Death of woman in Texas jail consistent with suicide: prosecutor

Evidence from an autopsy on Sandra Bland, the black woman found hanging dead in a Texas jail days after a traffic stop, supports the medical examiner's initial ruling of suicide, a county prosecutor told reporters on July 23.

The preliminary results also found high levels of marijuana in Bland's system, although officials are seeking additional tests to confirm when and how much she might have smoked or swallowed, Waller County Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam said. 

"The evidence that we reviewed up to this point supports those findings," he said of the initial suicide ruling. 

Bland was pulled over on July 10 near Prairie View, Texas, northwest of Houston, for failing to signal a lane change. After the incident escalated into an altercation between her and the white trooper, Bland was taken into custody and charged with assaulting an officer. She was found hanging in her jail cell on July 13 with a plastic trash bag around her neck. 

Bland's traffic stop and subsequent death have been taken up by activists who say the case is the latest example of racial bias and excessive force by U.S. law enforcement. 

Bland's family previously acknowledged a Facebook post by the 28-year-old Chicago-area native in which she discussed struggling with depression, but it disputed the suicide ruling. 

While officials have said they are handling the investigation like a murder probe, they announced on July 23 there was no evidence in the autopsy to support a finding of murder. But the plastic trash bag was being tested further. 

Diepraam said it was unclear whether Bland ingested marijuana before or after she was jailed. 

Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, whose office operates the jail where Bland died...