Sandra Bland Suicide Case Study

On July 10, 2015, Sandra Bland was pulled over in Waller County Texas by State Trooper Brian Encinia for what began as a routine traffic stop for Bland failing to use her turn signal to change lanes. After writing her a traffic violation ticket, Encinia asked bland to step out of the car. When Bland refused because he offered no reason as to why, the officer became belligerent, pulling Bland from her car and arresting her on the grounds of assaulting a public athourity. Three days later, on July 13, 2015, Bland was found hanged in her cell and was deemed a suicide. When news of her death was made public, it sparked outrage, particularly among the black community as her death was preceded by multiple other deaths of African-Americans by the …show more content…
The jail came under fire not only for this, but for their misconduct (not performing hourly checks, seemingly allowing drugs in to the jail [Bland’s autopsy revealed an unusually high amount of TCH in her system, which could have only occurred if she had been using marijuana during her time in jail] not putting inmates on suicide watch, and employees not having the required mental health training.) In December of 2015, a grandy jury decided not to indict anyone in relation to Bland’s death, stating that it was still technically an open case despite the many pieces of evidence available to indict some. In January of 2016, however, officer Encinia turned himself in on counts of perjury on intake forms, after a warrant was put out for his arrest. This resulted in his termination as a state trooper. Encinia posted bail, and the family is asking harder charges to be pressed against him including wrongful arrest and battery. The Bland family has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit after the December 2015 jury failing to indict anyone. The case is scheduled to go in front of a jury in January of