Jamal Sutherland

Jamal Sutherland, 31, who had schizophrenia, died on January 5, 2021, at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston, South Carolina, after two Charleston County detention deputies pepper-sprayed him, used a Taser on him repeatedly, and pinned him to the floor of his cell while trying to forcibly remove him for a bond hearing on a misdemeanor assault charge. Body camera footage later released showed Sutherland saying “I can't breathe” as deputies restrained him; a jail report found staff had taken him off his regular antipsychotic medication and started him on a new one without informing jail personnel, and that contract medical staff never checked on him. The Charleston County Coroner's Office ultimately ruled his death a homicide. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson declined to charge the two deputies in July 2021, saying they made “grave mistakes” that did not amount to a provable crime; the U.S. Department of Justice separately declined federal civil rights charges in 2022. No one has ever been convicted in Sutherland's death.

North Charleston, SC · Charleston County County

• 2021: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The cell extraction and Sutherland's death, per body camera and surveillance footage the Charleston County Sheriff's Office released publicly, and Solicitor Scarlett Wilson's 23-page public report on the case.
• Sutherland had been arrested hours before his death following an alleged fight at the Palmetto Lowcountry Behavioral Health Center, where he had been admitted for psychiatric treatment the previous month, and was booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center on a misdemeanor third-degree assault and battery charge.
• When Sutherland refused to leave his cell for a scheduled bond hearing, Detention Sergeant Lindsay Fickett and Detention Deputy Brian Houle repeatedly deployed pepper spray and a Taser against him and physically pinned him to the floor while attempting to handcuff him; body camera audio captured him asking “What is the meaning of this” and saying “I can't breathe.”
• Solicitor Wilson's investigation found the jail had taken Sutherland off his usual antipsychotic medication and started him on a different one without informing jail personnel, and that the facility's contract medical staff never checked on him during the encounter, among a “domino effect of mistakes” she said contributed to his death.
• The Charleston County Coroner's Office initially classified Sutherland's manner of death as “undetermined,” then later reclassified it as a homicide, one of the standard categories used when a death is not natural.
• Solicitor Wilson announced in July 2021 that she would not charge Fickett or Houle, stating she could prove the deputies made “grave mistakes” that played a role in Sutherland's death but that this did not amount to a provable crime under the law.
• Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano, who took office the same day Sutherland died, fired both deputies in May 2021 and later announced jail policy changes including allowing remote bond hearings and directing staff to de-escalate and disengage from combative inmates rather than force extractions.
• Charleston County Council unanimously approved a $10 million settlement to Sutherland's family; the U.S. Department of Justice announced in October 2022 that it would not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against the former deputies, after review of the state investigative file, use-of-force and medical expert analyses, and video of the incident.

• Whether the deputies' use of pepper spray, repeated Taser deployment, and physical restraint constituted excessive force sufficient to support criminal charges, as opposed to the “grave mistakes” the solicitor described, was never tested at any criminal trial since neither the state nor federal government brought charges.
• The specific reasoning behind the coroner's office reclassifying Sutherland's manner of death from undetermined to homicide, and how that formal classification related to the solicitor's ultimate charging decision, has not been fully reconciled in public reporting.
• The full extent of responsibility among jail medical staff, distinct from the two deputies who were fired, for the medication change and lack of monitoring identified in Wilson's report has not been made public.

• The Post and Courier — “Hicks: Deputies involved in Sutherland death won't be charged. Here's why.”
• NBC News — “No charges in jail death of Jamal Sutherland, who died after being pepper-sprayed, stunned”
• ABC News — “No federal charges over in-custody death of Jamal Sutherland, DOJ says”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs