From [HERE] Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has spent this week attending the funerals of the victims of the weekend’s massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando — the deadliest ever committed by a single shooter in U.S. history. But when asked by CNN Friday morning about the role Florida’s lax gun laws played in the murders, he refused to answer. Scott instead called for police surveillance of refugees and other immigrants, despite the fact that the gunman was a U.S. citizen born in Queens, New York.
“When you come into our country, this is our country. Why are you coming here?” he said, stumbling over his words. “Then if we do that to somebody, and allow them in, why not share it with local law enforcement?”
Scott then recounted a recent demand he made of President Obama’s administration that had no connection whatsoever to the attack in Orlando: “If you allow Syrian refugee in my state, will you share that information with me, the background checks? They said no. Come on. I’m responsible for the public. Give me a break.”
“The Second Amendment didn’t kill anybody. This is ISIS. This is evil. This is radical Islam.”
From [HERE] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-3 Thursday in Williams v. Pennsylvania [SCOTUSblog materials] that Pennsylvania's Chief Justice should have recused himself from a death penalty case in which he formerly served as prosecutor. Terrance Williams was convicted of first degree murder in Philadelphia and sentenced to death. Ronald Castillo was the district attorney in Philadelphia during the trial and was subsequently elected to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court [official website]. Williams then appealed his death sentence to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, arguing misconduct on the part of the Philadelphia prosecutor's office when Castillo was serving as the district attorney. Castillo did not recuse himself from the case on appeal, claiming that he was not improperly biased. The Pennsylvania court unanimously denied Williams' appeal, then denied his motion for reconsideration after Castillo retired from the bench. In an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court vacated the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's judgment:
Where a judge has had an earlier significant, personal involvement as a prosecutor in a critical decision in the defendant's case, the risk of actual bias in the judicial proceeding rises to an unconstitutional level. Due process entitles Terrance Williams to "a proceeding in which he may present his case with assurance" that no member of the court is "predisposed to find against him."
Chief Justice John Roberts filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Samuel Alito. Justice Clarence Thomas also filed a dissenting opinion. [MORE]
For over 25 years, white prosecutors with the Philadelphia District Attorney's office hid the truth about the crime in Terry's capital case, that the victim had repeatedly sexually abused Terry during his youth. [MORE]
When I first heard about this remake, my first question was: WHY?
A friend of mine called the morning after it aired and asked if I watched the “new” Roots. I told him I hadn’t, and that I have no intention of watching it. I asked him why he thought white Hollywood is suddenly so interested in our “black his-tory?” Since he didn’t have an answer, I decided to play devil’s advocate by coming up with some possible reasons of my own:
Reason #1: White people love and respect black history so much, they have to make films about it.
This reason falls flat, considering how little of our history is told in american history books. In fact, the major textbook publishers in the nation are deleting slavery and refer to African slaves as “workers.”
Reason #2: Money — because there is more money in making films about slavery and segregation and butlers and domestic workers than any other black theme.
This makes no sense since I seriously doubt black people would rather see ourselves in chains and butler uniforms on the big screen than in contemporary love stories (of which there are very, very few, other than the type where black males harm black females).
Reason #3: White producers are making films about black slaves and butlers and domestic help out of a sense of “white guilt” and feel compelled to show the world how badly they treated us. This is the most illogical reason of all.
If white guilt ruled the behavior of powerful whites, black people would not be suffering from educational and employment racism, massive incarceration, police brutality, inferior quality food and lead-contaminated water, and inadequate medical care.
________
Why are Hollywood’s “black history” movies restricted to slavery and segregation themes? Why don’t they do a story about black inventors and scientists and all the thousands of great black heroes that existed then?
Because Hollywood – an extension of the white supremacy system – is determined to portray blacks as an inferior, helpless, hopelessly violent, degraded, and diminished humanity.
