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Fact check: Are there any notable cases of lynching in the US since 2020?
Executive Summary
Since 2020 there have been multiple contested cases in the United States in which Black men were found hanging and communities, families, and some federal officials raised concerns that these deaths resembled modern lynchings rather than suicides, prompting calls for independent or federal review [1] [2]. Official data systems such as the FBI’s 2020 hate‑crime report do not label individual killings as “lynchings,” so determinations rely on case‑level investigations, contested autopsies, and community interpretation [3].
1. What people are citing as modern lynchings—and why those claims matter
Communities and families have flagged several post‑2020 hanging deaths—most prominently Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch in Southern California in June 2020—as examples where historical patterns of racial violence raise suspicion that a death ruled a suicide could instead be a racially motivated killing [1] [2]. Those cases drew FBI and Department of Justice attention because of their racial context and rapid community mobilization demanding independent probes; federal review is significant because local police conclusions have sometimes been questioned for lacking transparency or failing to account for racial bias, and federal civil‑rights authorities can pursue prosecutable violations beyond local homicide determinations [2] [1].
2. What official data show — and what they don’t reveal about lynching
Federal hate‑crime statistics provide a useful but incomplete baseline: the FBI’s 2020 hate‑crime release lists bias‑motivated murders but does not categorize any homicide as a “lynching,” and the data are compiled from local law‑enforcement submissions that rarely apply historical labels [3]. Because federal reports aggregate hate‑motivated murders and do not annotate the specific circumstances that would historically define a lynching—such as extrajudicial public lynching by a mob—the absence of the word “lynching” in national datasets does not establish that lynchings did or did not occur; it shows a limitation in how official statistics are recorded [3].
3. Recent contested cases that activists, families, or media call lynchings
Beyond the 2020 Southern California incidents, reporting through 2025 highlights more contested hanging deaths that communities labeled as lynchings: the 2025 case of Demartravion “Trey” Reed found at Delta State University in Mississippi and Jayvon Givan found in New Mexico both provoked family and activist claims of lynching while official rulings referenced suicide or preliminary closure, creating public outcry for independent autopsies and prosecutorial review [4] [5]. Local reporting framed these as contested deaths with polarized narratives—families and activists alleging racial motive and cover‑up, while authorities often cite forensic findings supporting suicide determinations [4] [5].
4. How federal involvement changes the conversation
When the DOJ or FBI opens reviews, the debate shifts from local fact‑finding to potential civil‑rights enforcement; federal review occurred in the 2020 Fuller and Harsch cases to see whether civil‑rights laws or hate‑crime statutes were implicated, and such scrutiny can force broader disclosure and independent autopsy requests [2]. Federal oversight can also counter perceptions of local bias against victims and communities, but federal authorities rely on collected evidence and statutory standards that do not automatically translate community suspicions into charges; thus, federal review is a sign of seriousness but not a determination of lynching [2].
5. Evidence gaps and the role of contested autopsies
A recurring pattern across the cited cases is conflict between official autopsy conclusions and family or community demands for independent postmortems. Independent autopsies sometimes differ from initial findings, and where families allege inadequate scene investigation or unexamined CCTV, the absence of transparent information fuels suspicion of foul play even when forensic reports favor suicide [4] [5] [1]. These gaps underscore that public labeling of a death as a lynching often stems from a combination of historical memory, unexplained forensic ambiguity, and perceived institutional failure.
6. Multiple narratives and potential agendas in coverage
Reporting and commentary on these deaths show competing narratives: community advocates and families emphasize historical lynching frameworks and racial terror, while some media analyses and law‑enforcement statements emphasize forensic conclusions and discourage premature labeling [1] [5]. Advocacy groups may press the lynching frame to spur federal action and resources, while officials may emphasize caution to avoid misclassification; both positions have strategic goals—securing justice or preserving investigatory integrity—so readers should note the potential agendas shaping claims [2] [1].
7. Bottom line — how to interpret “lynching” in post‑2020 cases
Since 2020 there have been several notable, contested hanging deaths that communities, families, and some officials have framed or investigated as potential lynchings, but national datasets do not and cannot straightforwardly label individual cases as lynchings; conclusions depend on case‑level evidence, autopsies, and legal standards [1] [2] [3]. The term “lynching” carries legal, historical, and political weight; determining whether a particular death is a lynching requires independent forensic review, transparent investigations, and sometimes federal civil‑rights action to move beyond suspicion to accountability [4] [5] [2].