DA Clears Cops in Horrific Death of Handcuffed Black Woman
A local prosecutor in Georgia says no crime was committed in the death of Brianna Grier, the handcuffed 28-year-old Black woman experiencing a mental health crisis who investigators say fell out of a moving cop car after an officer left the door open.
But in an interview, District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III also confirmed to The Daily Beast that he personally knew Marlin Primus, one of the sheriff’s deputies who arrested her. This kind of professional relationship is common, but is also why the national trend has long been toward probes of deaths in police custody being referred to independent, outside prosecutors to avoid the perception of bias.
“I know him very well, on a professional level,” Barksdale told The Daily Beast Tuesday. “I’ve never had lunch with him. I’ve never gone to church with him. I don’t know where he lives. I don’t... I don’t know his wife's name. So I want to make sure that that’s clear.”