Remember the tragic story of Otis Byrd we reported back in March? At the time, many on Twitter, including former MSNBC contributor Goldie Taylor, called Byrd’s death a lynching even though there was no evidence at the time to suggest foul play was involved:
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/578683992775491584
And even as evidence started to come in suggesting his death was a suicide, Taylor, and others, weren’t convinced:
She even cursed at a Tweeter who suggested she wait for evidence before ratcheting up the racial tension and questioned if the DOJ, who had been called in to investigate Byrd’s death, would be unbiased:
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/578687406859255808
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/579009086177599489
Which brings us to today where the DOJ released its findings, declaring that they found no evidence to suggest Byrd’s death was a homicide:
in case of Otis James Byrd, Miss. man found hanging from tree in March, DOJ finds "no evidence to prove that Byrd’s death was a homicide"
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 29, 2015
More from the Los Angeles Times:
“After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors and FBI agents determined that there was no evidence to prove that Byrd’s death was a homicide,” the Justice Department announced. “Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed.”
Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas said he agreed with the Justice Department decision, and that he believed Byrd’s death was an apparent suicide.
“At present there is no evidence a homicide was committed, and I’m OK with the findings,” he told the Los Angeles Times. He expressed his condolences to the Byrd family.
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As of yet, there’s no acknowledgment from Taylor that her earlier declaration that Byrd had been lynched was wrong, although she did retweet this from the AP:
MORE: Justice Department: No evidence that hanging death of black man in Mississippi was homicide: http://t.co/mWyT1AMl78
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 29, 2015
And then she tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/604367654539907072
We’d love to report an apology this fine Friday evening. How about it?
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