Greenville NAACP to investigate jail hanging death

The Associated Press

GREENVILLE, S.C. Greenville's NAACP says it will conduct its own inquiry into the hanging death of a 25-year-old man in the Fountain Inn jail. Police said Richard J. Johnson hanged himself with his long-sleeve T-shirt while he was in a holding cell alone July 29. Johnson's family says the man had just gotten a new job and was engaged to be married, said Clarence Echols, president of the Greenville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "There was no indication that he would do anything to take his own life," Echols said. The NAACP is helping the family raise the $3,400 needed for a second autopsy. Fountain Inn police Chief Keith Morton said Johnson was arrested with a co-defendant and did not show any "signs of distress or odd behavior." Morton said Johnson died about an hour after being charged with possession of crack cocaine. --- Information from: The Greenville News, http://www.greenvillenews.com