At 1:30 a.m. on August 22, 1992, Charles and Esther Quinn of Jackson, Mississippi, were awakened by a frantic phone call from Tanisha Love, the girlfriend of Esther’s eighteen-year-old son, Andre Jones. She told them Andre had been arrested by the Jackson police.

The following day, the Quinns, received another phone call from police, informing them that Andre had committed suicide while in jail.

The events that led to Andre Jones’ arrest and death are still disputed. Police say it is an open-and-shut case of a depressed young man, fearful of going to prison, taking his life. Others contend Andre’s arrest was racially motivated and his death was the result of police anger.

Civil rights leaders say the ordeal is a testament to a larger problem of racism in the Mississippi judicial system. They contend the death of Andre Jones, the son of prominent civil rights activists, shows that even as the twentieth century was nearing its end, the nineteenth-century Jim Crow era was still operating in the Magnolia state.

Andre Jones

Around 11:45 p.m. on August 21, Andre and Tanisha visited the Quinn’s home in Jackson for approximately forty-five minutes. From there, Andre planned to drive Tanisha to her home in Brandon, fourteen miles east of Jackson. He had borrowed the truck he was driving from a friend.

At 1:00 a.m. on August 22, Andre and Tanisha were stopped at a police sobriety checkpoint, near the Brandon city limits. Police contend that just short of the checkpoint, Andre tossed something out of the window, which they found to be a.38 caliber handgun.

Upon inspection of the truck, police say they found an open beer can. A license plate check revealed the vehicle was stolen.

Andre Is Stopped Near Brandon

Tanisha’s version of the events differs from the police report. She insists that no gun was tossed out of the window and that no beer can was in the truck. She also says neither she nor Andre knew anything about the truck’s being stolen.

Police asked to see Andre’s license and insurance card, but he did not have them with him. Tanisha says when Andre told them his name, the policemen’s demeanor changed as they ordered him out of the truck, handcuffed him, and arrested him.

Tanisha Love

Andre’s Girlfriend

Andre’s friends and family are adamant that he was not and had never been a gang member. At the police station, however, officers claim Andre admitted he was in a gang and showed them gang hand signals, which they said they photographed. Despite repeated requests from family members and the media, police have consistently refused to release the said pictures without offering an explanation.

Gang Claims Disputed

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on August 22, half-an-hour after Tanisha called the Quinns with the news of Andre’s arrest, Andre called his parents from the Brandon police station. He told them he did not know with what he was being charged.

Andre phoned his parents again two hours later saying that he was being transferred to the Simpson County Jail in Mendenhall, forty miles southwest of Jackson, still not knowing what the charges against him were.

Esther says she spoke with Andre three more times throughout the day. That afternoon, she finally learned the charges against her son: driving a truck whose vehicle identification number had been altered; carrying a concealed weapon; possession of stolen license plates and tags; and driving with an open container of alcohol in an automobile.

Fellow inmates say the police officers who booked Andre directed racial epithets against him. The officers, all of whom are white, deny making any derogatory statements.

The Charges Are Learned

When Esther called the Simpson County Jail shortly before midnight on August 22, she says she was casually informed that Andre had committed suicide in the jail’s shower. Authorities said he had tied his shoelace to an iron grate above the shower head and hanged himself.

The Shoelace

Charles Quinn visited the scene where his stepson was found. Because he estimated the grate to be approximately eight feet above the floor, Charles believed Andre would have needed something to stand on and that he would have needed someone to hold him up. He also did not believe Andre’s body weight could have been supported by a shoelace.

The Shower Grate

Dr. Steven Hayne, the state-appointed pathologist who performed Andre’s autopsy, ruled his death a suicide, saying investigators demonstrated that it was possible for him to have hanged himself unaided and that the lace’s manufacturer determined its tensile strength was sufficient to support his body weight.

The unconvinced Quinns hired independent pathologist Dr. James Bryant of Chicago to examine Andre’s remains. He concluded it was “highly probable” that Andre had been strangled.

Dr. Bryant says in most suicide hangings, the ligature mark is along the side of the neck and does not go all the way around. In Andre’s case, it went along the side of his neck, all the way to the back where it crisscrossed. For Dr. Bryant, this suggested someone had come from behind and wrapped the ligature around Andre’s neck.

Dr. Hayne disagreed, saying the knot imprint area would be in the hairline which would act as a buffer preventing the imprint from being present on the upper back surface of the neck. Dr. Bryant counters by saying that because Andre’s hair was short, the crisscross marking was not in the hairline and no knot marks were found elsewhere.

Dr. Hayne’s official autopsy report lists no evidence of bruising on Andre’s neck or anywhere else on his body. Conversely, Dr. Bryant’s autopsy found that Andre had sustained bruising under one of his eyes and on his shoulders. He says the bruising could have occurred at the time he died or could have been inflicted earlier that day, suggesting Andre had endured some kind of blunt force trauma during the time he was in jail and that his murder was made to look like a suicide.

Dr., Hayne’s ruling Andre Jones’ death a suicide was supported by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Attorney’s Office, the F.B.I., the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mississippi, and the state Medical Examiner of Mississippi.

                                    Dr. Steven Hayne Dr. James Bryant

The Pathologists Disagree

Many people believe the death of Andre Jones was the result of police incompetence and corruption. Multiple civil rights leaders and others go a step further, contending racism still runs rampant in the Mississippi criminal justice system and that Andre was harassed by the police because of the powerful positions held by his parents.

Esther Jones Quinn was President of the Jackson branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Charles Quinn was a Nation of Islam minister.

Esther And Charles Quinn

Andre Jones’ Mother And Stepfather

Some critics contend the problem is larger, citing the deaths of at least forty-eight inmates while being held in Mississippi jails from 1988-93. Each death was a hanging and all were ruled suicides. Some of the victims were white, but the majority were black.

In March 1993, a coalition of Civil Rights groups conducted hearings in the state capital of Jackson regarding the jail deaths. Those testifying included the families of inmates who had died under questionable circumstances.

Following the hearings, upon recommendation of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the Department of Justice opened a full investigation. Overseen by Attorney General Janet Reno, the DOJ cited Mississippi’s jail system for what it called “gross deficiencies,” particularly unsanitary conditions and untrained employees. The report, however, found no evidence that any of the hangings, including that of Andre Jones, was anything other than suicides.

 Hearings Are Held

In July 1993, Esther and Charles Quinn filed two lawsuits: one against the state of Mississippi, charging wrongful death based on the intentional infliction of emotional distress; and the other against the federal government on the grounds that Andre’s civil rights had been violated. Both lawsuits were dismissed.

The Quinns’ Lawsuits Are Dismissed

The death of Andre Jones, and those of many other Mississippi inmates, are still debated. Civil rights leaders as well as many other people continue to believe the principles of the Jim Crow era are still being followed by Mississippi authorities sworn to uphold the current laws. They believe the deaths of the inmates, including Andre Jones, were lynchings.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220048670/andre-levon-jones

Does Jim Crow Still Go?

SOURCES:

• The Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi)
• New York Times
• Unsolved Mysteries