The Misery Machine - The Death of Kendrick Johnson: Accident or FBI Cover Up?

Episode Date: August 17, 2020

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the tragic death of Kendrick Johnson, conspiracy theories related to his untimely death, the gross mishandling of his case at the hands of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and how the legal system has yet again failed a person of color. On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson  was discovered inside a vertical, rolled-up mat in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, GA where he was a student. KJ, as he was known by family and friends, was described him as a sweet and quiet boy. He was a three-sport athlete and dreamed of one day playing professional football. A preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that his death was accidental, and was classified as "positional asphyxia" or that he suffocated as a result of being stuck upside-down in an enclosed space for an extended period of time. Johnson's family had a private pathologist conduct a second autopsy (and years later, a third) which concluded that Johnson died from blunt force trauma, which was allegedly inflicted by means of a 45lb weight or dumbbell, according to many accounts. Also discovered during the second autopsy was the fact that Kendrick's body lacked internal organs, and that his body cavity had been stuffed with newspapers during the embalming process. The absence of his organs raised questions pointing at a cover up at the hands of the coroner that handled the initial autopsy, and sparked conspiracy theories regarding organ harvesting and trafficking. Kendrick's family sued the funeral home, but the case was subsequently dropped as nothing technically illegal had occurred.  On October 31, 2013, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. On June 20, 2016, the US Department of Justice announced that it would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death. Kendrick Johnson's family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against 38 individuals. The lawsuit alleged that Johnson's death was a murder and accused the respondents of a conspiracy to cover up the homicide, which involved two sons of an FBI agent. Johnson’s father, however, admitted that he had no hard evidence to back up any of these claims and the Johnsons had to drop the suit. They were sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and more than one million in defamation charges. They were ultimately ordered by a judge to pay close to $300,000 worth of lawyers’ fees to those they had accused with no evidence. Some people have compared KJ's death to the Emmett Till case. Drewby and Yergy also touch on the racial elements of this case, and discuss whether or not the case would have been handled differently if Kendrick would have been a white student. Black Lives Matter Links to the Petitions To Reopen the Case: https://www.change.org/p/united-states-supreme-court-justice-for-kendrick-johnson, https://www.change.org/p/gbi-justice-for-kendrick-johnson & https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/kendrick-johnson-petition Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #podcast #documentary #truecrime #justice4kendrick #blm Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kendrick_Johnson https://allthatsinteresting.com/kendrick-johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9_n9vXz_LM&t

And this week, we are doing the case of Kendrick Johnson, a case that we both feel he was murdered. He was definitely murdered. In our opinion, allegedly, we gotta say that for you too. For legal purposes, but... If you wanna know why we think this, listen further. It's gonna be on this episode. And if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. We're like almost past 720 now. We've had more subscribers in one month. That's pretty cool. Somebody sees this film and they have to beep their horn. That's Lewiston for you.

But yeah, we've had more subscribers and people reach out to us and message us over the past couple weeks than we ever have. So if you're new here, please hit like and subscribe. It goes a long way with helping us. And thank you for being with us this far along the way. But without further ado, the Kendrick Johnson case. So I'd like to start on who Kendrick was because I feel a lot of videos. podcasts, even news sources covering this, don't talk about Kendrick the person. And what's sad is there's not a ton of easily accessible information. So here's what I can tell you.

Kendrick Johnson lived with his family in Valdosta, Georgia. He was a student at Lowndes High School. He's been described by family and friends as a sweet and quiet boy. He was a talented three-sport athlete. and he had aspirations of one day playing professional football. However, this poor boy was found rolled up in a standing gym mat by his fellow students. His sneakers were shoved behind his knees. And because of this, investigators just quickly closed the case on the theory

that Johnson had just simply fallen into the mat while reaching for one of his sneakers. So I think we have to have a little bit of discussion first on why they think this kind of crazy theory. Because when I- We do not believe this theory. No, we don't believe this theory. This is a ridiculous theory. Absolutely not. We're going to get into it.

