Regardless of an exhaustive grand-jury investigation that turned up no proof of against the law within the loss of life of Nolan Wells, a black 18-year-old Mississippian, CNN This Morning host Audie Cornish did not cease stirring the racial pot.
The Wells household retained race-hustling lawyer Benjamin Crump for the case. On Tuesday’s episode, Cornish cited social media on different deaths of younger black folks and used them to insist there’s racism in so many unsolved mysteries involving younger black folks:
CORNISH: One of many issues I discovered attention-grabbing after I regarded in social media is folks had been posting the photographs of different high-profile and, high-profile deaths of younger black folks, the place they have not been solved, the deaths had been mysterious, some had been the case of hanging, proper, on, on campuses. Once we speak about what drives, you recognize, these type of web narratives, is it this type of current historical past? Is it folks feeling like Justice and investigators aren’t going to assist them?
A Jackson County grand jury had already answered Cornish’s query. It discovered Wells’ loss of life “per drowning,” declined to cost anybody, and located no proof that race had something to do with what occurred on Horn Island.
In a clip Cornish performed, District Legal professional Angel Myers McIlrath stated:
McILRATH: Anybody with an web connection can develop into an influencer, take fragments of data, assemble a story with out context or first-hand information, and broadcast it to 1000’s or thousands and thousands of individuals with little or no accountability to the reality or penalties for what they do. What we now have seen occur in Nolan’s case, the place lives and reputations have been broken, is reprehensible.
Or anybody who hosts a community tv present, Audie. Cornish took fragments — different deaths, hangings on campuses, Mississippi’s previous — and left the impression that Wells’ loss of life continues to be a thriller, and {that a} mother or father is entitled to ask whether or not “if my youngster dies in Mississippi, will anybody discover out what occurred?”
If Cornish hoped that Dave Aronberg, a former state legal professional for Palm Seashore County, would again her obscure accusations, she picked the mistaken visitor. Aronberg talked concerning the precise investigation fairly than the atmospherics. The grand jury heard from 43 witnesses and issued 132 subpoenas. Two pathologists reviewed the proof, together with one employed by Ben Crump. The household even had its personal telephone examiner.
“The proof simply didn’t help the accusations,” Aronberg emphatically said. The household’s impartial examiner referred to as the loss of life undetermined. That, Aronberg added, “doesn’t imply murder, and suspicion doesn’t imply proof.” As for the bruising on the again of Nolan’s neck that Cornish talked about, Aronberg famous {that a} witness instructed the grand jury that Wells had slipped awkwardly off a ship, which might clarify it.
Cornish by no means named the campus hanging she was pointing towards. However in September 2025, 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed was discovered hanging from a tree at Delta State College in Cleveland, Mississippi. The coroner reported no accidents per an assault. The state health worker dominated the loss of life a suicide by hanging. Reed’s household and Ben Crump rejected that conclusion, however a yr later, suicide stays the official ruling. That’s not an unsolved campus thriller. It’s a case authorities closed as suicide.
The county’s investigation into the loss of life of Nolan Wells was intensive. And notably, the grand jury report stated the household’s attorneys suggested that their investigation turned up no witnesses or proof they believed warranted referral.
However Cornish selected to make use of the phase to unfold suspicion and ailing feeling, suggesting race is why folks ought to doubt the consequence: “Individuals feeling like justice and investigators aren’t going to assist them. Individuals feeling like, wait a second, if my youngster dies in Mississippi, will anybody discover out what occurred?”
That goes past poor journalism and into the realm of reprehensible racial suspicion-mongering.
CNN This Morning
9/22/26
6:00 am EDTAUDIE CORNISH: Good morning, everyone. I am Audie Cornish, and right here is the place we start: the newest information and the loss of life of Nolan Wells. Proper now, no foul play, no prison fees might be filed within the 18-year-old’s loss of life. This after a grand jury listening to.
Wells died on a boating journey with pals on the 4th of July in Mississippi. The grand jury discovered his loss of life was, quote, per drowning. Ben Crump, the lawyer for the household, stated in a press release, quote, We do not know the way Nolan died, and neither does the State of Mississippi. Mississippi should maintain investigating, and if it is not going to pursue this to the top, the Division of Justice ought to.”
So the loss of life of Wells has sparked all types of questions, particularly after images circulated of the black teen surrounded by three pals.
ANGEL MYERS MCILRATH: The narrative that three white boys and a black boy went to an island, and solely three white pals returned, unfold like wildfire. This was false. There may be completely no proof to help the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and loss of life had been racially motivated.
The household, the Crump workforce, and anybody near Nolan knew that his disappearance and loss of life weren’t the results of racial hate or violence. But the flames of that narrative, set towards the backdrop of Mississippi’s horrible historical past, had been fanned by each individuals who knew the reality and people who did not.
CORNISH: So bringing in Dave Aronberg, he is a former state legal professional for Palm Seashore County, Florida. So, you’ve got seen some grand juries, and this one, for example, discovered that there was bruising on the again of Nolan Wells’ head, that they discovered it was not a deadly damage. And on the time, Crump added this in his assertion, that he believes the grand jury report did not decide how Wells really suffered that damage, and quote, to this date, not one particular person has defined how they received there. Are you able to discuss concerning the distinction he is making, about the reason for loss of life versus the query mark about what occurred?
DAVE ARONBERG: Good to be with you, Audie. Relating to that damage, that discoloration behind the neck, that was partially defined, at the very least by one grand juror witness who stated that they noticed that Nolan had fallen on a ship, and that would have defined that damage.
However when it got here to the grand jury, I, I get it that my pal Ben Crump desires solutions, the household desires solutions. However you had 43 witnesses earlier than this grand jury. You had 132 subpoenas. You had two completely different pathologists, and the household even had its personal telephone examiner, and the proof simply didn’t help the accusations, proper?
And, and although Dr. Mitchell, the separate impartial health worker employed by the household, stated it was an undetermined explanation for loss of life, and also you hear what Ben Crump stated, that doesn’t imply murder, and suspicion doesn’t imply proof.
. . .
MCILRATH: Anybody with an web connection can develop into an influencer, take fragments of data, assemble a story with out context or first-hand information, and broadcast it to 1000’s or thousands and thousands of individuals with little or no accountability to the reality or penalties for what they do.
What we now have seen occur in Nolan’s case, the place lives and reputations have been broken, is reprehensible.
CORNISH: One of many issues I discovered attention-grabbing after I regarded in social media, is folks had been posting the photographs of different high-profile and, high-profile deaths of younger black folks, the place they have not been solved. The deaths had been mysterious. Some had been the case of hanging, proper?, on, on campuses.
Once we speak about what drives, you recognize, these type of web narratives, is it this type of current historical past? Is it folks feeling like justice and investigators aren’t going to assist them?
ARONBERG: That is a part of it. Mississippi has a protracted historical past, and that is why it has had a lot consideration paid to it.
CORNISH: However that is 2025 and 2026. That is why I am asking, proper? That is current historical past of individuals feeling like, wait a second, if my youngster dies in Mississippi, will anybody discover out what occurred?
