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Super Highway

AP/Fox 'reports' below.

Didn't explain the discrepancy in the 'hands tied' claim.

Or, say what the motive was.

Hanging of Black Man in Fla. Feared to Be Lynching Ruled Suicide

BELLE GLADE, Fla.  — A black man who was found hanging from a tree committed suicide, a judge ruled Tuesday in an inquest into the man's death prompted by a civil rights group's concerns.

Feraris "Ray" Golden, 32, was found hanging outside his grandmother's house two months ago. Circuit Judge Harold Cohen convened the rare coroner's inquest to determine whether he committed suicide, as police said, or was lynched, as some relatives feared.

The evidence showed that suicide was the only possible explanation for Golden's death, the judge said.

Testimony Monday revealed that the bed sheet used as a noose came from Golden's own house. Even his stepfather said the evidence suggests the death was a suicide.

But Adora Obi Nweze, the NAACP (search) state president, said before Tuesday's ruling that the state had refused to consider the possibility of murder, saying: "Today the issue was: 'A suicide was committed. Period."'

If he had ruled the death suspicious, Cohen could have directed a law enforcement agency to act on his findings.

Friends said Golden was dating the daughter of a white policeman in this rural farming community of about 15,000.

He was found hanging from a schefflera tree (search) outside his grandmother's house around 7 a.m. on May 28. Some relatives initially said it was impossible he'd committed suicide; they had claimed Golden was found with his hands tied behind his back.

Uneasiness over Golden's death became so strong that local NAACP leaders called for the inquest.

NAACP leaders questioned why Golden had little or no soil on his shoes after walking across a lawn on a rainy night, and how he was able to climb the tree with a blood-alcohol level of 0.334 percent.

Cohen questioned the chief investigator about rumors that Golden had been lynched and was dating the police officer's white daughter.

Belle Glade Police Detective Steve Sawyers said investigators did not look into the rumors because they felt they had no validity, prompting questions from those watching the proceedings.

One written question handed to the judge read: "Did you not investigate the rumor because you did not think it would get this much attention?"

During the inquest, family attorney Thomas Montgomery told the judge that Golden's aunt, Shresee Lumpkin, recognized the bed sheet used in the hanging and realized it probably was taken from the house.

"That means he got it out of his room and used it," Golden's stepfather, Henry Drummer, told reporters during a break. He added that suicide was "possible."

The inquest started with Cohen and the packed courtroom listening to a tape-recorded 911 call placed by Drummer and watching a police videotape showing officers running to Golden and removing him from the tree.

The video showed that his hands were hanging loose at his sides and were not tied. The medical examiner testified that he found no bruises, blood or injuries on Golden's body that would suggest a struggle before he died.

Throughout the hearing, the courtroom was split almost entirely by race, underscoring the racial divide still present in Belle Glade. White police officers, witnesses and community members sat on one side while black members of Golden's family, the community and the NAACP sat on the other.

Lynchings reached their peak in the United States from the end of the Civil War (search) until 1902, numbering more than 100 each year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. No lynching deaths have been documented for more than two decades, according to the center.

Discrimination | July 2003