Benjamin Crump facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Benjamin Crump
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Crump in 2020
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Benjamin Lloyd Crump
October 10, 1969 |
| Education | Florida State University (BS, JD) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Genae Crump |
| Children | 1 |
Benjamin Lloyd Crump (born October 10, 1969) is an American attorney who specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases such as wrongful death lawsuits. His practice has focused on cases such as those of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Keenan Anderson, Randy Cox, Sonya Massey and Tyre Nichols, people affected by the Flint water crisis, the estate of Henrietta Lacks, the estate of Malcolm X and the plaintiffs behind the 2019 Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit alleging the company's talcum powder product led to ovarian cancer diagnoses. Crump is also founder of the firm Ben Crump Law of Tallahassee, Florida.
In 2020, Crump became the attorney for the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake. In 2021, he became the attorney for a passenger in the car with Winston Boogie Smith and for the family of Daunte Wright. Ongoing cases surrounding their killings or injuries led to protests against police brutality in America as well as internationally.
Due to his legal reputation, he has been referred to as "Black America's attorney general".
Contents
Early life and education
Benjamin Lloyd Crump was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, near Fort Bragg. The oldest of nine siblings and step-siblings, Crump grew up in an extended family and was raised by his grandmother. His mother Helen worked as a hotel maid and in a local Converse shoe factory. His mother sent him to attend South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida, where he lived with her second husband, a math teacher, whom Crump regards as his father.
Crump attended Florida State University and received his bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 1992, and his Juris Doctor in 1995. He is a life member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
Early career
2002–2014: Martin and Brown cases
In 2002, Crump represented the family of Genie McMeans Jr., an African American driver who died after being shot by a White state trooper. In 2007, Crump represented the family of Martin Lee Anderson, a teenager who died after a beating in 2006 by guards in a Florida youth detention center.
In 2012, Crump began representing the family of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012.
Crump also represented Ronald Weekley Jr., a 20-year-old African-American skateboarder beaten by police in Venice, California in 2012.
Crump also represented the family of Alesia Thomas, a 35-year-old African-American woman who died while in police custody in August 2012. Journalist Chuck Philips reported that during the arrest by LAPD Officer Mary O'Callaghan, Thomas was "slammed to the ground, handcuffed behind her back, kicked in the groin, hog-tied and stuffed into the back seat of a patrol car, where she died." Crump demanded that dashboard video of the incident be released, threatening legal action and encouraging Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a federal probe. In October 2013, one of the arresting officers was charged with felony assault of Thomas, pleading not guilty. Judge Shelly Torrealba signed off on a request by the district attorney's office only to release the video to prosecutors and defense attorneys. This was to prevent the tainting of potential jury candidates, O'Callaghan's attorney Robert Rico said.
On August 11, 2014, the family of Michael Brown announced that they would be hiring Crump to represent their case, especially as the death had been widely compared to the Trayvon Martin case. Also in 2014, Crump was initially hired to represented the family of Tamir Rice, an African-American youth who was killed by police in Cleveland, Ohio, while holding a toy gun. Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice has criticized Crump and stated that she fired him 6–8 months into Tamir's case. One reason was that she felt it was questionable whether Benjamin Crump knew the laws in the state of Ohio.
2015–2019: Continued civil rights work
In 2015, Crump represented the family of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who was killed by three policemen in Pasco, Washington. Also in 2015, he represented the family of Kendrick Johnson, an African-American high-school student who was found dead at his school in Valdosta, Georgia, under mysterious circumstances, but stepped down from their legal team in late 2015. In late 2015, Crump began representing the family of Corey Jones, who was killed by a plainclothes officer while waiting for a tow truck in South Florida.
In 2016, Crump began representing the family of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man shot and killed by a Tulsa police officer.
In 2017, Crump announced the opening of a new law firm, Ben Crump Law, PLLC.
In 2018, Crump represented the family of Zeke Upshaw in a wrongful death suit after Upshaw, an NBA G League player, collapsed mid-game and was delayed assistance by the NBA's paramedics. Also in 2018 he became a board member for the National Black Justice Coalition.
In 2019, Crump partnered with law firm Pintas & Mullins to hold several rallies in Flint, Michigan for communities affected by the Flint water crisis. Also in 2019, Crump began representing several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson alleging that the company's talc powder was directly related to said-plaintiffs' ovarian cancer diagnoses.