So not that I don't believe a portion of this, but I'll kind of get into it. So this particular high school, apparently you had to either pay for your locker or there was a shortage of lockers. so students would kind of stash their gym clothes or books or hoodies or things of that nature in different parts of the school to avoid having to pay for this fee. And what it's been reported is a lot of students would hide their shoes or gym clothes within the mats or around the mats, you know, to avoid the locker fee. And what is reported is that Kendrick and a friend had shared a pair of Adidas, basketball shoes and he was going to retrieve them from the mats at the time of his death.

However, we don't really believe this theory, even if students, in fact, were using the mats or the general area of this gym for this purpose. We're not going to post pictures of Kendrick's body. I just don't want to do that on here. If people want to find that, it's not hard to find. It's very easy to find. However, I need to make a point here that they said he was reaching in for these sneakers. However, if you look at the pictures, he's not wearing sneakers.

And the sneakers in question are on top of him. So what he was reaching for is this Adidas high top basketball shoe that you can see in some of the pictures that is sitting on top of a pool of blood. but there are no bits of blood or droplets of blood on the shoe. Like you would think if you were to die and blood were to come down and would sprinkle upon the shoe, that's not there. It's sitting atop a pool of blood. So the sneakers that he was allegedly reaching for were not the ones tucked behind his knees. The ones tucked behind his knees were the ones that were originally on his feet, which then makes you kind of wonder if he already had sneakers on, which actually looked like better sneakers than what he was reaching for, how he was. Was this theory even real?

And I wonder if the shoe was planted there, the one he was allegedly reaching for. But I don't want to spend too much time on this because it shouldn't have any time spent on it because it's a bogus theory. And I think what completely proves this theory wrong, there's a bunch of things. There's so many things. But one is, Kendrick Johnson, his shoulders measured 19 inches across. He was five feet, 10 inches tall. When rolled up, the mat left a 14-inch hole in diameter in the center. So because of this, there is no way that he himself could have gotten in there unless forced in or the mat was unrolled and then subsequently rolled up.

And also, we'll get into the autopsies, the condition of the body. That further make me think that this just wasn't a person who happened to climb in there and asphyxiate, which was the first cause of. of death officially. I believe they called it accidental, positional asphyxia. Ridiculous. It is ridiculous. Not that it's not a real thing, but in this case, no. It is not a real thing in this case. Let's be clear. We can talk about what that is another time. It's not valid for this case. Now, we'll talk about it when it is valid for a case. So another reason above and beyond the fact that we don't feel he could have dove into this 14-inch-inch-inch-hound. hole to retrieve it. I mean, that's just a stupid theory anyway. He was a large guy, large-ish. Why not just

tip the mats over? He was strong. He could have tipped it over. Do you remember those in school? They're not the hardest things to tip over. So at my school in particular, so when I was hearing about this case before I started to see the pictures of the evidence, my school had these very heavy mats. So I was really confused about this whole thing to begin with because we couldn't tip ours upward. We had special compartments built into the wall of the gym to roll them into and they were on like little wheeled carts because we had this really thick wrestling mat and it came in three sections that I believe is like a regulation mat my school is a big wrestling school and they almost feel rubbery and plasticy they're very thick so what we had is not these but I'm aware of these because they're the

same mats they use for cheering competitions so they're sections they are foam they stand about six feet tall and about three foot wide and they roll out in sections and i'm sure they used it for cheering or whatever at that school they're not like a regulation wrestling mad that's not what they're for they don't seem heavy enough to where he would need to really oddly crawl down in it to retrieve a shoe i'm not sure students on the regular who are using the mats for this purpose were diving into it to get their shoes not only that i feel like if he actually did this i bet he could tip it over or someone would hear him. That's my big problem with this case is that when would he be doing this with an empty gym? It doesn't seem very likely. It seems like other people would be there. I don't know many people

