A grand jury decided Dec. 21 that it would not issue any indictments in the Sandra Bland case, reports NBC News.
Bland was found dead in a jail cell after being arrested during a traffic stop, when she was pulled over for changing lanes without signaling. Police claim that her death was a suicide, but friends and family don’t believe it.
“Sandy would not have taken her own life,” longtime friend LaNitra Dean said.
“Sandy was strong. Strong mentally and spiritually.”
In the months before her death, Bland made a series of videos in which she speaks about God and decries racial injustice. The videos are titled #SandySpeaks.
Bland died July 13.
During a news conference Monday, a family attorney and relatives in Chicago, where Bland was originally from, railed against the grand jury proceedings, saying they had "no confidence" in what they described as a "tool of the prosecution."
"I simply can't have faith in a system that's not inclusive of my family," said Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal.
A lawyer, Cannon Lambert, added, "We feel like this whole effort to convene a grand jury was done for political reasons. They know that most people don't know what goes on in a grand jury. When they do release the findings, they release evidence they deem [relevant]."
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