Brian HoweyThis story was part of a series that was a finalist for both the 2024 Pulitzer Prize and the 2024 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.
When Damien Cameron’s body arrived at the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office in August 2021, it bore all the signs of a police brutality case.
Mr. Cameron’s face was bloody and swollen almost beyond recognition from his struggle with Rankin County sheriff’s deputies the week before.
Signs of internal bleeding in the neck of Mr. Cameron, a 29-year-old Black man, suggested a deputy might have pinned him to the ground with a knee — a dangerous restraint technique condemned by the Justice Department and banned in many cities.
But when the state’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Staci Turner, completed her autopsy, she ruled the cause of Mr. Cameron’s death “undetermined.” A grand jury later declined to indict the deputies involved.
Now, three renowned pathologists, who examined Mr. Cameron’s autopsy report at the request of The New York Times and Mississippi Today, say his death should have been ruled a homicide.
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