laugh or poke fun about it,

but, baby, under
that edge-up, you got naps.

Sweetie pie, under that
Brazilian, you got naps.

Before you get that perm,
you have naps.

So let's just cut it out.
Let's stop hatin'

on people 'cause their hair's natural.

It's only hair.

Okay?
I love y'all.

Friday, Sandy just
called to say, "Hey, I got it."

I'm about to start in a few days.
I got it, Mom!"

She was going to work,
but then she was also

going to work on her
master's in political science.

She goes, "I'm going to the grocery
store, and I'll talk to you later."

I text her and I say,

"Watch out, Prairie View.
Werk it, girl."

Friday afternoon, tables turned.

Everything's different.

That night, about
10 o'clock, my phone rings,

and I look at it on the caller ID and it
said Waller County Sheriff's Department.

And of course, I answer the phone.

And it was Sandra Bland,
and she was upset.

Not crying, upset
'cause of what happened,

she was pissed
because of what happened.

The main charge
that she come in here with

was assault on a public servant.

And Ms. Bland, unfortunately,
had a past criminal record.

It was minor charges, a small
amount of marijuana, maybe.

But the current charge of a felony

put her just in that
different category.

But I'm a country sheriff.

I'm a conservative.

By God, don't go violating
the law or we're gonna get you.

And you should be punished
if you're found guilty.

I mean, that's me.

Hey, this is me. I'm, um...

I just was able to see the judge.

I don't really know, they got
me sitting in a $5,000 bond.

I'm still just at a loss for words,
honestly, about this whole process.

How this switching lanes
with no signal

turned into all of this,
I don't even know.

Um, but I'm still here.

So, I guess call me back
when you can.

Ms. Bland's bond
was set at $5,000.

But most bondsmen here
charge about 10 percent.

So basically,
it'd have been about 500.

She called me from the jail.

She didn't have any money,
what she said.

And I said, "Well, you got
somebody that can help you,

or I need to call?"

I called her sister,
and her sister said,

"I had told Sandra
all I had was..."

I think she said a hundred, and "My
rent's due," blah, blah, blah.

So the next person called
me after that was her mom.

I say, "Okay. I'm going to get
with the rest of the family,

and we'll get back with you."

There was no sense of,

Oh, Jesus, I gotta jump down here, go
on a plane and go do this right now.

No.

The main thing for us was,

she said,
"I'm gonna call you back."

And the next phone call
I got from the family was

that Monday afternoon, when her
mom called me and said, uh...

"Mr. Booker, they said my daughter's
in the morgue," and that was it.

We were very upset
and saddened by it,

but at the same time,

myself and Elton Mathis

we were bound and determined to make
sure whatever the process was,

that it would be
open and transparent

from the beginning till the end.

The truth is, it was not the authorities
that called me. I'm the mom.

There was never a phone call from
Waller County about Sandy's death.

When someone told
me that Sandy hung herself,

it was like this overwhelming
feeling of oppression.

Right, 'cause the thing
that happened with the kids

in Texas, where they were body-slammed
at the pool party had just happened.

Get down! Down!

There was so much
unrest in the country,

and this is not
just happening on TV,

and it's happening to someone
who you knew.

None of that made sense about who she
was, the type of person she was,

the type of fighter that she was.

Good morning, my
beautiful kings and queens.

If you could see my poster, here, "All
white people are not against us."

-So call the police.
-Okay.

All right. Go ahead.

Go right ahead.

All right. Y'all see it. The
police are about to get called.

"Sandy Speaks." Game is on.

When the video
came out, I was enraged.

That she would go into a jail

and cower away and kill herself made
no sense to me.

Something was not right.

I just kept posting articles and
information and trying to get people

out there, and like, Sandra Bland.
Say her name, say her name.

Prairie View alumni kept tweeting
and tweeting and Instagram-ing

and Facebook-ing and hashtag-ing
her name everywhere.

Hello, this is Hannah Bonner. I'm
here at the Waller County Jail.

When Sandra died,
we had not seen a woman's name

have that staying power
that we had seen

with Michael Brown, Tamir Rice,
Trayvon Martin.

Women had died, but we had not
continued to say their names.

So she died on Monday, and by
Wednesday night I was at the jail.

And we lit a candle
that had the hashtag:

What Happened to Sandra Bland.

And so somebody from inside
the jail blew the candle out.

You have a responsibility
to serve and protect me.

-No, I don't.
-Oh. Oh!

-You don't?
-You don't want me to.

Then we started projecting
onto the wall of the jail.

I was asked, was I trying
to racially unite

or racially incite.

Well, honestly, I feel that

my goal is to racially unite.
Now...

in the process of doing that,
some people will be incited,

i.e. upset, because based
on the history of America,

it is not good when it comes
to black and white people.

