Ben Crump demands answers after 21-year-old Je'vion Benham found dead in Georgia prison cell for 2 days
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump stood alongside attorney Liza Park and a grieving mother Thursday to demand accountability in the death of 21-year-old Je'vion Benham inside a Georgia state prison.
Benham was in the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections at Valdosta State Prison when he was found dead in what attorneys described as a solitary confinement cell on Christmas Eve 2025.
According to Crump, Benham had been dead for two days before his body was discovered.
"The Department of Corrections had a fiduciary and constitutional duty to keep this 21-year-old son safe," Crump said. "Instead, his body was discovered after being left there for over two days."
"He was faceless when they discovered him"
Crump cited the Lowndes County coroner's findings, stating that decomposition had progressed so severely that Benham's face was unrecognizable.
"How is it that you're in the care and custody of the state of Georgia and you cannot keep a proper count to discover that a young man is dead for over two days?" Crump asked.
Attorneys say Benham was expected to be released in the near future.
Allegations of policy failures
Attorney Liza Park said their investigation is ongoing, but outlined what she described as critical failures inside the prison system.
According to Park, Benham had requested solitary confinement out of safety concerns. Instead, she says, he was placed in a cell with another inmate who had been incarcerated since the 1990s and was allegedly affiliated with the "Ghost Face Gang," which she described as a white supremacist prison gang founded in Georgia.
Park said the two inmates were assigned to different "tiers" — classifications designed to separate individuals based on behavior and security risk — and should never have been housed together.
"That alone was a huge mistake," Park said, adding that combining a young Black inmate with a known white supremacist gang member created a "foreseeable" risk.
Attorneys confirmed Benham's death has been ruled a homicide, though his cellmate has not yet been charged.
A mother's grief
Je'vion's mother, Robin Benham, traveled from Iowa to Georgia after receiving word on Christmas Eve that her son had died.
"My son should have been coming home," she said through tears.
She told reporters the last time she spoke to her son was December 21. He sounded worried, she said, but told her he was okay.
On Christmas Eve, she received a message that her son was gone. Hours later, officials confirmed he had been involved in an altercation and "succumbed to his injuries."
When she arrived in Georgia, she said she learned the extent of the decomposition.
"I had to see that my son didn't have a face," she said. "We didn't even get a choice. I got ashes. My kids got ashes."
Claims of systemic issues
Crump and Benham's family described what they believe are broader, systemic failures within Georgia's prison system.
"The blood of J.B.'s death is on the hands of the Secretary of Corrections," Crump said, calling the failure to properly monitor inmates a "systemic problem."
Robin Benham, who previously worked with Georgia's public defender system, said gang influence and short staffing are longstanding issues.
"The gangs run Georgia prisons," she said. "They just let the guards come to work."
She alleged ongoing problems with understaffing, failure to follow policies and procedures, and lack of oversight.
What happens next
Crump and Park say they plan to file notices of claim against the state of Georgia for constitutional and state violations tied to Benham's death. They are awaiting documents through open records requests and say additional facts could shape potential legal claims.
The Georgia Department of Corrections has not yet publicly responded to the allegations made during the press conference.
For now, Benham's family says their focus is on accountability — and on ensuring no other family experiences what they describe as an avoidable tragedy.
