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BELLE GLADE - The hanging of a 32-year-old black man in this small, racially divided town will be reviewed, a judge ruled.
Circuit Judge Harold Cohen ordered a coroner's inquest into the May 28 death of Feraris Golden, said Mike Edmondson, spokesman for the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office.
Police, medical examiners and people thought to have knowledge of the death are expected to testify at the July 28 inquest. Cohen will make a recommendation based on the evidence.
Edmondson said the unusual nature of Golden's death led State Attorney Barry Krischer to ask for the inquest, and Cohen agreed.
Golden's body was found hanging from a tree in his grandmother's back yard, a work shirt tied around his neck, police said.
A police video shows officers cutting his body down with his arms hanging at his sides. But there are rumors in the farming community that Golden's death was a lynching, and that he was found with his hands tied together. Two days after Golden's body was discovered, the county medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, although toxicology test results are not back.
Police have said Golden was troubled and told family members he planned to kill himself.
"We're not saying it's a homicide. We're not saying it's a suicide," said Linda Johnson, president of the Glades-area NAACP. "We just want to know the truth. There are still a lot of unanswered questions."
Golden's mother, Bernice Golden, believes her son did not commit suicide.
"I just want to get to the bottom of it," she said.