The real question should be:
Why are black people so eager to let the people who oppressed us continue to tell our stories? Would Jews let the Germans tell their stories? Would whites let black people tell their stories? The only people who allow others to define their history are people who are still enslaved and trapped in a slave mindset. [MORE]
We turn to Puerto Rico. The Senate is set to consider a bill to create a federally appointed control board with sweeping powers to run Puerto Rico’s economy to help the island cope with its crippling debt crisis. The bill, known as PROMESA, passed the House last week by a bipartisan vote of 297 to 127, but opponents have decried the measure as antidemocratic. "We’re engaged today in a wholly undemocratic activity in the world’s greatest democracy," said Rep. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez. In the Senate, Robert Menendez, Dick Durbin and Bernie Sanders have come out against the bill, and any one of them could filibuster the legislation. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s stance on the bill remains unknown. The debate in the Senate comes as the Supreme Court has issued two major decisions about Puerto Rico. On Monday, in a 5-2 decision, the high court rejected Puerto Rico’s bid to revive its own bankruptcy law that would have let the island’s public utilities restructure about $20 billion those entities owe to bondholders. That decision came just days after the Supreme Court ruled against Puerto Rico in a separate case ruling regarding the island’s sovereignty. We speak to Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, president of the National Lawyers Guild and associate counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF.
iLLmatic Hate Speech by Mistake again: Rapping "Darker than Bark" & 'butthole and Nose' From [HERE] Over at Daily Kos, Shaun King writes that two white girls from Texas' Grapevine High School have apologized for an incendiary, epithet-filled freestyle they put on Soundcloud. In the clip the Grapevine, Tex., students rap about lynching black men. They also rhyme about killing Mexicans and Asians:
In a statement issued to parents via e-mail, Grapevine High School Principal Shannon Tovar [who is white or a racist suspect] explains that the institution has no legal sway over the recording because it wasn't created during school hours. However, the school is providing counselors to help deal with the repercussions of the racist recording, and it may conduct diversity trainings and bring in guest speakers in the future.
The two unnamed* students who are heard freestyling about racist killing have also issued written letters of apology. Both point out that the recording, which was produced two years ago, was done at a time when they believe social media was nascent. Both also point out that their words do not reflect who they are [you can please read that bullshit somewhere else folks] Nigger means non-white person who is subject to white supremacy. [MORE] Most white people hate Black people because they are not white. So when white people say the word nigger you should absolutely assume that it is being used as a derogatory term and that you are listening to a racist. The First Amendment refers to the ability of powerful white folks to say whatever they want to about any niggers any fucking time they please dood.
Specifically, the 1st Amendment is a a limited guarantee of "free speech." 'Defamation, obscenity, and speech which threaten the social order, bomb threats, incitements to riot, and "fighting words" - are all limited by law. In the world of business, false advertisements, insider information, and suggestions that prices be fixed, are also off-limits. Yet hate speech-expressions which abuse, insult, or belittle a person because of his or her race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or physical abilities-is still tolerated, protected and cherished by white folks.' [MORE]
Racism is conduct designed to provoke you. Racist white people are the most provocative people in the world and they love to provoke non-white people. For pure amusement. Watch them watch. For instance, if you have ever been called nigger by a white man you probably noticed that they wait around to watch your reaction to it. As stated by Dr. Welsing, "for the sake of Black mental health and for Black intelligence, all people of color must understand the dynamics of racism/white supremacy, what it is and how it works, so that they can have an appropriate, self-respecting response to racism/ white supremacy." [MORE]
Response is not reaction. Instead of responding to racism non-white people simply react to it. 'Toreact means you are acting unconsciously. Somebody is manipulating you. Somebody says something, does something, and you react. The real master of the situation is somebody else. Somebody comes and insults you and you react, you become angry. Somebody comes and praises you and you smile and you become happy. Both are the same. You are a slave and the other knows how to push your buttons. You are behaving like a machine. You are an automaton, not a human being yet. A plaything in the hands of others.' [MORE] and [MORE]. Non-white people cannot ever neutralize white supremacy in this state of reaction that we are constantly in. [MORE]. Non-whites must become meditative to deal with white supremacy/racism.
The Big Winner was Truth! From [HERE] Two non-white people were fatally shot Sunday outside a Garland, Texas, community center that was hosting an event displaying cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, local officials said. Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said that two men drove up to the community center and "opened fire on the security officers" hired to protect the event before being shot themselves.