that believe this story that he just accidentally ended up there. So I don't think we have to spend a lot of time. No, I think we've painted a pretty good picture that we think this is complete crap. Yeah. So let's move forward from this idea that he just accidentally got stuck there. The investigation in this was quite botched. And we'll get into why that likely was, but let's cover a bit more on the crime scene. So a hoodie and a pair of orange and black gym shoes were found lying on the floor of the gym, as well as traces of blood on the wall nearby. Investigators tested the blood and found that it allegedly did not belong to Kendrick Johnson. Their report was the blood had likely been there for a long time and they refused to admit the hoodie and the orange and black

gym shoes into evidence. I believe they might have been destroyed. They could have been destroyed. There was also some sort of substance on the orange and black gym shoe that looked like blood. I did read somewhere that they claimed it wasn't blood. However, it looked like blood splattered to me. And one thing that was quite annoying about this is they ruled out that it was not Kendrick blood, but they didn't bother to see whose blood it was. Let's pretend it had been there for a while. Don't you want to know whose blood it was just to rule it out? What if it was somebody related to the case?

It's just ridiculous. It's circumstantial evidence. You want to at least keep a file of that. There was also blood found in one of the bathrooms in the trash cans on a bunch of tissues, which they claimed to belong to a girl who had hit herself with one of her flagpoles. I don't know if she was like some sort of majorette or something. thing, but she had hurt herself. Color guard.

Color guard, like either. Yeah, Majorette's kind of an old-fashioned word, but that's, you know, she injured herself earlier in that day and got a bloody nose or whatnot, and it was all over tissues in the bathroom. I don't know if they scientifically ruled that to be hers or if it was just hearsay, but it was not Kendricks. They did rule that out. So after the investigation, as we said, the death was ruled accidental.

And Johnson's parents, understandably so, were suspicious. Their belief was that the sheriff's department was too quick to rule out foul play. And considering that within 24 hours of finding his body, they concluded it was an accident, which is a very quick time frame. It was very open and shut. Especially for something with not a clear cause of death. His parents believed that Kendrick's body was moved. And this was later corroborated by Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson. Now, according to Georgia state law, the coroner,

needs to be notified and notified immediately on the discovery of a body. But Bill Watson's claim was that he was not notified until six hours later. The coroner is only the real person who was supposed to be able to determine time of death. Yes. That's what you're supposed to do for them to be declared dead. His parents stated that Kendrick's death was not being taken seriously because the fact that he was black. And the Lowndes County Sheriff, Chris Prine, and his investigator, were all white. So in 2013, when this took place, racism in Val Dost, Georgia, still very much a thing. And this is not just his parents saying this. I've read this from accounts of people who've lived there and have gone to school at Lownd's high school. The belief is that had Kendrick been white, this case would have been handled completely differently. And there's other factors that lend themselves to foul play here. And we're going to get into that later on.

On the topic of the pictures of Kendrick's body, as we stated, we're not going to include this in any of our show notes or the YouTube video. It is very easy to find, and the reason it is easy to find is because Kendrick's parents got a copy of the photo and released the photo to the media of their son's face as he lay in the funeral home. They also made t-shirts. They also made t-shirts and went around wearing them to many of the public demonstrations and protests about his death. So he is quite swollen. In the photo, he almost doesn't look humid at all. It's quite disturbing compared to a lot of crime scene pictures I've looked at. We've seen many crime scene photos.

He had only been deceased 21 hours approximately before they had found him. And his face was almost completely unrecognizable based off the pictures of him living. So let's talk about this because I had this belief going into this that a body in Georgia temperature would start smelling within a few hours of death. And some people believe that bloating happens rather quickly. But based on your experience, that's not the case. So therefore, the bloating should be due to trauma, right? So there can be a couple things here. I have a little bit of experience with this. And we're going to jump a little bit ahead to kind of get different theories. So bloating can happen and decomposition can happen anywhere after I'd say about eight to 10 hours. But

