CHARLES JOHNNY RICE

GPS classifies this death as a homicide. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation certified the manner of death as UNDETERMINED — that certification is theirs and it stands. The homicide classification is GPS's, and it rests on what the autopsy itself says: he died of asphyxia while sharing a cell with another person, and after a complete autopsy the pathologist could not determine whether this was "a suicidal hanging or a homicidal smothering or strangulation with postmortem positioning of the body." A second death at the same prison four months earlier shows the same pattern — neck compression, complete autopsy, manner left undetermined, homicide expressly not ruled out.