WEST PALM BEACH - The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said Wednesday it will review the hanging of a Belle Glade black man because of lingering suspicions that he was lynched.
The decision came a day after a circuit judge ruled that 32-year-old Feraris "Ray" Golden, who was depressed and had joked with family members about killing himself, committed suicide and that there is no evidence he was murdered.
Golden's body was found hanging from a tree in his back yard May 28. Evidence presented during a two-day public inquest disclosed that the noose was made from a bedsheet from his home.
Bobby Doctor, director of the rights commission's southern regional office, said he will interview family members and police investigators in a preliminary review.
Some family members say it's likely Golden was lynched by people angered by a rumor that he was dating a white police officer's daughter. They said Golden's body was found with his hands tied behind his back.
But during the inquest conducted by Circuit Judge Harold Cohen, a packed courtroom saw a videotape, taken by an automatic camera mounted in the patrol car of arriving police officers, that shows the hanged man's arms dangling at his side. Investigators testified that the rumor about Golden's dating was not pursued.
Cohen's decision nevertheless failed to quell suspicions among many blacks in Belle Glade, a largely segregated town of 15,000 where about half of the residents are black.
Sevell Brown III, Florida president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called Golden's death a "lynching" in asking for the civil rights commission's intervention.
"When you get this kind of allegation, that the young man's hands were tied behind his back, you have to take it seriously," Doctor said.
After Doctor's preliminary review, the commission will decide whether to investigate further.
