Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said late Monday that Sandra Bland, a black women who died in police custody in July, would not have died if she were white.
"Sandra Bland should not have died while in police custody," said the Democratic candidate and Vermont independent senator in a statement issued shortly after a grand jury announced Monday that it would not indict any officials involved in Bland's case.
"There's no doubt in my mind that she, like too many African-Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman," said Sanders, who met privately with Bland's mother earlier this year, according to the Huffington Post. "My thoughts are with her family and loved ones tonight. We need to reform a very broken criminal justice system."
Bland, a 28-year-old lawyer, was pulled over July 10 for allegedly failing to use her turn signal, and was arrested following a verbal confrontation with the police officer. After being held in police custody for three days in Waller County, Texas, Bland was found dead in her cell, hanging by a plastic trash bag, reported the Hill. The Waller County coroner classified Bland's death as a suicide.
Sanders, who has repeatedly condemned the incident, has made criminal justice reform a central plank of his presidential campaign, calling for the demilitarization of police forces and ending mandatory sentences for nonviolent offenders.
Following the grand jury's decision Monday, Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said, "I simply can't have faith in a system that's not inclusive of my family," according to NBC News.
Cannon Lambert, a lawyer for Bland's family, issued the following statement: "We feel like this whole effort to convene a grand jury was done for political reasons. They know that most people don't know what goes on in a grand jury. When they do release the findings, they release evidence they deem [relevant]."