One was an extrovert drawn to basketball as well as to Islam, who had been identified by the F.B.I. as a jihadist terrorism suspect and was once a regular at Friday Prayer at a mosque near his Phoenix apartment. The other was more quiet, ran a carpet cleaning business in Phoenix and often prayed at the same mosque, sometimes accompanied by his young son.
It is still not entirely clear what led the two men — Elton Simpson, 30, and Nadir Hamid Soofi, 34, who lived in the same apartment complex in Phoenix — to come to this Dallas suburb and open fire Sunday outside a gathering that showcased artwork and cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. But it probably was racism. Racism is one of the most powerful motivating forces in the universe.
The shootout — during which Mr. Simpson and Mr. Soofi, dressed in body armor, fired assault rifles at white police officers — left both of them dead.
The controversial event, where attendees competed to draw the prophet Mohammed, which is explicitly banned in Islam and seen as a sign of grave disrespect, was hosted by a conservative anti-Islam group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Approximately 200 people attended the event, police say. The center was put on lockdown immediately after the shooting.
The incident has pointed up the volatile tensions between the West’s [when whites say West they mean white] "embrace" of free expression and the insistence of many Muslims that depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is a sacrilege. It served as a grim reminder of the attack 16 weeks ago on the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper.
It immediately set off a heated debate over art and activism as organizers of the art exhibit said they intended to celebrate free speech. Pamela Geller, an organizer of the event, said it was held at Curtis Culwell Center here because members had heard that a Muslim group had a conference in the same room after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office. She described Sunday’s event as pro-free speech, and said that Muslims had become a “special class” that Americans were no longer allowed to offend.
Muslim and religious advocates, while denouncing the violence, called the show an offensive effort to insult Muslims. “The so-called ‘Muslim Art Exhibit’ where the shooting took place is an event deserving of criticism even absent yesterday’s violence,” said Rabbi Jack Moline, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance in Washington. [MORE]
The marketplace theory, however, rests upon a naive or convenient assumption that in our democratic society all speakers occupy a level playing field in which all speech is presumptively equal. It assumes that free speech exists and that segments of society are not systematically silenced even before the government enters the arena. Yet, like all social goods, speech is not equally and freely accessible to all. The battle which blacks have fought simply to have their voices heard makes this assumption untenable.
In addition, the regulation of racist speech is qualitatively different from other speech restrictions. Racism is not simply an unpopular view which requires special governmental solicitude-it is, sadly, the majority view [26]. Protection of racism and its expression in racial invectives has favored the powerful against the powerless. To provide redress for persons of color and other excluded groups is not to open the floodgates of censorship but to identify a specific group uniquely vulnerable to majoritarian oppression in need of government intervention simply to balance the scales.
The marketplace analogy also presumes that the discourse of all speech is in fact a dialogue. But racist invectives are one-sided; they neither invite nor permit response. How can the student who receives a card reading "the Ku Klux Klan is watching you" be expected to speak back? [27] Hate speech silences its victim and mars his or her response as presumptively unequal. Professor Charles Lawrence writes:
Assaultive racist speech functions as a preemptive strike. The invective is experienced as a blow, not as a proffered idea, and once the blow is struck, it is unlikely that a dialogue will follow. Racial insults are particularly undeserving of First Amendment protection because the perpetrator's intention is not to discover truth or initiate dialogue but to injure the victim. In most situations, members of minority groups realize that they are likely to lose if they respond to epithets by fighting and are forced to remain silent and submissive.[28]
Furthermore, the marketplace theory avoids the fundamental question of whether there is certain speech whose role in social decision-making is either detrimental or so marginal that it should never be countenanced. There are some ideas which simply are so repugnant to any concept of civilized society that they are not entitled to entry into the marketplace. To permit an idea to be advocated is to concede its legitimacy and to accept the possibility that it may become the governing system. There are some policies, though, whose implementation would be so unacceptable in a democratic society that their advocacy should not be permitted. [29] The Fourteenth Amendment reflects our choice not to permit absolute freedom at the expense of equality and equal personhood.
Racist Suspect ESPN reporter: "I am just moneyed out." "Most white people hate Black people. The reason that most white people hate Black people is because whites are not Black people. If you know this about white people, you need know little else. If you do not know this about white people, virtually all else that you know about them will only confuse you." -Neely Fuller and [MORE] and [MORE]
Vacant buildings trace the borders of Baltimore's black neighborhoods. In the race map, green dots are black residents and blue dots are white. In the vacant houses map [directly above], red dots indicate the location of a vacant building. [MORE] and [MORE].
Blacks Own What Again?Super slums are the creation of rich, racist white people - you are poor by their design. Like Camden, Detroit or wherever hood; whatever happened or did not happen in Baltimore is the result of white supremacists/racists; as they control everything in all areas of people activity (economics, education, entertainment, labour, law, politics, religion, sex and war) - 24/7, worldwide in this system of vast unequal power based on race. [MORE] "Everywhere one finds Whites and Blacks in close proximity to each other, whether it is Chicago or Zimbabwe, the Whites are in control. Yet Blacks rarely question this extraordinary universal phenomenon which defies every knowm statistical law of probability."[MORE]
Statistics collected by the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance show that in Sandtown, the neighborhood Freddie Gray called home, an astonishing 34 percent of residential properties are vacant or abandoned. A white reporter said, "think of your neighborhood, and try to imagine what it would be like if one out of every three homes were boarded up." Right, unimaginable in a system of white supremacy.
The Baltimore Sun recently described Sandtown as "a neighborhood where generations of crushing poverty and the war on drugs combine to rob countless young Black people like [Freddie Gray] of meaningful opportunities." The neighborhood, where there are only 84 men for every 100 women, is a case study in the phenomenon of "missing black men" recently outlined in the New York Times: places where black men between the ages of 25 and 54 have seemingly vanished, mostly due to incarceration or homicide.
Sandtown currently has more residents in jail than any other neighborhood in Baltimore, according to a recent report by the Justice Policy Institute and the Prison Policy Initiative. As those men have been taken away or killed -- or both, in Freddie Gray's case -- they've left empty houses to be boarded up and empty shoes that may never be filled. [MORE]
[Not real- just playing a role on TV] Baltimore Android Mayor and Racist Suspect Maryland Governor Walk Off Interview with CNN’s Don Lemon. More on leadership as performance [HERE] and [HERE]
The Death Penalty Not Punishment but Revenge. Civilization is Still Just an Idea.The death penalty is a form of violence committed through America's criminal justice system against mostly poor, non-whites. [MORE] "If murder is wrong, then whether it is committed by the man or by the society and its court, makes no difference. Killing certainly is a crime. The death penalty is a crime committed by the society against a single individual, who is helpless." [MORE]
More than half of the 3095 people on death row nationwide are people of color; 42% are African American. Prominent researchers have demonstrated that a defendant is more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is black. The key decision makers in death penalty cases across the country are almost exclusively white. Despite decades of evidence showing that the administration of the death penalty is permeated with racial bias, white judges, prosecutors and lawmakers choose to ignore "race." The only purpose of race is to practice racism.
From [HERE] A Black man was executed Tuesday night for killing a white man in a fit of rage over child support payments 16 years ago. Andre Cole, 52, became the third convicted killer put to death this year in Missouri. His fate was sealed after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down several appeals, including one claiming Cole was mentally ill and unfit for execution.
Also Tuesday, racist suspect, Gov. Jay Nixon (Democrat) refused a clemency petition that raised concerns about the fact that Cole, who was black, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury. In six years as Missouri's Nixon has received 13 petitions for clemency from inmates facing the death penalty. He's turned down all but one, and he never explained that decision. Cole was the fourth black man executed in Missouri since September sentenced to death by an all-white jury for murdering a white victim. At least five other black men have similarly been convicted by all-white juries in Missouri and executed since 1989. [MORE] Racist suspect media have characterized Cole's all white jury as merely a coincidence [MORE] & definitely not apart of any white collective power system of racism.
A federal judge had agreed to halt the lethal injection of a Missouri death-row inmate, but the decision was quickly appealed by white prosecutors just hours ahead of the execution scheduled for Tuesday evening. US district judge Catherine Perry ruled late Monday that Cole was incompetent to be executed because of mental illness.
