Legal team for Shanquella Robinson expects meeting with White House, Senate officials
Attorney Benjamin Crump, standing side by side with the sister and mother of Shanquella Robinson on Thursday, said he expects a meeting soon with White House officials and the head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Robinson, 25, died under suspicious circumstances Oct. 29 in Cabo, Mexico while on vacation with six other people. The FBI and Mexican authorities have opened investigations into her death and video footage showing her being beaten has gone viral.
Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson, co-counsel for the family of Shanquella Robinson, are calling on the Biden Administration to extradite the accused killer to Mexico. In November, Mexican officials issued an arrest warrant for one of the six individuals who last saw Robinson alive. According to a letter sent earlier this month to President Joe Biden from Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson, Daejhanae Jackson, 26, is identified by Mexican authorities on the warrant, and the government there has asked she be extradited to face charges of femicide.
Crump said during a news conference at Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., the meetings could happen “sometime after April 1.”
The American Bar Association and several national sororities and fraternities will be issuing letters calling for justice for Shanquella Robinson, leading up to the 200th day after her death, Crump said. He said if no arrests have been made by day 200, Until Freedom — a national civil rights organization — will plan a march in D.C.
The traveling companions initially told Sallamondra Robinson, Shanquella’s mother, that her daughter had alcohol poisoning. Autopsy reports tell a different, more gruesome story and list the cause of death as “severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation.”
Autopsy notes classify the death as “violent.”
Robinson’s family and attorneys say it should not take nearly five months for justice to be delivered and an arrest to be made in her death. They cited the viral video, her autopsy, and the arrest warrant already issued in Mexico.
The whole world has seen the video where Robinson was beaten and there is still no justice, Sallamondra said.
“What kind of system is this? I just don’t understand it,” she said.
“My daughter Shanquella, she was a great daughter. She was a great friend. She loved people, love life. And I don’t know how no one could have done this to her. It’s just terrible,” Sallamondra Robinson said.
Calls for diplomatic intervention
Earlier this month, Crump, Sue-Ann Robinson, activists, and Robinson’s family gathered in Washington D.C. to demand diplomatic intervention in her case.
Crump and Robinson called on officials to either extradite the person named on an arrest warrant issued by Mexican officials, or to take over jurisdiction and prosecute that person in the U.S.
The Department of State previously told the Observer it would not comment on extradition matters.
“The Department of State supports a thorough investigation into the circumstances of this incident and is closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation. We refer you to the Mexican authorities for further questions regarding an investigation,” the Department of State said.
The White House will not comment on what actions the Biden Administration might take in the case, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing March 16.
“Our hearts go out to Miss Robinson’s family and friends. It is devastating, what occurred. And, certainly, the tragedy is just devastating,” Jean-Pierre said. ”But because there’s an FBI investigation underway, there’s very little that we can say.”
