By PAUL SHEPARD, Associated Press WriterCopyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (January 6, 1998 01:18 a.m. EST -- Jesse Jackson said Monday the death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown should be investigated "to relieve people of reasonable doubt."
"There is everything to be gained from pursuing an investigation," Jackson said in an interview with New York City talk radio host Gary Byrd. "It may only prove that he was not murdered. But that would relieve people of reasonable doubt."
Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Cogswell, a deputy medical examiner at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, said in November that an unusual wound at the top of Brown's head could have been a bullet hole, and an autopsy should have been done to find out.
Cogswell did not participate in the examination of Brown's body after it was returned from Croatia. No autopsy was conducted.
Government investigators concluded that Brown died of multiple injuries sustained in the crash of the Air Force plane in which he was a passenger. The plane slammed into a mountain in Croatia in April 1996, killing all 35 aboard.
Col. William T. Gormley, the assistant armed forces medical examiner who conducted the external examination of Brown's corpse, was quoted in an Air Force statement as saying he had ruled out the possibility of a gunshot wound.
"Due to the initial appearance of Brown's injuries we carefully considered the possibility of a gunshot wound," Gormley said. "However, scientific data, including X-rays, ruled out that possibility."
But the government statements have done little to quell the controversy, especially among some influential blacks like NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and Rep. Maxine Waters, head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Both have called for further investigation of Brown's death.
Two weeks ago, civil rights activist Dick Gregory was arrested during a protest outside the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington to demand an independent investigation into Brown's death.
"I think people have a right to know what really happened," Jackson said.