Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead in a Texas ranch on Saturday where he had been invited for a party, and while the political battle over his replacement is already underway, another battle is heating up over the circumstances of his death, with some saying that Scalia was murdered by none other than President Barack Obama.
The San Antonio News-Express was the first to report Scalia's death and a followup statement from an unidentified official said there had been no evidence of foul play and that his death appeared to have been from natural causes. Following suit, media outlets reported that he died from a heart attack.
However, the person who discovered Scalia's body, Houston businessman John Poindexter, who owns the 30,000-acre Cibolo Creek Ranch, has spoken out about Scalia's final moments and the seemingly "bizarre" circumstances surrounding his death.
"He was seated near me and I had a chance to observe him. He was very entertaining. But about 9 p.m. he said, 'it's been a long day and a long week, I want to get some sleep,'" he said, according to The San Antonio News-Express.
The following day, Poindexter went to check on Scalia after he failed to come down for breakfast, and found him dead in his room.
"We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled," said Poindexter. "He was lying very restfully. It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap."
He was found to not have a pulse, and after consulting with a doctor, Poindexter determined that it would be futile to try to resuscitate him, deciding to call federal authorities to recover his body.
The issue with the case, as many note, is that not only was Scalia found dead with a pillow over his head, but no autopsy was done to determine his cause of death. Though it is permissible not to order an autopsy under Texas law, the decision to decline doing so has raised many eyebrows.
"If it had been me...I would want to know," Juanita Bishop, one of two officials who were notified about the death but didn't arrive in time to see the body, said in an interview, according to the Washington Post.
Some have taken the lack of an autopsy as evidence that there is in fact foul play at work. In a Facebook video that has since been removed but can still be viewed here, Infowars radio host Alex Jones expresses his belief that Scalia was assassinated by the Obama administration.
"My friends, it's Saturday night, this is an emergency transmission," Jones said . "The question is, was Antonin Scalia murdered? And the answer to that is, has the Bill of Rights and Constitution been murdered? Has it been reported that members of the Supreme Court have been blackmailed? Yes, it has."
"When they kill somebody, they say, 'it appears to be natural causes, nothing to see,'" he continued. "And I wish it was natural cause, but man, my gut tells me no. And if this is an assassination, this signifies that they are dropping the hammer."
He wasn't alone in his belief either, at least one other person expressed similar concerns over social media as well.
The SCOTUS was about to spank Obama once more for ruling by fiat and slap down his renegade EPA. Scalia died of natural causes my ass.
— Teresa † (@BlackIrishI) February 13, 2016
@JamesRosenFNC Scalia's death needs investigation no autopsy no security detail and a pillow found over face? Come on. — James (@JimThewayout) February 15, 2016
Now that the seed of doubt has been planted in the minds of many Americans, it may not matter if the political battle over Scalia's replacement reaches a conclusion. Unless a cause of death is determined by an autopsy, the controversy surrounding the incident will remain ever present for years to come.