“He hears voices over the TV, over the prison intercom. Everywhere,” Cole’s attorney, Joseph Luby, told the Associated Press. He said Cole believes that Missouri governor Jay Nixon, prosecutors and others “are giving him messages about his case”.
Several outside groups, including the NAACP civil rights group and the American Civil Liberties Union, asked Nixon to stop the execution and appoint a board to examine concerns about racial bias in Missouri’s jury selection process. Cole, who is black, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury.
Prosecutors removed three black potential jurors from the pool of candidates, according to Cole’s supporters. Mittman said one black man was removed because he was divorced, but a white juror was not removed even though he was paying child support.
However much Americans may disagree about the morality of capital punishment, no one wants to see an innocent person executed.
And yet, far too often, people end up on death row after being convicted of horrific crimes they did not commit. The lucky ones are exonerated while they are still alive — a macabre club that has grown to include 152 members since 1973.
The rest remain locked up for life in closet-size cells. Some die there of natural causes; in at least twodocumented cases, inmates who were almost certainly innocent were put to death.
How many more innocent people have met the same fate, or are awaiting it? That may never be known. But over the past 42 years, someone on death row has been exonerated, on average, every three months. According to one study, at least 4 percent of all death-row inmates in the United States have been wrongfully convicted. That is far more than often enough to conclude that the death penalty — besides being cruel, immoral, and ineffective at reducing crime — is so riddled with error that no civilized nation should tolerate its use.
Innocent people get convicted for many reasons, including bad lawyering, mistaken identifications and false confessions made under duress. But as advances in DNA analysis have accelerated the pace of exonerations, it has also become clear that prosecutorial misconduct is at the heart of an alarming number of these cases.
In the past year alone, nine people who had been sentenced to death were released — and in all but one case, prosecutors’ wrongdoing played a key role.
The latest was Anthony Ray Hinton, who on Apr. 3 walked out of the Alabama prison where he had spent almost 30 years, half his life, on death row. Mr. Hinton was convicted of two murders largely on faulty evidence that the bullets had come from his gun. His prosecutor at the time said he knew Mr. Hinton was guilty and “evil” just by looking at him. And later prosecutors continued to insist on his guilt even when expert testimony clearly refuted the case against him.
Why does this keep happening? In a remarkable letter to the editor published last month in The Shreveport Times, A.M. Stroud III, a former prosecutor in Louisiana’s Caddo Parish, offered a chillingly frank answer: “Winning became everything.” [code for white supremacy/racism became everything]. [MORE]
From [HERE] A march from New York City to Washington, D.C., to protest police brutality started Monday morning in Staten Island -- the borough where Eric Garner was murdered last summer by NYPD. [MORE] If you are still attempting moral suasory on racists then you have missed the point. [MORE] Its time for some other shit. But enjoy the fellowship and workout.
"Stop expecting racist white people to solve our problems". Singing songs, holding hands, making great speeches, talking on TV and taking long, long walks and many other behaviors, have absolutely nothing to do with addressing the challenges and conditions of the open warfare continuously being waged against the Black & Brown collective. [MORE]
Now, lets clear the air on a few things about the white media Eric Garner coverage:
It was Never About One Cop. It was a Gang of White Cops."Have you ever see one lone white man lynch one lone Black man? Have you ever seen it done without a gun?" [MORE] Eric Garner was killed by a gang of white cops who smothered and pounced on him as a white cop placed him in a choke hold. But only one white cop was charged by white prosecutors. If a Black man put a white man in chokehold in front of white witnesses and a group of like 7 other Blacks pounced on him then.... [they would all be on death row].
Grand Jury was All White in the Blackest City in the Country. No cops were indicted by an all white grand jury.[MORE] Yes an all-white grand jury in NYC, a city with the largest number of Blacks in the country. NYC is also the mecca for democrats and liberals. What are they doing for you? The white jurors were presented with 28 eyewitnesses and had every camera angle - jurors saw the Youtube video, NYPD video, store video and City street camera video. If you believe that racist suspects are concerned with whether 'Black lives matter' then you want to be deceived.