Sandra Bland didn't have to be here.

America allowed this to happen.

Because these idiots, these Europeans
have miseducated our people.

-Too black, too strong!
-Too black, too strong!

-Too black, too strong!
-Too black, too strong!

-All power to the people!
-All power to the people!

-All power to the people!
-All power to the people!

-Too black, too strong!
-Too black, too strong!

-No more pigs in my community!
-Off the pig!

-No more pigs in my community!
-Off the pig!

-Revolution has come!
-Off the pig!

-No more sisters in jail!
-Off the pig!

-Pigs are going to catch hell!
-Off the pig!

-Oink, oink!
-Oink, oink!

Panther patch, it says,
"Freedom or death!"

And we mean it till our last breath!

And we mean it
till our last breath!

-Whose streets?
-Our streets!

-Whose streets?
-Our streets!

We're back in Chicago.

Sandy is back in Chicago, and
we're preparing to bury her.

We're burying her on Saturday.

And my first text that
I receive from Mr. Mathis,

the district attorney down there,

he says to me at 4:58,
"Where is the body?

"Do you have the results back
on your autopsy?"

I say in response, "Sandy is here with
us. We haven't received our report yet."

So this is part of what makes me
start to feel like

there's a little gamesmanship
that's going on

because he knows that I can't
have a full autopsy report.

He then says, "Looking at the
autopsy results and toxicology,

"it appears that she may have swallowed

a large quantity of marijuana or smoked
it in jail.

"Since your client has
possession of Ms. Bland's body,

"I must ask it not be disturbed
any more than necessary

"and that a proper chain of custody be
kept, so that she will be available

"for future examination
by qualified experts.

Notice is given
at 5:10 p.m."

That "notice is given at 5:10 p.m."
is a specific effort

to try and shift the burden

as it relates to the destruction
of evidence on this family

when they know that
they're about to bury her.

You don't release a body if there's
more tests that you need on that body.

Do you think that's enough
to cover some? I mean--

You're not only going to be asking what
the policies, procedures, protocols,

and guidelines are,
but you're also going to say,

-"as it relates to booking."
-That makes sense.

Perfect. When you start to deal
with, frankly, deception,

we could potentially file a lawsuit,

if we wanted to, down there, in Waller
County.

You file a suit so you can make people

give you the information that the family
is entitled to.

I mean, for Christ's sakes
she died in their custody.

We were able to get access
to Sandra Bland's cell.

You can see they've left a lot
of it just like the way it was.

The food is still sitting here.

The bed is still in the same arrangement
that it was left in.

But there's a lot of attention
being paid

to the trash bag just like this one.

And this trash liner.
Of course, this trash liner

is what's believed that was used

to string up here, and for Sandra Bland
to hang herself.

There were reporters,
as we know, go into the cell,

in its state that it was
claimed to have been in

at the time that Sandy passed.

And that says that is
not being preserved.

It just blows my mind that that
could have happened, but it did.

Eighteen years ago,

a single parent

brought five little girls
to this church.

And Sandra Bland was
one of our victories.

Before she was formed...

God spoke into her spirit.

"Now I'm sending you
into a strange land.

"All of the authorities
are not fair.

"All of the politicians
are not honest.

"And I'm sending you, Sandy Bland--
that's what they're going to name you--

I'm sending you not to shut up,
but to speak up."

And here came Sandy.

"Good morning, my kings and queens.

"I'm not a racist.
I don't believe in violence.

"I'm not trying to incite.

"I'm trying to unite.

"Sandy Speaks."

As a matter of fact...

...when I think of Sandy Bland,

I'm going to think of more than an
outspoken, strong-willed black woman.

But I'm going to think of Jesus!
Oh, yes I am!

'Cause don't you know, Sandy was
raised in a blended family.

Like Jesus,
she was brutally arrested.

Like Jesus, she died
in the custody of authority.

Like Jesus, Sandy's still speaking.

Are you listening?

Are you listening?

I lost my best
friend and my sister.

And I know that the closure

that I need will not come until
the legal process is complete.

I assembled a team
of special prosecutors.

Two African-American
special prosecutors,

a female prosecutor, Anglo,

and two male Anglo prosecutors,

all of which were actually
defense attorneys--

people that would traditionally
be antagonistic

toward law enforcement,

to come in and review what
happened to Sandy in that jail.

The saying
is that a prosecutor

can use a grand jury
to indict a ham sandwich.

Basically, whatever result

the prosecutor wants to see
come out of the grand jury,

they can manipulate
the evidence to secure.

I disagree with the old statement
that you can indict a ham sandwich.

My grand jurors have always
been smarter than that.

And my grand jurors don't just let
me come in and do whatever I want.

I think it's a... a farce,
the criminal investigation.

