Mississippi Hanging Death Not a Homicide

The Justice Department is closing its investigation into the hanging death of a black man in the southern state of Mississippi. Fifty-four-year-old Otis Byrd was found March 19 hanging by a tree from a bed sheet in a wooded area about a half mile from his rural home in Port Gibson, Mississippi. He had been missing for two weeks. The death raised red flags in the minds of many Americans, who associate the hanging of a black man with lynching. Lynching is the practice of killing —...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - vendredi 29 mai 2015