it really is, as you stated, very dependent on temperature. Now, from what I understand, this was a gym that wasn't always in use. So I doubt, especially in the evening they had the air conditioning on. So yes, if he was wrapped up in something, which I'm sure was insulating his body, and it wasn't air conditioned in that particular gymnasium, decomposition could have definitely happens. Bloading could have happens. If you are deceased and you're in that type of position, your body fluids are going to go towards your face. Just think about when you hang upside down and your face turns red. Well, now you're in this position for 21 hours. You're not living. Rigormortus and algermortus and all that type of thing where your blood is settling is going to go to your face. So it doesn't matter what race you are because the blood's

settling in your face. Your face is going to be like purpleish black at this point. And from his pictures, it was like a bluish black. On top of that, I had heard some people state that when the group of students had found him in the rolled up mat, they did say. smell a smell of decomposition. I don't know if this is a true account. I've only heard this one time. That's certainly possible given the circumstances of how hot it is in Georgia. So that's just my theory on this. Another theory that lends to the decomposition is, and I'm just going to skip ahead, we're going to get back to some more stuff about pathology in a second. But when the body was exhumed, his parents actually were able to get him exhumed not once but twice. They had found that his body

had been stuffed with newspapers. Now, this regardless is not a common practice. So his body cavities. His body cavities. This is not a common practice. They questioned why that was the case to the funeral director and the funeral director had claimed they had not received organs back from the coroner. And the coroner had stated that the organs were sent off and to be destroyed because what was the phrase that used, natural process? Due to natural processes. The organs were destroyed. And I have not heard this before. And based on your knowledge of this, this is not something that they do to bodies.

I thought we were going to talk about this later. But let's just make this clear for everybody. When they got his body back, his organs were missing. They were missing. This is not a thing that happens when you get a body back. No. So what happens when you generally get a body back? And it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how decomposed you are.

Oftentimes what happens is your organs are in specimen bags and they stuff it back into your body cavity and sew you back up. That's generally what is done. This is not what happened. He came back to the funeral home empty and the funeral home stuffed him with newspaper, which is also not a best practice. It's not illegal, but normally what's going to happen when you have an empty cavity and a funeral director is preparing you, you're either stuffed with a cotton substance. Sawdust is often used. depending on the organ there are forms that they can use like in the eyes or if you're missing a considerable amount of your teeth there's a mouth form that they can use but this newspaper thing

definitely not something that is procedure so could the organs have been decomposed to the point of where they were destroyed maybe based on time of death how long he was rolled up there however I don't buy the fact that the organs were not returned in specimen bags within the body and And one of the reasons I believe this was, was not one of the conspiracy theories that are out there that he was killed for organ harvesting, because this seems to be a common theme. I believe that the organs were removed and destroyed to conceal time of death and to conceal possible trauma that was happening within the body that could have given away that this was a homicide. So if we want to back up to the results of the second autopsy that a private pathologist was hired for this, The autopsy revealed that Kendrick Johnson had suffered hemorrhaging on the right side of his neck, which meant that he likely died from blunt force trauma, not the strange positional exfixiation. Also, I read that there was a bruise on the back of his neck, which coincides with accounts that he was hit in the back of the neck with a 45-pound plate or a dumbbell. Yeah, that account keeps coming up over and over and over again.

there was some signed testimony from students in Florida. And we'll get to talking about the Bell brothers very soon. But folks who went to university in Jacksonville, Florida with these gentlemen that stated the theory about the 45 pound weights, although these people didn't go to this high school and wouldn't have any information on this. So clearly there's something going on here that is a mess. We'll hopefully mention this again later. but Kendrick's parents have filed many lawsuits, none of which have come to fruition. But in this case, they filed one against the funeral home for mishandling their son's body. However, this court case was dropped.

The organs were lost so they couldn't be tested when the second autopsy was performed. So as a result of this, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, Matthew Moore, announced a formal review of the case. So what the Johnson's had hoped would happen with more reopening the case would be a coroner's inquest, which what that does is it rebegins the process of reclassifying Kendrick Johnson's death as non-accidental, and it will completely reopen the investigation as a homicide. However, this request was denied, even though the original coroner, Bill Watson, had originally expressed a lack of confidence in the sheriff's handling of this case from the get-go. This wasn't the only evidence that appeared tampered with. So CNN gained access to the security footage in the school the day that Kendrick was killed. However, upon viewing it, they realized it offered very little insight into what happened that day. So the cameras were facing the mats.