I bet you money that the DA
down there, they'll say,

"All of the evidence that we presented
to the grand jury was assessed,

"and they made a determination
that nobody should be charged."

But the practical reality
of a grand jury investigation

is that it's not adversarial.

I can't be there, I don't
get to submit any evidence.

They get to choose what evidence they
submit and what evidence they don't.

They may not choose to submit

any of the dashcam video
if they investigate Encinia.

They get to say, "Sandy was pulled over

because she failed
to use her turn signal.

"She got aggressive,
and she had to be arrested."

And there's no way for us to know

whether or not that's all
the evidence they really give.

Why? Because it's
a secret proceeding.

It's a secret proceeding that no
one will ever be able to access.

In two
miles take Exit 2,

-79A for US... to US-20...
-Oh!

-...US-45 La Grange Road.
-Okay.

This is in Maryland,
they have a mobile billboard

that says "Department of Justice,
Launch an Investigation.

Justice for Sandra Bland."

That was on the side
of someone's truck.

I feel like a large part of the
world has glossed over the stop,

and they just talk about
how she got in jail

and what may have happened in jail.

When you terminate someone,

you are letting them know
that you have broken protocol.

and you have put us
as an organization at risk.

And so why that hasn't happened
with Officer Encinia, I don't know.

I mean, your emotions are too raw to
even come to a grave and visit anybody.

So the last couple of weeks,
I mean, she was--

even though she passed away on the 13th,
she wasn't buried until the 25th.

Authorities say Bland
had drugs in her system

at the time of her death.

There have been some
instances or claims

about a substantial amount of
marijuana found in her system.

I can tell you that there has been

a confirmation of those results.

One thing
was pretty certain was

that she had a substantial
amount of marijuana in her body.

To me it was interesting fact,
because it plays on her psyche,

it plays onto why
she may have been suicidal

and why nobody knew about it.

What they've tried
to suggest, by marijuana,

is a crock, is a crock of manure.

And it was a direct attack
on her character.

Sandra Bland
was very combative.

-What does that mean?
-It was, um...

It was not a model traffic stop,

or--and it was not a model person
that was stopped on a traffic stop.

We went to the auto
shop, where the car was.

This is the purse
that she had in the car.

We also found the cigarette
that she was asked to put out.

And she put it out.

The area where you
put out a cigarette,

it was sticking,
standing straight up.

So even though she said, "I don't
have to put it out," she put it out.

And even in spite of that, she was
still made to get out of the car.

"Death and life are in
the power of the tongue,

and those who lose it,
will eat its fruit."

Man, that is a word.

Hmm.

How did Sandy die?

Well, now we're trying to say, "Oh!

"Let's not look at
what really happened.

Let's talk about this marijuana
that was in her system."

And so now she changes from the poor
young lady who passed in a jail cell

to "Oh, she was crazy.
She had a mental illness."

You can throw
all of the... insults,

you can throw all
of what you want to throw,

I'm still going to stand
until everything is uncovered.

Bland's autopsy
has been completed...

I'm going to have the press
conference tomorrow morning at nine.

I mean, we're going to get up
there and we're going say,

"We've made the decision at this time,
necessary for us to file suit."

"Why now? The reason we're suing
now is, they're making us file.

We've asked for the same information
that the media's released. Right?

They're giving it piecemeal to the
media in a way that helps them.

We're forced to litigate this

because we have an in-custody
death that's unexplained.

We're not getting information. We
need to know the true time of death.

Was it on the 13th? Was it the 12th?
Was the rigor mortis set in?

All of those things are unknown.

The doctor that did
our independent autopsy

does not have the gastric content,

because that's still
in their possession.

She doesn't have the ligature,
that's still in their possession.

And then try to spin it back
to the arrest.

-What do you think?
-Police officers know

where the video is. So at the point
where she's not in the video,

the police officer did
something else to her.

Obviously, she wouldn't just say,
"You're breaking my wrist..."

-Correct, correct.
-...outside the scope of the camera.

-Okay, they know exactly where it is.
-Mm-hmm

So that's kind of how we frame it.

That they're trained to go outside
of the view of the camera.

-Yeah.
-Mm-hmm.

Okay. Rangers are our friends.

They are really good at coming in and
taking care of issues like this.

I don't think that there's
ever been an issue like this.

When I sent my family down here,

they were supposed to be
coming back with Sandy's items.

They were supposed to-- we were
told we could get her phone,

we were told we could
get all of that.

And when they got here,
that totally flipped around.

And so, now...

we gotta do what we have to do.

The family of Sandra Bland will
be filing suit on August 4, 2015,

uh, at the federal courthouse,
Houston.

-Have a nice day.
-Thank you.

You know that they say,
don't mess with Texas?

But we're down here
to mess with Texas.

