Legal Commentary

Is the Investigation of Ronnie White's Death Being Obstructed?

By TChris

As TalkLeft noted here and here, Ronnie White's death in a jail cell, within a day of his arrest for running over a police officer, is more than suspicious. Under the circumstances, this editorial in The Washington Post is spot on:

IT IS UNSURPRISING but still infuriating that Prince George's County correctional officers have refused to cooperate with investigators looking into the death of inmate Ronnie L. White. These officers, who swore to serve the cause of justice, are preventing investigators from uncovering the circumstances of the death of Mr. White, who was strangled, according to a preliminary autopsy report.

The questions awaiting an answer are many: [more ...]

The details of Mr. White's death are as hazy now as they were before the preliminary autopsy. It is unclear why, if Mr. White was strangled, there were no signs of a struggle, such as bruising on his neck. It is also unclear how Mr. White was strangled in a maximum-security jail cell that was under surveillance by multiple officers. And why, considering the fact that he was accused of killing a county police officer, wasn't Mr. White transferred to a jail outside Prince George's County?

It's one thing for correctional officers to exercise their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent if they're worried that they might respond to questioning with self-incriminating statements. It's another for the county's correctional officers union to criticize efforts to conduct an investigation, and arguably to impede that investigation by making a blanket recommendation to officers not to cooperate, whether or not they have reason to fear self-incrimination.

Fortunately, Prince George's officials have taken aggressive action to encourage cooperation. Yesterday, the county's head of public safety, Vernon Herron, ordered the officers to "make themselves available" to investigators and warned that they could be disciplined if they refused. One officer who had declined to cooperate reportedly met with investigators yesterday.

The union's knee-jerk "cover it up" response is, as the editorial's headline suggests, shameful. But so is the murder of an in-custody inmate who officers had a sworn duty to protect from harm.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 03, 2008 (boomark / email).