They were unfocused and they skipped around, oddly enough. All that you could really see from the cameras was Kendrick walking towards the gym and then several seconds of footage of him jogging within the gym. He wasn't shown within the gym, leaving the gym, and he didn't show up for his following classes. On top of that, a whole hour of footage from the gym was missing. So this finding further raised suspicion that there was foul play involved. So this was in 2013.

Nothing happened. Then in 2014, a wrongful death suit against the school's officials, alleging that Kendrick had been harassed by a white student, which went neglected by the school, perhaps due to his race. And this, too, from my understanding, was later dropped. So one thing that I kind of want to point out that I've heard from a couple different sources, but I don't know if anything is official,

is there is rumor that Sheriff Pryne smashed the tape of what happened that day in front of Kendrick's parents with a hammer. I don't know if that's sensational nonsense or what, because it's 2013. What security camera at a school is working off tapes anymore? Yeah, off of VHS. I don't know, but I've also heard this, and I heard it was done in front of the Bell brothers. So maybe we should talk about that.

Two brothers, Brian and Brandon Bell, were both students of Lowndes High School. It has been alleged that they killed Kendrick because of a fight they had over a year earlier, which had been escalating over a period of time. Now, I have read different reasons as to why there was problems. One that I see consistently is that Kendrick was dating a or was interested in a white girl that one of the Bell brothers was also interested in. Or allegedly had some sort of relationships with. Nowhere does it spell this out straight exactly what the relationship or drama was. But it doesn't matter because what does matter and what we're about to outline starts to really show even further, in our opinion, the corruption in this case.

These two brothers, the Bell brothers, their father is an FBI agent. The Johnson's accused them of covering up the murder by manipulating the school and authorities that were involved in the investigation. So because of this, in 2015, the Johnson's filed a $100 million civil suit against 38 people, including three of their sons' classmates, the local crime lab, the school, state and federal officials, five agents of the GBI, which is the Georgia. Bureau of Investigation. I think they're basically an extension of the FBI for Georgia State. I think they have things like that in larger states. We don't really have anything like that in Maine. Everything's just handled by like the main state police. But yeah, larger states usually or more populous states will have their own local type branch of the FBI. Kendrick's parents asserted that the sons of the FBI agent killed Johnson and their connections were used to cover everything up.

Unfortunately, without any hard evidence to back this up, that Johnson's had to drop the suit. Subsequently, and unfortunately, Kendrick's parents were sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and more than $1 million in defamation charges. Ultimately, were ordered by a judge to pay close to 300,000 worth of lawyer's fees to those they had accused with no evidence. I do believe their lawyer was also held liable for this. And this is apart from how we feel about the case. They said there was no evidence, so therefore they had a defamation suit. And it's just very sad. You know, you lose your son like this.

There's no justice. And then on top of that, you're ordered to pay $300,000. You haven't been able to grieve. And then this on top of it, Kendrick's parents are just being dragged through hell. It's just unimaginable. And unfortunately, things don't get any better with this case. In 2016, the DOJ announced that there would not be any charges filed against anyone in relation to the death of Kendrick Johnson, considering that there was, quote, insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges, end quote.

So because of that, as of 2016, is my understanding, that's when it was officially closed. his parents have not given up since then. So on June 2018, he was exhumed for a second time, like we talked about earlier, and a third autopsy was performed on his body. Five years later. So the findings of the second autopsy also ruled Johnson's death was not accidental and was indeed caused by the blunt force trauma likely due to being hit in the neck with that 45 pound weight or dumbbell.