Or they got the message.

We sued Waller County
sheriff, Brian Encinia.

We sued both of the booking
officers at Waller County.

There's the assault
and battery counts,

there's the wrongful death count,

there's the survival count.

There were constitutional
rights that were violated.

People in this country have died
for the opportunity to make sure

that we have a voice at this point.

And we're going to muster
the strength to use it.

And when you file suit,
you're saying,

this wasn't right.

And you might be, quote, "the man,"

you might be, quote, "the system,"

but we feel like
something's got to change.

Folks, thanks
very much for coming.

We, in filing this lawsuit, are looking
to hold those who are responsible

for the stop, and Sandy's
ultimate death, accountable.

This is
a homicide or a suicide?

This family is
a reasonable family.

In the face of Sandy
being the light that she was,

it is very difficult for them
to get their minds around

the notion that
she would hurt herself.

What happened to Sandy is
indicative of a larger conversation.

How does Sandra Bland's story
play into that larger narrative?

If, ultimately, the answer to
your question is, unfortunately,

that Sandy took her own life,
does that at all change?

She should not have
been there in the first place.

The fact that she was pulled over

for a failure to signal
a lane change, okay,

the fact that she honestly and
was forthcoming and complying

with the police officer when he
asked her for her identification.

That's what he asked her for.

The other ask of her,
and where his tone changed

was when he asked her
to put her cigarette out.

To which she replied, "I don't
have to put my cigarette out,

"I'm in my own vehicle."

There's a seismic shift in the
conversation that takes place there.

It's unfortunate, and I think that
the key word to remember here

is the inability
to de-escalate the situation.

The fact that the situation
escalated in such a way

that we have a young lady who was
merely on her way to get groceries,

on her way to get groceries
to stock her refrigerator,

on a Friday afternoon,
she ends up jailed,

she ends up dying in police custody.

We are three weeks out
from Sandra's death.

We are a week out from burying her,

and we still don't know
what happened to her.

You can't have somebody
who speaks this message...

-That's right. That's right.
-...that is suicidal.

-No way.
-No way.

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

The local sheriff, shedding
new light on their statement

that Sandra Bland committed suicide.

Releasing this intake form
from the day Bland was jailed,

She
attempted suicide within the last year.

Are you thinking
about killing yourself today?

Sandra answering no.

I can understand where
she was probably scared.

She was likely going to lose
her job at her alma mater,

that she had just gotten,

because now, she picked up a felony.

She had lost a baby 14 months prior.

"I'm in a new location,
far away from my family."

They knew what her bond was.

She wasn't being bonded out.

She's sitting there thinking
about, what am I going to do.

She come in
here Friday afternoon,

as an aggravated, upset individual

that probably any of us
would have been.

You got a concrete floor,

concrete walls,
and a solid iron door.

Your physical body with a
high level of THC is working.

And by Monday morning,
your world has--

in your mind, your world has ended.

Suicide is extremely tough.

I can't imagine what her family
has gone through.

I, too, have had
close family members

that have taken their life
and it's hard to understand.

Did she want to
do that in completion,

or did she do it by accident,

wanting to be, maybe caught,
for extra attention?

Those things, you know,
none of us would ever know.

I was there
for the miscarriage.

I was at the hospital
with her and everything,

and she was, she was sad.

But I was not knowledgeable
of any suicide attempt.

Sharon called. She said, "They're saying
that she committed suicide."

And that just wasn't
the Sandy that I knew.

About a month before
the unfortunate incident,

she had said, "Reverend Brazier,
I think I got my purpose.

I think I know
what I want to do."

She came out from
under the table with this...

it was a binder,

about an inch and a half,
two inches thick,

of all this research that she
had done on police brutality.

Body cams, Trayvon Martin,
you know, legislation.

My job has become,
helping wherever I can.

Inspired by the Million Man
March, there was the creation

of the National African-American
parent involvement...

Racism is still alive today, and it
still... All the odds are against us.

In Ferguson, there were two
gentlemen who decided to disrupt

a peaceful protest
and shoot into the crowd.

Y'all, this has got to stop.

When you see somebody
who is such an advocate

for the people coming behind her,

it is very difficult to understand why
she would decide to kill herself.

-We have a job to do.
-That just does not jive.

You got to conquer hate with love.
Where somebody is being racist...

Let's get to work.
I'm ready. What about you?

I knew instantly
that it was a cover-up.

because I know that
that wasn't in her character.

I had talked to her, I had seen her.

And if you know Sandra Bland, you
know, she's had much harder times

than sitting in jail for three days.

In 2009, Sandra was
charged with possession of marijuana.

It was a personal use amount,

but we ended up getting
that case dismissed.

In 2010, she was arrested for DWI,

as well as possession
of marijuana, again.