Injury and death cases
2020 cases
In early 2020, Crump began working with the family of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American man murdered by two White civilians. Around this same time, the family of police shooting-victim Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, retained Crump for the family's lawsuit alleging excessive force and gross negligence by the Louisville Metro Police Department. Taylor was killed after police entered her apartment after obtaining a flawed "no-knock warrant" and shot Taylor eight times.
After the death of 46-year old George Floyd in May 2020, Crump began representing his family. George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes. At the time, Floyd was unarmed and exclaimed to Chauvin and other deputies "I can't breathe". Chauvin was initially charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter; however, an additional second-degree murder charge was added 10 days later, and the three officers also present at the scene were subsequently charged with "aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter." In April 2021, Chauvin was convicted on all three charges. In June 2020, Crump testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the George Floyd case and the discriminatory treatment of African Americans by the U.S. justice system.
In a two-day span in late August 2020, Crump was among counsel retained to represent the families of Trayford Pellerin, a 31-year-old African American man killed by police in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African-American man shot at seven times (hit four times in the back) by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while his children watched from the car. Crump retained Patrick A. Salvi Sr & Jr as co-counsel.
In October 2020, Benjamin Crump and Attorney Robert Cox won a historic $411 million jury verdict in a catastrophic trucking accident case. The trial was conducted over Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 cases
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In early 2021, Benjamin Crump began representing the family of nineteen-year-old Christian Hall, who was shot and killed by Pennsylvania State Troopers in Monroe County. ..... Troopers say at one point during negotiations, Hall was uncooperative and pointed the gun in the direction of officers. State Police fired, striking Hall. Attorneys for the family, including Crump, stated that a video circulating online shows a different story.
In April 2021, Crump began representing the family of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old African American shot and killed by a Brooklyn Center Police Department officer. Former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said that the officer intended to use her taser but inadvertently drew her handgun. On December 23, 2021, a Hennepin County, Minnesota jury found the officer who shot him, Kimberly Potter, guilty of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter. On October 3, 2022, nearly 18 months after the April 11, 2021 police-involved fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Demetrius Wright in Minneapolis, the Wright family and the office of Benjamin Crump were served a lawsuit by Chyna Whitaker, Wright's son's mother. Whitaker filed the suit over GoFundMe proceeds she said were to go to her. A spokesperson for attorney Ben Crump told the press, "This is strictly a family dispute between the mother of Daunte Wright's child and Daunte's parents."
Following the Astroworld Festival crowd crush, Crump is representing a concertgoer, Noah Gutierrez, in a lawsuit against Travis Scott. Crump said in a statement, "We are hearing horrific accounts of the terror and helplessness people experienced — the horror of a crushing crowd and the awful trauma of watching people die while trying unsuccessfully to save them."
In December 2021, Crump began representing the parents of a 14-year-old girl, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was fatally shot in a Los Angeles department store—a round aimed by L.A. Police Department response team at an assaulter ricocheted off the floor. It passed through the wall of a dressing room where she and her mother had taken refuge, causing her death.
2022 cases
Crump began representing Amir Locke's family in February 2022. Locke was shot and killed by the Minneapolis Police Department on February 2 while police were executing a search warrant.
In April 2022, Crump took on the case of Patrick Lyoya of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who was killed by Officer Christopher Schurra, a police officer from the Grand Rapids Police Department, who shot Lyoya in the back of the head after Lyola fled a traffic stop. Lyoya was unarmed.
In May 2022, Crump was retained by the families of Andre Mackneil, Geraldine Talley, and Ruth Whitfield, three victims of the 2022 Buffalo shooting on May 14. That same month, Crump took on the case of Rwandan politician Paul Rusesabagina, sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Rwandan government.
The family of Randy Cox retained Crump in June 2022, when Cox, who was traveling in a police van without a seatbelt when the driver slammed on the brakes, sending Cox into a metal partition head first. Cox was paralyzed from the chest down as a result of his injuries. The officers were fired without compensation for behaving "recklessly and without compassion." The five officers were caught on police body camera mocking Cox after he hit his head and proceeded to drag him out of the vehicle, and place him in a holding cell. The case for which Cox was initially arrested was later dismissed. In 2023, a $45 million verdict was reached with the city of New Haven, Connecticut.
