Colin Kaepernick to pay for independent autopsy in death of man in Georgia jail

Former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick pays for an impartial post-mortem for a Georgia man who died in custody final yr, his lawyer has introduced.

Lashawn Thompson died within the Fulton County Jail, close to Atlanta, final September in questionable situations. A health worker’s report discovered that Thompson had an “extraordinarily extreme” infestation of small bugs throughout his physique however didn’t decide a reason for loss of life.

The poor situations of the jail began protests and resulted in three jail officers resigning.

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) launched a Justice Division probe into the jail and two different county jails over the loss of life of Thompson and different studies.

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat apologized to Thompson’s household, saying his division was gradual to reply to the loss of life and that the jail has been in “disaster mode.”

“The kind of infestations that contributed to Mr. Thompson’s loss of life are going to be a recurring drawback in a jail the place tons of of detainees shouldn’t have cells and need to sleep on the ground,” Labat mentioned in an announcement.

An lawyer for the household mentioned they plan to sue over Thompson’s loss of life as soon as the impartial post-mortem is accomplished.

In 2022, Kaepernick introduced he would pay for impartial autopsies of these killed by police. That program funded 42 autopsies in its first yr, in line with Sports activities Illustrated.