Thirty-six.

In lieu of paying the
ticket because you can't afford it,

they'll let you
sit the ticket out in jail.

They charge X amount
of dollars per day,

and when you get to whatever that amount
is, they release you.

Sandy went to Harris County
and sat for 30 days.

And then she came to Waller
and sat out two weeks.

She knew that was her responsibility
and wanted to take care of it.

There are uneducated people who are
hellbent on self-extermination.

I am not one of them. I am into
building up my kings and queens.

So for me, black lives matter.

And then, subset, all lives matter.

It is not okay that
we have to create a hashtag,

"If I die in police custody."

Black lives matter!
Black lives matter!

It went from sadness
to utter frustration.

What I saw was an incredible
amount of misinformation.

And it just kept on, kind of,

getting bigger and bigger
and bigger.

And then you started to see
things that were outright lies.

Sandra's done
with her mugshots. I believe...

that the best way to get away
with murdering her

was to stage the entire booking.

When she is allegedly brought out of the
holding cell to have her mugshot taken,

her face is blurred out
through the entire segment.

One of the most heavily discussed
pieces of evidence is Bland's mugshot.

Many are postulating
that she was already dead

when her photo was taken by police.

When getting a mugshot taken,

prisoners are told not to lean
on the wall behind them.

See that? He's wearing gloves.

All these videos that
were being put out on YouTube,

going through step-by-step

about how she was deceased
before she even got to the jail,

You can clearly
see in this image that Sandra was

flat against the supposed
wall behind her.

Then that's when you started to see

where we were receiving
the death threats.

People wanting to
kill me, kill the sheriff.

I completely understand
why there are groups of people

that think we killed that girl.

Because we're in the South, maybe
because we talk a little slower.

Got this big, white,
Bubba-looking guy,

that he must be a racist,

he must not like
black people. Um...

He can't be trusted
to get justice for Sandy.

Now this is a perfect storm
for the country

to be divided and angry.

-Back up! Back up!
-We've still got some people inside!

Let them out!
Let them out!

-Open the door!
-Let them out! Let them out!

Let them out!
Let them out!

Let them out!

Sandy still speaks!

-Let's go!
-Sandy still speaks!

-Let's go!
-Sandy still speaks!

-Let's go!
-Sandy still speaks!

On the other side of the
wall is our 9-1-1 dispatchers

who are receiving emergency calls,

and then you have a group
of people with bullhorns.

Our 911 dispatchers couldn't
even hear the phone calls.

We had to get those people
to vacate the front lobby.

I spent several nights
here, at the office, on my couch

because I was not gonna leave here

with employees, knowing they've
got to be here all night.

Sandy's still speaking out!
Y'all killed her!

Which one of you two white boys went
back there and do it? We saw the video.

-Come on.
-Hey! Get off of me!

If there's anybody left in there...

You had the whole country
looking at what was going on...

with law enforcement
under attack, with our past.

We need to just calm the hell down,

and we need to start looking
at what happened,

and not what we think happened.

And more importantly...

not what we want to have happened.

No!

We're doing it!

This is from the
homecoming, from fall, 2014.

This picture is from this year.

A month and a half
before she passed away.

This is from a family dinner
this year.

This had to have been
within the last year and a half,

because my daughter must have
been one and a half, here.

This is actually from last summer.

Now, Cannon
is heavily involved.

Life has changed
in a blink of an eye.

One moment we went from
being as a family,

to at any given moment,
Cannon was gone,

and I didn't know
when Cannon was coming back.

Death threats left on his phone.

Worrying for the kids'
and my safety.

Yes, uh, Mr.
Lambert, I do have psychic abilities.

There's going to be an attempt
made on your life this week.

You're delving into what's
called the Code of Silence.

And it isn't only in the
Chicago Police Department.

It's especially true
in, uh, the state of Texas.

They always have a problem
with, uh, Afro-Americans

who are so-called social activists.

Please be very careful,
Mr. Lambert.

The thing that really stuck out
to me when I read this motion was that,

it says, "It is apparent now,

"that Bland's inability
to secure her release from jail,

"and her family and friends'
refusal to bail her out of jail,

led her to commit suicide."

Um, you're not just blaming the
victim, you're blaming the family.

We know that she was able
to make contact with her family.

They knew that she needed
to be bonded out.

And Mr. Booker, the bondsman,

he's got pretty much
24-hour access to the jail.

So, once your bond is set, he can
go in there and get somebody out

pretty much whenever he wants.

They find out, in the
early evening on Saturday,

and by Sunday night,
they're ready to get her out.

They called the next morning, on
Monday morning, and she was gone.

A day and a half transpired, that's not
a lot of time. It's just not.

I know why they're trying
to make it out to be.

