bransonglobe.com STATE Comparisons drawn between Floyd’s death and Missouri case O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri NAACP and black lawmakers on Friday urged a new investigation into the death of an African American jail inmate who died in 2017 in a similar circumstance to George Floyd — with a white law enforcement officer’s knee on his neck. Tory Sanders, 28, died at the Mississippi County Jail in rural Charleston, Missouri, about 150 miles south of St. Louis. He had several encounters with officers while jailed and a mental health counselor determined he was suffering from paranoia. Sheriff Cory Hutcheson and eight others then entered the cell to subdue him. A wrongful death lawsuit said Hutcheson jammed his knee against Sanders’ neck and kept it there for up to three minutes, even as a police officer urged him to stop. Sanders fell into unconsciousness and died. Missouri’s attorney general at the time, Josh Hawley, investigated but declined to file charges after medical experts concluded that Sanders died of “excited delirium,” not from the knee to the neck or other efforts to control him. During a news conference Friday, Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. urged Mississippi County Prosecuting Attorney Darren Cann to file murder charges against Hutcheson and other officers. But Cann, in a phone interview, said he turned the case over to the attorney general’s office in 2017 because of a conflict of interest — one of his employees is related to Hutcheson. That conflict still exists, so it would be up to the attorney general’s office to reopen the case, Cann said. Eric Schmitt took over as attorney general after Hawley, a Republican, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. Schmitt’s spokesman, Chris Nuele, said in a statement that the attorney general “is committed to thoroughly reviewing all existing and any new evidence to determine whether to reopen the matter. Additionally, we hope to sit down with the NAACP and other interested parties to discuss further.” Hawley’s spokeswoman, Kelli Ford, said in a statement that when he was attorney general, Hawley “went to court to have the sheriff removed from office, stripped of his badge, charged with state and federal crimes, and sent to prison. Senator Hawley supports any further prosecutorial action the evidence will support.” Hutcheson does not have a listed phone number and a phone message left with his attorney was not immediately returned. Floyd’s death on May 25 sparked nationwide protests. Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder after bystander video showed him holding his knee to Floyd’s neck even as the SEE COMPARISONS, PAGE 11 June 10-11, 2020 • 9 Former Mississippi County Sheriff Cory Hutcheson sits behind his desk at the Mississippi County Detention Center in Charleston, Mo. The Missouri NAACP and black lawmakers are calling for a new investigation into the 2017 death of Tory Sanders. (Leonna Heuring/ Sikeston Standard Democrat via AP, File)
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