In October 2022, Crump was retained by the family of Erik Cantu. The 17-year-old was shot by a San Antonio Police Department officer while eating a hamburger in his car at a McDonald's parking lot. In December 2022, Crump was hired by Emily Proulx, a passenger of Cantu's during the shooting.
2023 cases
- In January 2023, Crump began representing the family of Earl Moore Jr. in a wrongful death lawsuit against two Illinois paramedics, along with ambulance service company LifeStar. Moore died on December 18, 2022, as a result of asphyxiation after he was strapped face down to a stretcher while in medical distress. The paramedics, Peter Cadigan and Peggy Finley, were charged with first-degree murder in January 2023.
- Also in January 2023, Crump announced he would represent the family of Tyre Nichols, who died on January 10, three days after a traffic stop, when five Memphis, Tennessee police officers tried to arrest Nichols for alleged reckless driving. During the incident, the officers beat Nichols, and he was taken to the hospital after he reported he had shortness of breath.
- In April 2023, Crump began representing the family of Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old Black teenager shot for ringing the doorbell of the wrong house. The shooter is an 84-year-old White man and the owner of the house.
- In May 2023, Crump represented the family of Ed Townsend, songwriter of "Let's Get It On", in suing Ed Sheeran, songwriter of "Thinking Out Loud." The plaintiffs claimed that elements of the latter were taken from the former without permission. The case was decided in Sheeran's favor on May 4, 2023.
- In June 2023, Crump began representing the family of Ajike Owens, who was shot and killed by a white neighbor after the neighbor argued with her children in a nearby field.
- In July 2023, after the firing of Northwestern University's head football coach Pat Fitzgerald, Crump partnered with Chicago attorney Steven Levin to represent Northwestern University football players who alleged that they were victims of hazing and racism.
2024 cases
- In February 2024, Crump began representing Eboni Pouncy in a case against Harris County sheriff's deputies. Pouncy was shot multiple times inside her apartment after deputies responded to a call about an intruder at a neighboring unit. Body camera footage captured the incident, which Crump has stated "should have never happened."
- In May 2024, the family of Roger Fortson hired Crump to represent them after Fortson was killed. Fortson was a 23-year-old Black U.S. Air Force airman who was shot and killed by police in his Fort Walton Beach apartment. The body camera footage of this was released. According to Crump, a witness statement claimed that police entered the wrong apartment.
- In June 2024, the family of D'vontaye Mitchell retained Crump after Mitchell died following an altercation with Hyatt Regency hotel security. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office determined the preliminary cause of his death to be a homicide. Witness footage shows four security officers holding him down on his stomach. Crump referenced the video in a press conference with the family, saying the security officers are to be blamed for his death and that he will help the family seek justice. On August 2, the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. By August 6, prosecutors charged four hotel employees with felony murder.
- In June 2024, Crump began representing the family of Sonya Massey following her July 6 shooting death by a deputy of the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office in Springfield, Illinois. Massey was allegedly shot and killed by deputy Sean Grayson in her home following a 911 call that she placed to report a "prowler." Grayson was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, among other charges, and pled not guilty.
- In October 2024, Crump began representing the family of Amber Thurman following her 2022 death at Georgia's Piedmont Henry Hospital. ..... Though recent Georgia law criminalized with few exceptions the life-saving treatment that Thurman needed, doctors still waited 20 hours to begin a surgical intervention, but by then, it was too late. Later ProPublica investigations stated that Thurman's death was "preventable." ..... In the wake of this decision, Vice President Kamala Harris said "[Amber Thurman] should be alive today."
- In November 2024, the family of Botham Jean received a $98.65 million jury verdict in a federal civil lawsuit against former Dallas police officer Amber Guyer. Botham Jean was killed in his apartment in 2018 when Guyer, who was off-duty, "mistook" his apartment for her own, despite Jean's apartment being one floor above her own. Guyer entered Jean's apartment and shot and killed him while Jean was eating a bowl of ice cream on his couch. Guyer was charged with murder in 2019. Crump, who led the effort for the nearly 100 million dollar verdict, said, "This verdict stands as a powerful testament to Botham’s life and the profound injustice of his death. This case laid bare critical issues of racial bias and police accountability that cannot be ignored. Today’s verdict sends a clear message that law enforcement officers who commit crimes cannot be insulated from the consequences of their actions."
