Judge rules suicide in hanging of black man

BELLE GLADE, Fla. -- A black man who was found hanging from a tree committed suicide, a judge ruled Tuesday at an inquest into the man's death that was 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 bedsheet used as a noose came from Golden's own house.

Critics had argued that the state refused to consider the possibility of murder, and Dan Paige, an attorney representing the NAACP, said Cohen's decision missed the point.

"It shouldn't be a question of whether it was a suicide or a lynching. It should have been whether there's enough questions here to do a murder investigation," Paige said.

Golden was found hanging from a schefflera tree outside his grandmother's house around 7 a.m. on May 28. Some relatives initially said it was impossible he'd committed suicide, claiming his hands were tied behind his back.

A police videotape shown in the courtroom Monday showed officers removing Golden 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.

NAACP leaders questioned why Golden had little or no soil on his shoes after walking across the 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 daughter of a white police officer in the farming community of about 15,000.

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?"

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 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.