Maryland Man's 'Lynching' Ruled a Suicide, Disappointing Conspiracy Theorists and Politicians

A couple of weeks ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that she had signed onto fellow squad member Rep. Ayanna Pressley's letter "to address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror." AOC noted that this year, there had been 10 reported hangings of black people. Plenty of people were happy to let AOC know that nine of those "lynchings" showed no evidence of foul play, and the tenth was being treated as a homicide investigation, with the suspect being the woman's black father of one of her children (most headlines left that bit out).

Make that 11 reported hangings of black people. On Sunday, a black man was found hanging from a tree in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Of course, accusations of another lynching made the rounds.

Another black man found hanging from a tree in Maryland which was Sunday you mean to tell me all of these are all of a sudden self-inflicted out of nowhere these are white supremacist Republicans that are lynching black people make no mistake about it pic.twitter.com/0kEoNDBhJT
— sean (@sean94464934223) September 21, 2026

Another Black man found hanging in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. This is the 11th hanging in 2026. pic.twitter.com/cYfptiB0F4
— King Roy (@RoyIsThaTruth) September 21, 2026

The lynching conspiracy theorists took a hit when the medical examiner's finding that the hanging was a suicide was announced via text during a press conference on the "lynching."

🚨 JUST IN: Maryland hanging death ruled a suicide.

A Black man found hanging from a tree in Upper Marlboro was officially ruled a suicide by the medical examiner.

The ruling came in by text LIVE during the press conference.
⁰The lynching narrative collapsed pic.twitter.com/aqNWTMkcFq
— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) September 21, 2026