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By From CNN Justice Department Producer Terry Frieden
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal investigation into the hanging of a black youth in the front yard of his Mississippi home was closed Thursday after the Justice Department concluded there was no evidence to support a criminal prosecution.
Citing suspicious circumstances, civil rights leaders demanded a federal probe of the hanging death last June 16 of Raynard Johnson, a 17-year-old African American.
Johnson was hanged from a small tree in the front yard of his Kokomo, Mississippi, home.
Rev. Jesse Jackson and members of Johnson's family met with then-Attorney General Janet Reno to discuss the circumstances including claims of suspicious noises and movements in the neighborhood the night of the hanging.
The Justice Department concluded there was no basis to bring charges.
"After a thorough review of the facts surrounding the death of Raynard Ladell Johnson, the Department of Justice has determined that the evidence does not support a federal criminal civil rights prosecution," the agency said in an unsigned statement.
The statement said federal investigators from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Southern Mississippi, the Civil Rights Division in Washington and the FBI had looked into "whether the circumstances leading to his death ... arose from an intent to interfere with his civil rights because of his race".
The statement said its investigation came to the same conclusion as that reached by several Mississippi state law enforcement agencies.
"Despite the tragic nature of this event, the evidence ... does not suggest that a criminal act occurred," the statement said.
The Justice Department said it had "explored every avenue of inquiry resulting in the interviews of numerous witnesses, the review of all available physical evidence and the assistance of multiple forensic experts including the findings of the medical examiner hired by the Johnson family.
"We have concluded that there are no other avenues left to consider," the Justice Department said.
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