AP highlights race of Black woman found hanging — leaves one detail about both suspects out of headline

BS BULLETIN:

Mississippi police have arrested a second man in the death of Tasia Fortune, the 29-year-old Black mother of four found hanging from a tree in Jackson.
Both men charged with her murder are Black, and police have announced no evidence that race played a role.
AP’s headline emphasized that Fortune was a Black woman but didn’t mention the race of either suspect — even as the case continues to be discussed nationally in the context of lynching.

Mississippi police have made another arrest in the disturbing death of Tasia Fortune.

And it’s bringing renewed scrutiny to how the national story has been framed.

Jackson police arrested Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, Tuesday on a murder charge in the death of Fortune, a 29-year-old mother of four whose body was discovered hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home Aug. 3.

Lloyd was denied bond. He’s the second man charged. The first, 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, was arrested Sept. 11 and has pleaded not guilty. Here’s the detail getting attention now: Both men are Black.

The Associated Press nevertheless promoted the latest development this way:

“Police in Mississippi have arrested a second man in the death of a Black woman found hanging from a tree and have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect.”

Fortune’s race made the headline. The suspects’ race did not. AP’s actual reporting does identify both Lloyd and Ratliff as Black.

Earlier AP coverage was explicitly framed around that history, with the headline: “Cases of Black people found hanged in the US South are a reminder of nation’s lynching history.”

The story described Fortune’s death as stirring “distressing memories” of Southern lynchings and discussed demands by activists and lawmakers for greater federal scrutiny of hanging deaths involving Black Americans.

But investigators have not publicly identified a racial motive in Fortune’s killing. In fact, Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, has said she believes what happened to her daughter was personal.

“I think this is something very personal, very personal,” Spivey said in earlier reporting.

Police have been careful even about precisely describing how Fortune died. Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney has said Fortune was discovered “in a hanging position,” but declined to publicly confirm that hanging itself was the cause of death because she did not want to jeopardize the investigation.

The medical examiner has classified the death as a homicide, authorities said.

The allegations against Ratliff are nevertheless gruesome. According to an affidavit cited by local station WAPT, investigators allege Ratliff used a black cable cord to hang Fortune from the tree. His attorney has maintained his innocence and urged the public not to prejudge the case before seeing all of the evidence. Lloyd appeared in court Wednesday and was denied bond.

Fortune’s mother attended.

She said afterward that she was “ecstatic” to see another arrest but also offered a reminder worth noting: Everyone charged remains innocent until proven guilty.

Spivey also said neither she nor several of Fortune’s friends knew Lloyd.

And police aren’t finished. Brackney announced that authorities have obtained a warrant for a third suspect and turned it over to the U.S. Marshals Service. Police have not publicly identified that person. More arrests may be coming. “I will guarantee you there are actually more arrests to come in this incident,” Brackney told the Jackson City Council.

Which means there is still a great deal investigators haven’t told the public — including the alleged motive and precisely what role police believe each suspect played.

But one thing is now established: Two men have been charged with murdering Tasia Fortune.

Both are Black. And while AP included that information inside its reporting, it chose a headline formulation that told readers Fortune’s race while leaving theirs out.