- In December 2024, the family of Tyre Sampson received a $310 million jury verdict. 14 year-old Sampson died in 2022 after a fall from an amusement park ride at Icon Park in Orlando, Florida.
2025 cases
In the wake of the Southern California wildfires, Crump was retained by the family of Evelyn Cathirell, a woman who died in the Eaton fire in Altadena. The wrongful death suit (the first one filed in response to the fires) was filed on January 15, 2025 against Southern California Edison, a utility company, for allegedly failing to “de-energize all its transmission towers” or clear vegetation before the anticipated winds hit Eaton.
Restorative justice cases
Henrietta Lacks
In 2021, Crump and Christopher Seeger announced that they would be representing members of the family of Henrietta Lacks in a lawsuit against several pharmaceutical companies that have profited from the cell line HeLa, which is based on cervical cancer cells taken from Lacks without her knowledge in 1951, when it was not illegal to do so. The family of Lacks came to a confidential settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. in July 2023.
Malcolm X
In November 2024, Crump filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the family of Malcolm X, a preeminent black civil rights leader in the 20th century, who was assassinated in 1965.
The 100 Million Dollar lawsuit accuses the FBI, CIA and New York Police Department of conspiring and failing to intervene in his assassination plot. The lawsuit alleges an "unconstitutional" relationship between the killers and law enforcement. The NYPD intentionally removed their officers from the Audubon Ballroom the day that Malcolm X was killed. The FBI agents who were in the ballroom failed to intervene in the assassination. During a press conference on November 15, Crump said that he hoped that law enforcement would "learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs."
Activism
Crump has been vocal about issues of racial equality, police brutality, and police reform, among others. He testified before Congress regarding policing practices and police accountability, advocating for mandatory police body cameras, the outlaw of chokehold and stranglehold, and for changes to the qualified immunity standard.
Filmography
In April 2017, Crump appeared as himself on the American reality prime-time court show You the Jury. Later, in December 2017, Crump investigated the murder of Tupac Shakur in the television documentary series Who Killed Tupac? The show narrates an investigation led by Crump, who works with Tupac's brother, Mopreme Shakur.
In 2018, Crump hosted a documentary television series on TV One called Evidence of Innocence. The show focused on people who served at least a decade behind bars after being wrongfully convicted of a crime. Crump hoped to "impact the larger society about these larger matters so they can be aware when they go into the courtroom as jurors."
On June 19, 2022, Netflix commemorated Juneteenth with the release of Civil: Ben Crump. A Netflix original, the documentary film is produced by Kenya Barris and directed by Nadia Hallgren. In July 2023, Civil was nominated for an Emmy Award.
On January 30, 2023, Crump appeared on the late-night talk show The Daily Show to discuss the Tyre Nichols murder case.
In 2024, Crump produced the 35-minute film “How to Sue the Klan.” The film covers the 1980 Ku Klux Klan shooting of five black women in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Two of the men involved in the shooting were acquitted, and a third man was sentenced to nine months in prison, but got out in six. After public outcry, the Center for Constitutional Rights picked up the case and filed a federal civil lawsuit. The court awarded $1.5 million (adjusted for inflation) to the five women, and the verdict included an injunction against all Klan activities in the city of Chattanooga. How to Sue the Klan premiered on February 9, 2024 at the Walker Theatre in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was met with critical acclaim, and went on to win best short documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival, best documentary short at the Roxbury International Film Festival, and best documentary at the NC Black Film Festival, among others.
Accolades
Crump was included on the Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2021. Lawyers of Distinction named Crump their 2021 Lawyer of the Year.
In 2020, Lawyers of Color named Crump the #1 Most Influential Black Lawyer of the Decade.
St. Thomas University in Florida renamed their College of Law after Crump in 2023. Benjamin L. Crump College of Law is the only law school in the country named after a currently practicing African American lawyer and the second in the country to be named after an African American.
In 2023, Crump was awarded the Social Impact Award at the NAACP Image Awards. Crump said In his acceptance speech, "I accept this award as greater motivation to continue to be an unapologetic defender of Black life, Black liberty, and Black humanity.”
In 2024, Crump was included in Forbes' inaugural list of America's Top 200 Lawyers. Crump is one of the seven black lawyers included on the list. Forbes describes the list as a culmination of lawyers "with a reputation for integrity [and a] record of excellence."
Books
Crump authored Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People in 2019. It was published by HarperCollins Publishers.