How do you file that type of
proceeding and, uh, by the way,

you've not even deposed the people
you are claiming are responsible.

You've never spoken to them. You
don't know what's in their minds.

What about you, Waller County?
What about you, jailers?

What about you not paying
attention to where she was at,

what she was doing,
how she was feeling?

You know, you can't
orchestrate the frustration,

and you can't control
the desire to see change.

This is the
New York City Police Department.

-Please be advised...
-What's her name?

-Say her name!
-Sandra Bland!

We're in a state of war right now!
This is war!

United we stand!

-We're doing this for Sandra Bland!
-United we stand!

-We're doing this for Sandra Bland!
-Sandra Bland!

Sandra Bland!

-Sandra Bland!
-Say her name!

-Sandra Bland!
-Say her name!

-Sandra Bland!
-Say her name!

-Sandra Bland! Won't you say her name!
-Say her name!

Say her name! Say her name!
Say her name! Say her name!

Say her name! Say her name!
Say her name! Say her name!

The autopsy is,
you know, our investigative tool.

So you have to be thinking forward.

She did have a well-formed ligature
mark which had a V behind her left ear.

And that's the point of suspension.

It appears that she was not hanging

but perhaps seated
with her head forward,

which is not uncommon.

As the blood flow decreases,
then you really get sleepy.

Is there any indication at all that
there could have been some foul play?

Are you in a place where you can
render an opinion right now?

You have real injuries
that could not have resulted

from a hanging, but from blunt force
being applied to the back of the body.

She had scrapes on her
upper right side of her back.

And yet there is no tissue that is
labeled soft tissue from the back.

Questions are still there.

I have to go through everything before
I render an an opinion.

The Waller County grand jury,
as of about 3:30 today,

has issued an indictment against State
Trooper Brian Encinia for perjury.

Is that the
only charge he's facing?

That's the only charge that the
grand jury issued an indictment on.

The indictment was issued
in reference to the reason

that he removed her
from her vehicle.

It is a class A misdemeanor, excuse me,

up to a year in jail and up to a $4,000
fine.

I can't even...
I can't even fucking feel my arm!

This guy's gonna get
the minimal slap on the wrist

for the initial lie that put
my daughter behind bars.

Here's a guy who should have clearly
been charged with assault, battery.

And I'm going to tell you
that I can say,

"At least we got a perjury charge"?
No.

My white friends,
don't get upset,

but I'm going to call out
racism wherever I see it.

So for you who can say,
"Oh, the law doesn't see color,"

it doesn't see color 'cause you
ain't got no color in your skin.

You just don't know. You don't know
racism because you don't live it.

You don't feel it.

What you may see as just
somebody doing their job,

we see the undertones of that.

We've been trained to see them,
because we live them every day.

Okay, I don't see anything wrong

with the officer's actions until we get
to the point

where he asks her
to put the cigarette out.

She very accurately pointed out that she
didn't have to put out a cigarette.

This is a perfect example of exactly
how vulnerable black women are

in public space to law enforcement.

-He baited her, you know he did.
-She had a problem--

She had a problem
with being stopped,

she didn't like the fact
that she was being stopped,

her whole arrogant attitude,
and that stop.

The officer should not
have pulled her over--

Hang on. Listen!
I wan't everybody to listen.

Because I think--
Mark! Hang on, Mark!

Harry is calling arrogance,
I'm calling dignity.

Black people have a right to
assert their dignity in public,

and just because it doesn't
cohere with what police want...

Let's just talk about
why we're here a little bit.

Um, as you all know, Dr. Carter

was retained to do a private,
preliminary evaluation

of Sandy's body,

and come up with some preliminary
findings, at this point,

give you a chance to ask questions,

with the understanding that this
is our confidential conversation,

and that what you find out here,
you don't share.

There are certain things
that we look for in forensics

to give us the ability to say
when the death occurred.

And, uh, you have a short window
to document those things.

The primary one is getting a core
body temperature, which was not done.

And that's what's lost.

And so at that point, Dr. Carter,
when we called you in, you can't...

No, I can only go back
so far, because by that time,

refrigeration has taken place,
the body has been moved.

The largest amount of marijuana
that shows

is what we call THC-COOH,
or carboxylated,

and that means it's metabolized.

It hangs around the body
for forever.

It is not a whopping amount of drug.

It was just nonsense.

And so that was just
completely out of bounds.

Um, there were no fractures, but I
found evidence of deep bruising.

Bruising going all the way through
the deep muscles on... on the back,

uh, down to the level of the ribs.

So if someone has put their knee
into a back, and they're grinding,

that's going to actually destroy the
small vessels in the muscular tissue.

Just let us know
if you need a break, okay?

We want to try to make sure
everybody's getting

the same information at the same time.
If you need to step out, it's okay.

Go ahead, Shavon.
You have a question?

