After footage of Jamal Sutherland’s death released to public, family demands justice
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Jamal Sutherland
Jamal Sutherland, a Black man with a history of mental illness, died at the Charleston County Jail on Jan. 5. After graphic footage showing his death was released by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, many questions around the investigation remain.
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Standing outside the Charleston County jail where their son died, the family of Jamal Sutherland called for justice and said what happened to their son on the morning of Jan. 5 was murder.
“He is a human being. He is not an animal. He was treated like one, but that’s not who Jamal was,” his mother, Amy Sutherland said as she urged the public not to turn her 31-year-old son’s death into a “circus.”
“Respect my family,” the matriarch said, her voice strong. “Know that this hurt is not going away. It’s still in us.”
The painful pleas came Friday afternoon, after the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office released video footage late Thursday night that showed what happened to Sutherland, 31, inside the Al Cannon Detention Center.
Amy Sutherland at times struggled to hold back tears as she spoke. With one hand, she held her husband’s hand for strength. With the other, she held the hand of Mark Peper, a Charleston attorney who is representing the family.
She said Jamal Sutherland, her second of three sons, was a “a great man” who would give someone the clothes off his own back.
“Mental illness doesn’t give anybody the right to put their hands on my child. That’s my child. I loved my child. His brothers and his father, they loved Jamal. Jamal was good,” his mother said.
Later, she said, “And Jamal had enough sense to say, ‘You didn’t read me my rights,’” she said. “He may have been mentally ill, but he was brilliant.”
Sutherland’s death at the jail remains under investigation.
The family confirmed they first saw the jail footage on Wednesday, May 5 — exactly four months after Sutherland died.
Invoking the last recorded words Sutherland could be heard saying in the video as detention officers attempted to remove him from his cell for a bond hearing, Peper said, “What is the meaning of this?”
“We all have the community’s word that we will answer this question,” Peper said.
Sutherland died at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, after he was due in bond court that morning. He was accused of getting into a fight the day before at Palmetto Lowcountry Behavioral Health, a mental health facility where he was admitted for treatment in December. Sutherland was arrested by North Charleston police.
But during a Friday afternoon press conference, the Sutherland family attorney said what happened inside the jail does not tell the whole story of the injustice Sutherland experienced.
“Jamal did everything right. The family did everything right,” Peper said.
Peper said the altercation at the mental health facility occurred between “two patients not named Jamal Sutherland.”
Sutherland was later arrested by North Charleston police. When police responded to the scene, that is when Sutherland became agitated, Peper said.
“Jamal did exactly what he’d been taught to do: The right thing. He intervened. He tried to help, and given the confusion, is alleged to have committed a misdemeanor offense of simple assault on an nurse staff member at Palmetto,” Peper said. “By the time North Charleston asked to come in the facility, Jamal was back doing exactly the right thing: Sitting down, praising God and complying with everyone’s demands. “
Peper said additional videos would be released by the North Charleston Police Department Friday afternoon.
“You don’t have to take my word for it. You can see Jamal Sutherland do the right thing at Palmetto. He stands up, puts his hands behind his back. He praises his savior and he calmly walks out ... of the place he was supposed to be and into the arms of the North Charleston Police Department.”
By the next day, Sutherland would be pronounced dead.
His father, James Sutherland, said it was “very disturbing” to see how his son was treated at the jail.
“The use of force was completely unnecessary. He was already afraid and confused by the situation, and there was nobody in there to talk to him with any compassion, to try to reason with him and to let him know what was going on,” James Sutherland said.
He said a more “neutral” figure, like a nurse or mental health expert, should have been brought in to talk to his son, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
In the video released by law enforcement, an officer can be heard saying they shocked Sutherland with stun guns between six and eight times.
Jamal Sutherland, his father said, has now become “a prophet in his own right.”
This story was originally published May 14, 2021 at 2:07 PM with the headline "After footage of Jamal Sutherland’s death released to public, family demands justice."