Five years later, they can tell this. So they confirmed that he died due to. blunt force trauma, therefore, that this is a homicide. And yet the case was not reopened for my understanding. Right. You have clearly all the stuff that's been bungled that is obvious from the investigation and the cooperation of the original coroner here. We've got three autopsies, two of which are independent done by someone who has no skin in the game in this, saying that is a homicide with consistent feedback that it is blunt force trauma due to a hit to the neck. And then you have the camera footage, which is clearly bungled. You see this in a lot of cases that just so happens. The camera

footage is off. Like, honestly, schools, wherever, you need to be testing your friggin camera footage, because if there is indeed a problem, you need to fix that. And it shouldn't be coming up, allegedly, when there is some sort of death where things aren't covered. Audits need to be performed of security camera footage. So I think, honestly, the school should definitely be held liable for this. If this is the story, they're going to. They're responsible for their security footage because to an extent that is there to protect kids. They should be covering these legal fees. Yes, they should be.

This is the story they're going with. Yes, I completely agree. And we've covered cases like this, Elisa Lam, Keneika Jenkins, where, oh, the camera footage is just missing. Very key moments. Oh, the camera just doesn't work. Oh, the camera footage just isn't there. We don't know what happened.

That alone should be a crime. One other touch point that I just wanted to kind of touch base on before we give some closing thoughts on this was where the bell boys appeared in some of the camera footage and why charges were dropped against them. Now, this could be due to all the inconsistencies in pieces of the footage being deleted or malfunctioning cameras. But the elder Bell brother, he was found to be in a class on the other side of the campus at the time when the death occurred. According to them and their representatives. They have airtight alibis. The other brother was seen walking with a trash bag with, I think, clothes in it I saw footage of. And it's been alleged that there was blood on part of his shirt,

though he alleges that it was a logo. The times somewhat coincide. They're close. And the reason why this makes it difficult is because it's hard to pin down Kendrick's time of death. So because of that, it's easier to give leeway on what they were doing. So the other one claimed that he was going to get on weight for a wrestling match. So when you do wrestling matches, you have to make weight for whatever weight that you compete in. He said that he went to go make weight or to check his weight before the match. And change his clothing. And change his clothes.

Some people allege this is when he was getting rid of clothes with blood on them, that he was the one that did this. It's hard to say. It's hard to say because they also say that the bus left for the match. around 1 p.m., which would have been around the time he was attacked, but then there's logs as well that say the bus didn't leave until 4 p.m. So which is it? Yeah, these are things that are inconsistent. And even if the bus left at 1 p.m. and it was close, if we have organs missing and we can't pinpoint an exact time of death really is any of that relevant anyway, especially where we have him close to the scene of the crime. And to me personally, I know we don't want to really get into a lot of

personal conjecture here. However, in some of the video footage, he does look a little bit suspect when walking back from the gym. He is kind of looking side to side in a suspicious way. He looks uncomfortable. Yes. So I want to give a shout out to Young Pharaoh on YouTube. Did a update on the Kendrick Johnson case. I think this was June 23rd was his. It was a live stream. It was a live stream. So go and check that if you want to see the actual documents because he brings some. There was apparently a signed witness testimony and this was somebody named Ryan. Anthony Dommick Hernandez, who knew Brian and Brandon Bell and alleged that Brandon Bell told him that he killed Kendrick. Yeah, this was actually what I was talking about a little bit earlier in the episode where Brandon allegedly, per this statement, had told someone he was going to college with down in Jacksonville and where this person really had no skin in the game and is giving this testimony.

And this was in 2017. and nothing appears to have happened from this. So he outlined that his dad, who was in the GBI, got in touch with another FBI agent that facilitated editing of the high school surveillance video by corrupting or deleting some one hour and 25 minutes of original recording. Also said that his dad got in contact with Sheriff Chris Prine, who then got in touch with the county coroner, also alleged that Kenton,

organs were removed and newspapers were placed in the cavity so as to interfere with any effort to establish the correct time of death or to otherwise disclose any other injuries. Brandon Bell claims per this statement, allegedly per this statement, that the autopsy was falsely documented. So these are huge things. Now, according to the statement, who was present was Brandon Bell, Brian Bell, somebody named Ryan Hall and Kendrick, and that the argument started between Brian and Kenrick. And that the argument started between Brian and Kendrick allegedly over Brian's girlfriend.