With that kind of
scarring going to the ribs,

would it be complicated for
her to breathe, necessarily?

It would have been painful.
She would have been in pain.

I mean, I've had that type
of pain, and so, I...

I'm just trying to, you know,
process everything.

It's not really adding up to me.

I wanted to rule
out foul play occurring,

consistent with,
with hands placed on.

I did examine the hyoid bone,
it was not fractured.

We generally see that when we
have homicidal strangulation,

where someone has their hands around
the neck. That was not present here.

Correct me if I'm
wrong, with homicidal death,

you see things like
defensive wounds,

you see things like
impressions in the skin...

You didn't find
any of those physical findings.

So we have these
open questions, still.

Will you be able
to dust for fingerprints,

or have we missed that window?

That should have been done,
but we don't know that they did.

We asked that question and I was
told that they hadn't done that.

There is a lot of significant and
vital information that is missing.

The bruising on her back
and on her legs,

I mean, yeah, he was on her back
for a significant amount of time

when she was arrested, but I mean,

I don't know. It's just, it could
have happened while she was sleeping.

It could have happened while she was
laying down her, I mean, I just...

-Sure.
-There's a lot of things

that are just...
that just does not add up.

As lawyers looking at this,
we have to approach,

um, all possibilities
and probabilities.

My question is
what led to this point.

I have ruled out
a homicidal hanging.

It's not suggestive of that at all.

But I think this is something--

You're supposed to be
face-to-face once an hour,

not looking through a window
and guessing.

This young woman is scared
and frightened

and someone is having
emotional pain, physical pain,

isolated, then you have some
things that should be considered

as being driven to.

You know, we know that someone's
spirit can be broken,

even in a short period of time.

So sorry for your loss.

-Thank you.
-Thank you.

The grand jury was released from the
courtroom just a few minutes ago.

They just came out.
They are done.

Everyone was cleared of
wrongdoing at the Waller County Jail

where Bland died in custody.
Her death was ruled a suicide,

-her protesters don't believe it.
-They have...

And we just need to let
the court system work.

I'm sitting there and
I'm going, "Wow. Really?"

Because I'm just mad
because my daughter is gone.

It made me want to get up, even more,
because the truth has got to come out.

To be a strong
African-American woman...

I imagine they were just so irritated
with her knowledge and her education.

And just... they got...
they got pissed.

The jail has a policy
that if you bring an inmate in

and you deem them to be a threat
or aggressive or what have you,

you isolate them initially and then you
reevaluate them within a 24-hour period.

We know that that didn't happen
for Sandy because she was there

by herself for three days.

She's not combative,
she's not aggressive.

Why single her out?

I am here today
because last Monday,

I read that the grand jury
refused to indict anyone

connected to
the death of Sandra Bland.

I am here today
because justice was not served.

I'm here today to grieve the loss

of not just one black life, but
several, whose lives were cut short

because of injustice.

I'm here to remember Freddie
Gray, to grieve Tamir Rice,

Karin Smith, Michael Brown,
Roshad McIntosh,

Tanisha Anderson, and many others.

As a white woman
living in America,

I knew that what happened to
Sandra would not happen to me.

I would not be threatened
with a Taser.

I would not be taken into custody.

Regardless of
if she had a cigarette,

regardless of whether she cursed,

I believe Office Encinia
would not have pulled

Sandra Bland from her car
if she looked like me.

Therefore, racism killed
Sandra Bland.

The reason Sandy
was taken to jail

was Brian Encinia's allegations
that she assaulted him.

That's how Sandra was placed
in solitary confinement.

It's because she was the only
woman in the jail at that time,

that came under that
classification that put her there.

And the reason there's no photograph
of Sandy hanging in the jail

is because when the jail found her
hanging, the first thing they did

was get her down and try
to bring her back to life.

In that situation,

it would be a pretty cruel and
callous thing for a person to do to,

"Let's take a photo
of the person hanging,

and then let's try to see
if we can save them."

Larry and I looked at this,

and we went back and forth
trying to figure out

if there's something
that we're missing,

and we just can't see
that we're missing anything.

So these are the hourly observation
logs from Waller County,

and this is on the 13th of July,
the day that she was found.

That's the sequence that
the paperwork's coming in at.

So seven o'clock in the morning, at 7:05
they're representing her to be there.

And then 8:01,
8:54.

Now remember, they're
checking on her, right?

And she's found at 8:00--

Well, she's purportedly found at 8:54.
So that's when they find her.

Then we see these
other logs at 9:47.

And then there's a blank.
And then at 11:13,

and then there's a series
of blanks, all following.

It doesn't make any sense to me.

The jail logs were filled out
in a way that...

should not have been filled out.

They were turned in...

with false information.

What that jailer was doing
was pre-filling out the form.

