The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office stated Monday that it’s investigating a “racially motivated” homicide that happened on Sunday on the Clayton County Jail in Jonesboro, Georgia, the place an inmate allegedly beat his cellmate to death “because of the color of his skin.”
Clayton County Sheriff Levon Allen stated in a press unlock Monday that inmate Jaquez Jackson “brutally beat his cell mate with his bare hands, viciously punching, kicking and slamming his head on the toilet, murdering him simply because of the color of his skin.”
The title of the cellmate has no longer been launched.
“During the investigation, Inmate Jaquez Jackson stated several times to investigators that he does not like Mexican/Hispanics and wanted to kill them,” Allen stated.
ABC News has reached out to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the Clayton County Jail, however requests for remark weren’t instantly returned.
Jackson was once charged with homicide, malice homicide, irritated attack and beginning a penal rise up, in accordance to the sheriff’s place of job. He were in the Clayton County Jail on a probation violation similar to misdemeanor fees, together with easy battery, easy attack, legal trespass, making terroristic threats and obstruction of an officer.
It is unclear if Jackson has retained an legal professional in connection to the homicide fees.
Jackson was once sentenced to 5 years on April 20, 2022, with one year in prison and 4 on probation, however his probation was once revoked on Aug. 11, in accordance to the sheriff’s press unlock.
The sheriff’s place of job contacted the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s place of job and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to help in the investigation.
The homicide comes after U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, known as for a federal civil rights investigation into “alleged mistreatment and abuse of inmates” in the Clayton County Jail, the place he pointed to reviews of “troubling conditions” following the deaths of a number of inmates.
“There appears to be a pattern and practice of civil rights violations in this jail that result in preventable deaths and jeopardize public trust,” Sen. Ossoff wrote in a Sept. 13 statement, calling at the U.S. Department of Justice to release an investigation.
In a Sept. 7 letter to Department of Justice Attorney General Merrick Garland, Ossoff wrote, “There appears to be a pattern and practice of civil rights violations in this jail that result in preventable deaths and jeopardize public trust.”
ABC News has reached out to the DOJ for remark however has no longer gained a reaction.
Ossoff’s name for a federal probe got here after the DOJ prosecuted then-Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill, who was once discovered in charge in Oct. 2022 of violating the civil rights of prison detainees, in accordance to ABC associate in Atlanta, WSB-TV. Hill pleaded no longer in charge and took the stand in his personal protection.
Per WSB-TV, Allen received his first respectable time period as sheriff in April after serving as intervening time sheriff starting in Dec. 2022.
Allen stated in the click unlock Monday that for the previous 11 months, the sheriff’s place of job and the Board of Commissions “have been working together diligently to make improvements to the Jail and its current conditions,” together with greater than $5 million for upgrades to amenities, together with safety.
Per Allen, the Clayton County Jail these days properties roughly 1900 inmates, which is just about 400 over capability, putting inmates at the ground and 3 in every cellular.
The sheriff stated that he requested for an extra $6.5 million from the board of commissioners to extend the prison’s capability.
post credit to Source link