Social media speculates whether Bland is dead in mugshot

Mystery deepens around the case of Sandra Bland, the Illinois woman who headed south to Texas to start a new job and who was found dead in a jail cell earlier this month.

Bland's police mugshot is circulating on social media, and debate has erupted over whether Bland might actually be dead in the photo, and whether the potentially fabricated image is part of a cover-up for some harm that came her way. The arguments have pulled in a range of people, including the author known as Zane and reality show personality Judith Camille Jackson.

"I am big on looking into people's eyes and I don't see any life in hers," Zane posted on Facebook. "I hope they did not do such a despicable thing as is being implied."

Tweeted Judith Camille Jackson of the Oxygen Network's The Bad Girls Club, "My heart goes out to Sandra Bland if she is in fact already dead in her mugshot. We have a serious problem. RIP."

Bland was arrested on July 10 after failing to use a turn signal and becoming combative with a state trooper, Waller County, Texas, authorities said. Video that has surfaced shows a trooper yelling for Bland to get out of her car and demanding that she put her phone away.

Three days later, Bland was found dead, hanging from a noose made from a plastic bag, in her cell at the Waller County Jail. On Thursday, Warren Diepraam, a Waller County prosecutor, said Bland's cause of death was suicide.

But after word circulated about the case, questions went viral. Bland's death comes on the heels of a what seems to be a streak of cases in which unarmed black Americans have died or been injured at the hands of the police.

The Waller County Sheriff's Department could not be reached for comment.

Supporters of the theory that Bland is dead in the photo say she appears to be lying down on a floor, not standing up against a wall. They say that her skin appears blotchy and her eyes, though open, look flat. They also point out that she is wearing orange jail wear for the mugshot, not her street clothes.

Forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who has consulted in many high profile cases, examined the image for USA TODAY and said he does not see any evidence that would indicate Bland is not alive in the mugshot. While people can die with their eyes open, the lids usually droop, and Bland's eyes look "purposefully open," Baden said.

He also said it's impossible to tell if someone is recently dead from a photo, and often it is impossible to tell in person because the deceased will simply appear as if they are sleeping, he said.

"There's nothing in it to suggest that she's dead in that shot," Baden said. "I've seen hundreds and hundreds of mugshots. Most people have a sad expression on their face. … She has an angry look, and I don't blame her for being angry."

People who have passed away normally appear as if they are sleeping, and there is no way to tell from a photograph that someone is alive or dead unless they have begun to decompose, Baden said.

"She's in the normal position posture of hundreds of mug shots," Baden said. "It doesn't make sense" he said of the theory.

But not everyone agrees.

"This Sandra Bland story hit me really hard," the Twitter account @Ogshayla, a self-described feminist from Florida, posted. "They took a mugshot of a dead woman and tried to pass her off as alive."