The national attention and social media frenzy that have erupted following the death of Nolan Wells near Horn Island typify what happens whenever a Black person dies under mysterious circumstances in Mississippi.
There is a rush to conclude it must have been a racially motivated murder and to distrust the authorities who are investigating.
Both reactions are the result of a time warp, a distortion that views Mississippi through the same lens as if it were still the 1950s and 1960s, when race-based crimes against Black citizens occurred regularly and were often condoned, and sometimes perpetrated, by whites in law enforcement.
Such crimes still occasionally occur — witness the “Goon Squad” scandal in Rankin County. But they are the exception, and it’s even more rare when the perpetrators get away with their crimes.
At this point, there is no reason to distrust that the authorities — local, state and federal — aren’t doing their best to determine what happened on that fateful July 4 weekend, when Wells, a Black junior college football player, went with several friends, most of them white, from Ocean Springs to Horn Island, a popular gathering and drinking spot for young adults on the Gulf Coast.
Few details have been shared from the investigation, but that’s not unusual. No matter how impatient the public is to know whether Wells’ death was an accident or a homicide, the responsibility of those in law enforcement is to conduct a thorough, unbiased investigation and be sure about their conclusion before they say much.
As Angel Myers McIlrath, the district attorney who is handling the case, explained last week, her office has a longstanding practice of presenting the evidence to a grand jury whenever there is a death except those of natural causes or non-criminal car wrecks. It then becomes the responsibility of the grand jury to determine whether the death was accidental or intentional. Evidence, including autopsy results, is generally not publicly released or discussed prior to the grand jury convening so as to not prejudice the proceeding, McIlrath said. That is an ethically sound approach to take, even if it frustrates those, including members of the news media, who want immediate answers or even if it further fuels conspiracy theories.
Unfortunately, those representing Wells’ grieving family are not showing the same restraint. Ben Crump, the headline-seeking civil rights attorney, made a big splash last week to announce the results of a second, independent autopsy conducted on the teenager’s body. That autopsy shed little light on the case, although Crump tried to play up the pathologist’s statement that he could not rule out foul play. Of course, the pathologist could not, just like he could not rule out an accidental drowning, because organs and body parts that might have provided more conclusive information had already been removed or dissected in the state’s autopsy, as is common with any initial autopsy. The body’s decomposition while it was in the water and afterward also complicated the outside pathologist’s examination.
There are certainly some suspicious aspects of this death. Why did Wells’ friends return from the island without him? And why were Wells’ cellphone and keys still on that boat?
The legal process is designed to provide answers to those questions and any others surrounding this tragedy. Let the process play out in a methodical and meticulous way. Whatever the investigation concludes, it may be impossible to satisfy everyone’s doubts. The truth, though, might be even less believed if it appears to have been discovered in haste.