So that explains how first off, he could have been killed. And second off, so neatly rolled up in the mat and put back up because there was two people there. Two other people helping. Yeah. And that the murder weapon was a 45 pound weight or dumbbell as according to this. I quote, according to Brandon Bell, Brian was taking steroids at the time and out of quote, Roid Rage or the effects of steroids, he struck Kendrick Johnson in the neck with a 45-pound weight or dumbbell.

Now, we can talk about the existence of roid rage. There's scientific studies on that, but that's besides the point. The point is, is that we have a signed testimony that the Bell brothers were talking about this case and talking about it in the light of they committed a murder. So this is huge. And you would think that this alone would reopen the case and however it hasn't. So there are some petitions that are out there to reopen this case. And I urge everyone listening to sign it.

We have signed it. They will be in the description. They will be in the show notes. Whether you feel like this was an accident and I have a hard time. A very hard time acknowledging that even the slightest possibility of an accident, just knowing the stuff that I know on a scientific level. I know that we don't have hard evidence and we can't make any accusations. This is not what we're here to do.

I'm saying this was clearly mishandled and this under the law deserves the reopen case and a proper thorough investigation. There are things here that are being ignored, such as this confession. And on Young Pharaoh's video, if you want to see the confession for your very eyes, he also talks with another student who apparently went to Lowndt, high school who had the same story. I believe his name was Colton Williams, but don't quote me on it. Go see the video for yourself. In my opinion, I believe there was foul play here. I believe this case should be reopened. I do as well. And definitely go check out Young Farrow's video. It's very

impassioned. It's very good. He has a lot of very raw feelings, understandably so on the case and just his own life stories and just opinions that are quite moving to watch. Yeah, one thing that he said that, you know, I'm never going to know this as a white person, but he said that this case right here is why he will never date a white woman. Not that he has a problem with interracial relationships, but he thinks the risk towards his life is way too high when it comes to dating a white woman, because if he were to do so, he could run into the possibility that a, another white person could be mad at that, kill him and cover it up. And he plans to impart that

to his children. You know, what can I say to that? I will never know that fear. But hearing this from him, I can completely understand where that comes from. Above and beyond this, men also have the disadvantage of being accused, sometimes falsely of rape and at ruining their lives. You know, sometimes the rich ones get away with things or the more privileged ones get. away with things, but it is something that we as women really need to address on a big level that sometimes this happens to men and we really need to take things on a case-by-case basis. Now, you add in the racial element and this is a black man. It happens to men of color much more often.

You've ruined their lives and they're going to be killed in jail. Or they'll be suicided in jail. Suicide. Which you can look into that. All you want, that is a real thing. People are killed in jail and it is made to look like suicide. or they're simply killed by other inmates because that's just the culture in there. But like honestly, like we as white people really need to check ourselves on that.

And we specifically as white women need to like figure our shit out to. There was an article. It was an interview with Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill who talked about how there were many white women falsely accusing black men, men of color of rape in order to either distance the fact they were involved with them or to. to just destroy their lives. And that's something that is not talked about today. And it's conveniently looked the other way. I love Kathleen and Hannah. There is a need in a way to believe all women.

But sometimes this doesn't work specifically when there's a racial element involved. You have to understand there's a dark side of that. And it has been used. And I know probably most people want to pretend that doesn't exist. You want to call us misogynist or apologists? We are not at all. We're not at all. I talked many times for people who are long listeners of this podcast,

how I was raped by my two best friends. I am definitely not some sort of rape apologist, but things need to be addressed. You can be against rape. You can be for victims. You can support victims while still acknowledging that there are cases where men of color have been falsely accused, of rape due to racist intentions. That's it.

Acknowledging it doesn't make you an apologist. Doesn't make you a misogynist. Yes, false accusations are statistically rare, but... This is real. Stop pretending that it's not real. All right, that's all we have. If you're listening on YouTube, if you appreciate this video, please hit like and subscribe. Hit the bell notification.

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All right. Until next week. Until next week, we love you. We love you. Bye.