Did he falsify?
No. Not in his mind.

So, the truth is,

he, the person
that signed that jail log,

did not see Sandy.

They did not check on her that hour.

That is a false record.

Was it made intentionally,
or knowingly,

or with evil intent?

According to what he says, no.

Sandy was bold,

and knew exactly what was
right and what was wrong.

I don't believe Sandy shut her mouth
when she got to the that jail.

I believe she kept talking, I believe

she let them know, I'll see you guys
in court.

I believe she did all of it.
And I believe they silenced her.

So no. It's not settled.

And no, I don't believe
she committed suicide. Still.

When we start talking
about how different this case is,

and if it's different, I think
we approach it differently.

You know, Freddie Gray
was a settlement.

You know, Garner was a settlement.

Tamir Rice was a settlement.
DuBois was a settlement.

Everything's been settling for at least
5 million to 10 million dollars.

They're going to argue
that those were homicides

that were caught in video
as opposed to a suicide,

which we can't prove
to the contrary.

The only thing that you can
go to verdict on is a suicide.

And I started thinking about what
it would mean if we tried the case.

Well, Geneva didn't believe
that this was a suicide,

and doesn't believe it right now.

But I watched over 130 hours
worth of video,

and you don't see anybody go into
her cell, or come out of her cell.

Even though we know that this was
extremely, extremely mysterious

in terms of the circumstances
surrounding this case.

She was hung from a trash bag.

Well, the problem
with that trash bag is,

is that it didn't have
her fingerprints on it.

In fact, it didn't have
anybody's fingerprints on it.

In fact, it didn't even have
her DNA on it.

We know there's a bunch of
evidence that's out there

that we'll never have
any ability to grab or touch.

It's lost.

But ultimately, I don't look at it
from the standpoint of whether or not

it was a suicide or whether
or not it was a murder.

It was an in-custody death.

Sandy should be here, period.

There have been 816 deaths, in custody
since Sandy's death. One year.

What if we say to them
that we are looking

to see cameras installed throughout
the jail?

Your Waller County report says

what it's going to cost
you to do the changes.

It's roughly 20 million,
in your facility.

You know what, Mother Reed-Veal...

There's no amount of money
that you could put on your child.

And so at some point you have to not
torture yourself and say,

"What happened?" So I decided I'm going
to go from what happened,

to what happens now.

It was the most unnerving
thing you ever want to see.

Going back and forth,
back and forth.

Mediator coming into the room,
leaving back out.

"No, we're not going for that.
Yes, no, yes, no."

Eight hours.

I'm okay. The world
will never forget Sandra Bland.

Best... family...
in the world.

And there's going to be
changes that come from this,

long-standing changes
that come from this.

It's time to
walk your talk now.

Young people,
don't let Sandy's death be in vain.

I am looking at all of you and
you are here not by coincidence.

The baby said before she left here
she was going to go international.

She was going to make history.

So now you have Sandy Bland Parkway.
Look it up on Google.

And it's going to take a whole lot
more of us standing up and saying

"We are not buying it,"

in order for this to stop.

It's tough
to hear that from a mother,

which makes me fight even harder

to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth.

Even when the truth is
against the organization...

that you served.

Police officers around the country,
you need to hear my voice.

Tell the freakin' truth.

Do I think the legal operation
of this jail

have anything to do with her death?

No. No, I don't.

The moral responsibility

at eight o'clock, if you'd
have gone back there in person

maybe looked at her eyes and seen,
"Hey, something's going on with her,

"a little different.
"She's stressing," uh...

moral responsibility-wise,
absolutely.

It's not a black
versus white issue.

No, we didn't go back there
and tie a bag around her neck.

But it is our responsibility
to take care of her.

And that, with her and her
family, we let her down.

Could there have been something
we could have done to prevent it?

I'll always think that.

I'm never going to make everybody in
Chicago believe what I'm saying.

Or New York City.

But this is the little corner of
the earth where God's put me.

And if I, as the district attorney,
don't step back and say,

"Hey, Elton, what do you need
to do differently,

do you have any racist
tendencies in you..."

then I can't help anybody else.

Good morning, my
beautiful kings and queens.

You know, racism is still only alive
because people keep perpetuating it.

White and black. Enough people don't
have friends of a different race.

Black people included. We don't
have enough white friends,

they don't have enough
black friends.

For those who don't agree with the
things that I'm saying, I apologize.

But I'm not going to stop.
This is about educating you.

That is my goal. We need
to educate each other.

That's the only way
this is going to work.

We love you... and your sister
wants to play a song for you.

I see you, girl.

So my peeps, I love you.
I'm headed into work.

Hoping you all have the same
great, prosperous days.

Go out there, be great. Do something
that you love. "Sandy Speaks."