More than a decade after the mysterious death of Kendrick Johnson, his parents are still fighting for answers—and now, they’re taking their fight to federal court.
Jacquelyn and Kenneth Johnson, the parents of the 17-year-old whose body was found rolled up in a gym mat at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, in 2013, have filed an amended federal lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Health. The couple is seeking $12 million in damages, alleging the department has refused to change their son’s official cause of death despite new evidence.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s original autopsy concluded that Kendrick died from accidental positional asphyxia, suggesting he fell into the mat while reaching for a shoe. However, an independent autopsy commissioned by the Johnsons found the cause of death to be non-accidental blunt force trauma.
“We have filed the right paperwork. We have filed several different times to get his death certificate corrected,” Kenneth Johnson told 41NBC. “They want to just dismiss evidence of what happened to Kendrick, and we will not allow them to do that.”
According to the amended lawsuit, recently obtained evidence includes autopsy photos allegedly showing severe internal injuries—injuries the GBI’s report claimed did not exist. The Johnsons also allege that images taken at the high school show “highly visible tread marks from the bottom of a shoe” on Kendrick’s abdomen, suggesting he was stomped on “with extreme force.”
The Georgia Department of Health has not issued a statement, but the GBI responded to the lawsuit, standing by its original findings. “[The] GBI Medical Examiner’s Office conducted a thorough autopsy on this case. The case is closed, and we stand behind our original findings,” said GBI public affairs director Sara Lue.
Kendrick Johnson’s death quickly became a national story in 2013, not just for the unusual circumstances surrounding it, but for the questions it raised about race, justice, and transparency in the investigation.
Both the FBI and the GBI ruled out foul play, and the case was closed multiple times over the years. In 2021, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk reopened the case but reached the same conclusion. Paulk even offered a $500,000 reward for new information after tensions flared between him and the Johnson family.
The Johnsons have also filed a separate $1 billion lawsuit against the GBI and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, accusing them of actively covering up the circumstances of their son’s death.
“If Kendrick was white, his family wouldn’t be going through this right now,” Kenneth Johnson said. “But since it’s a Black child, these people don’t care. But we care. And we will push for the truth. And we will push for everything to be right.”
For the Johnsons, this latest lawsuit is not just about their son’s legacy; it’s about what they see as a system that failed him.
