Feds Investigate Teen's Mysterious Death
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We're staying on top of two big stories this is morning. New information, surfacing about suspected LAX shooter, Paul Ciancia. Sources tell CNN that Ciancia had anti-government and anti-TSA notes on him at the time of the shooting. The FBI says three TSA officers were shot during the rampage. One of the officers was killed, and right now -- On the other side of the coast, hundreds of thousands of people showing that they are Boston Strong. Fans are packing the parade route, celebrating the Red Sox win of the world championship title, and honoring the victims and survivors of the Boston marathon bombing. We'll bring you all of the latest developments throughout the morning and afternoon. But first, major developments this week for the family of Kendrick Johnson, he's that Georgia teen found dead inside a rolled-up gym mat at his high school gym in Valdosta. Federal authorities are now investigating the circumstances surrounding his death. CNN's Victor Blackwell and his producer, Devin Sayers, have been on top of the story for more than six months now. Here is the latest look of the developments in the case.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After months of rallies and protests, an announcement that the family of Kendrick Johnson hopes will lead to what they consider to be justice.</s>MICHAEL MOORE, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: At this time, however, I am of the opinion that a base exists for my office to conduct a formal review of the facts and investigation surrounding the death of Kendrick Johnson.</s>BLACKWELL: U.S. Attorney Michael Moore supported by the FBI will soon head to Valdosta, Georgia to conduct a federal investigation into the death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson.</s>MOORE: I will follow the facts wherever -- wherever they lead. My objective is to discover the truth.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hallelujah!</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Jesus.</s>BLACKWELL: Kendrick's grandmother watched at announcement on a portable TV on the street corner where the family continues its eight- month sit-in, demanding answers.</s>BARBARA ENGLISH, KENDRICK JOHNSON'S GRANDMOTHER: I'm so happy and I know we trust in the Lord and we just had been down here rallying for 32 weeks for nothing.</s>BLACKWELL: The Johnson family never believed the local sheriff's explanation that Kendrick suffocated after squeezing his 19-inch shoulders into the 14.5 inch center of a rolled gym mat to reach for a shoe in the middle of a school day.</s>BENJAMIN CRUMP, JOHNSON FAMILY ATTORNEY: His parents have always maintained that their son was killed. The only question we want to know so why they are covering up for whoever killed their son.</s>KENNETH JOHNSON, KENDRICK JOHNSON'S FATHER: I believe, indeed, that he was murdered.</s>WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Do you have any idea who may have murdered him?</s>JOHNSON: No, I don't. That's what we wanted to get the truth.</s>BLACKWELL: CNN has been reporting on this case for months, uncovering details of the sheriff's investigation. Like why these shoes found yards from Kendrick's body were not collected as evidence and how this blood stain got on this wall in the gym and why investigators never found whose blood it was.</s>BLITZER: And you don't believe there was a thorough investigation by local authorities, Mr. Johnson?</s>JOHNSON: No, I don't.</s>BLACKWELL: In a statement to CNN the attorney for the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office writes in part, while Sheriff Brine has every confidence that his officer's investigation was handled with the necessary diligence to assure that all leaders were examined and exhausted. He welcomes the U.S. attorney's further review of the case. On Wednesday, a judge ordered Lowndes County Sheriff's Office to hand over its full investigative file including never before seen surveillance video from inside the gym where Kendrick died.</s>ENGLISH: We have to continue to fight on until justice is done for K.J.</s>WHITFIELD: So Victor Blackwell joining us now. So the federal investigators said they are going to gather all evidence trying to get to the truth, and of some of the evidence you were able to display, just virtue of videotape and testimony, you have blood on the wall. But then, his cause of death was suffocation. So what has been the explanation of the blood, the origin of the blood, if his body showed no blood?</s>BLACKWELL: The sheriff's office believes the blood has nothing to do with their case. They say it appears to be old blood. This is a gym and students injure themselves. But we looked at this case file, and the longest stream of blood on this wall is 17 inches. I mean, these impacts -- there's chipped paint on this wall, six impacts that were counted here. So the idea that this is something that would have been there for some time, the family just doesn't believe.</s>WHITFIELD: And the investigation is not just about what happened here with Kendrick Johnson.</s>BLACKWELL: No.</s>WHITFIELD: But the federal investigation also entails investigating the authorities, the local authorities, that investigated the case?</s>BLACKWELL: Yes, they're going to go back in and review their case file. Now, the U.S. attorney was clear to say that he's not going into this prejudiced of anyone else's investigation, but he does want to review all of their information and parallel that, and the FBI will be doing their own investigation and talking to everyone and looking as much evidence as is still available.</s>WHITFIELD: The body will be exhumed again?</s>BLACKWELL: If possible. The FBI lab might want their own autopsy because the state did one, the independent pathologist did one, and maybe they want to look at the body that they find that the others haven't.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Victor Blackwell, thank you so much. We're going to talk more about this with our own legal guys, Avery Friedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor in Cleveland, and Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from Las Vegas. Good to see you, gentlemen. Wow, it's an extraordinary case. I know you agree on that. Georgia authorities at one time concluding that no foul play, case closed, and then, now, a federal investigation. So, Richard, what's the impetus in your view for this new investigation, new evidence, evidence collected, not treated properly? What's your view?</s>RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, Fred, the perseverance of the family to continue to pressure the authorities to look into this, it's a hard pill to swallow when they say your teenage son is found rolled up in a mat dead, a seemingly healthy young man. You look into this investigation, and there are so many issues of contaminated crime scene. The fact that when the second autopsy was done, there were no organs in his body, his fingernails were gone, seemingly to look for DNA. There are a lot of problems with this case, Fred. It will take an overwhelming set of facts and evidence to overturn the initial finding of the accidental death. Unless they find a cover-up there, the feds have no jurisdiction. They have no --</s>WHITFIELD: Why is that in your view, Avery?</s>AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: I don't agree with that.</s>WHITFIELD: -- problems with the case leading up to what happened, the crime, you know, if there was indeed a crime.</s>FRIEDMAN: Right.</s>WHITFIELD: In and after itself, because you have the coroner's report that said suffocation, he did this to himself. And now you have the investigation of, you know, foul play, and then you've got the treatment of the body, the treatment of the evidence after the fact. So, Avery, where does the federal investigation begin?</s>FRIEDMAN: Well, the federal investigation is different than the local investigation. I have to say, when you have 1,900 hours of videotape before the incident, and you close an investigation in 24 hours, Fredricka, that suggests a pretty pretzelized prime -- subprime investigation. I'm thrilled the Department of Justice is involved there. Let me tell you something, even if the Department of Justice fails to proceed with this, they're going to do the investigation, the FBI will do that. That's still going to force local authorities to look into this more deeply. I don't believe for one second that Kendrick Johnson died of suffocation in an upright gym mat. I mean, that's just -- it doesn't make any sense. So the good news is, number one, you had a steadfast family. Number two, you had courageous journalists that continued to press it, and it crescendos to the press conference by the Department of Justice this week. And I think you're going to find evidence, and I think this thing is going to be busted wide open.</s>WHITFIELD: Wow. It is a fascinating case. Sadly it has come to this, too.</s>FRIEDMAN: Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: Your heart does break, Richard, as you said at the top, for the family unimaginable loss. All right, Richard, Avery, thanks so much. We're going to see you again. We'll talk about this other case, New York police apparently now can indeed stop and frisk. And it's a controversial policy that some say amounts to racial profiling. Richard and Avery are back with that.