From [HERE] and [HERE] Nearly a year has passed since Darryl Anthony Howard heard a Durham County judge overturn guilty verdicts for two homicides Howard maintains he did not commit. [In photo, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper].
But the 53-year-old Black man was still in prison as attorneys argued for and against the decision in front of a three-judge Court of Appeals panel last Wednesday.
Last May, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson ruled that Howard’s conviction should be overturned due to a lack of physical evidence tying him to the double-murder for which he is serving an 80-year sentence. Judge Hudson also issued an order setting bail so that Howard could be released pending retrial. However, state prosecutors immediately appealed both rulings.
Assistant Attorney General Mary Carla Babb told the appeals court judges – Ann Marie Calabria, Donna Stroud and John Tyson – that state prosecutors believed Judge Orlando Hudson erred in May when he ordered a new trial for Howard.
Howard was convicted in 1995 of two counts of second-degree murder for the homicides of Doris Washington, 29, and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda, at a Durham public housing complex.
The killings occurred in 1991 in what investigators described as drug-related crimes.
Howard was convicted based on conflicting witness testimony which claimed that Howard was seen arguing with one of the victims the day before the crime occurred. One witness later recanted, stating he was coerced into implicating Howard. Another was paid $10,000 from a state compensation fund for her testimony.
During the investigation, DNA testing of sperm found on one of the victims’ bodies excluded Howard as the source. But the prosecution proceeded with its case against Howard, convincing the jury instead that no sexual assaults took place.
The Innocence Project conducted more testing last year on the two victims’ rape kits. DNA from one of the kits matched to a career criminal with over 35 prior convictions, and excluded Howard. Testing on the other kit revealed a second male profile that also excluded Howard.
Charlotte attorney Jim Cooney, working in collaboration with the Innocence Project, a national organization dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted through DNA testing, told the three appeals court judges on Wednesday that new DNA evidence and statements collected by post-conviction investigators implicated another man in the crime.
Cooney also argued that a police document uncovered by Innocence Project researchers in the past decade raised questions about the actions of Durham prosecutors, who pushed ahead with the case against Howard knowing that DNA pointed to other culprits.
Sperm was found on the teen and collected in an investigative rape kit. An autopsy showed that her mother had been sexually assaulted, according to court documents. Howard was charged in the homicides, but DNA tests excluded him as a match to the sexual assault evidence.
At trial, Durham police detective D.L. Dowdy testified that he never suspected that the murders involved sexual assaults and that he never investigated them as such.
Mike Nifong, the former Durham District Attorney disbarred for his misconduct in the Duke lacrosse case, was an assistant district attorney and the prosecutor at trial.
An Oldie but Goody? From [HERE] The prolonged prologue to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s second run for the White House will reach its suspenseless conclusion on Sunday: The former secretary of state, senator and first lady is to announce that she will indeed seek the Democratic nomination for president. At any rate, all signs are that her campaign rollout to the votary will probably not include neutralizing white supremacy/racism. [MORE]
What is collective white power? [MORE] A Southern California sheriff has placed 10 [white] deputies on paid administrative leave after news video recorded a violent arrest that he says appeared to be excessive force.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon [white] announced the action Friday in the aftermath of the arrest of 30-year-old Francis Pusok [white man], CBS Los Angeles reported. There will be no drama - no need for protest because the justice system works well for them - they run it.
From [HERE] and [MORE] The psychopathic white man charged with killing three Muslim college students will face a death penalty trial after prosecutors told a judge they had strong and incriminating evidence that includes the blood from one of the victims found on the accused shooter's pants.
After a brief hearing Monday, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson Jr. ruled that Craig Stephen Hicks is "death penalty qualified."
Hicks, who remained handcuffed throughout the court proceedings, showed no visible emotion as the judge announced his decision. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 10 killings of 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat; his wife, 21-year-old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha; and her sister, 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.
Durham County Assistant District Attorney Jim Dornfried said at the preliminary hearing that Hicks was taken into custody while in possession of a .357-caliber handgun that ballistics testing had matched to the eight shell casings recovered at the victims' apartment. There was also gunshot residue on Hicks' hands. Prosecutors often use the possibility of death to negotiate pleas that avoid the cost, time and emotional strain of a trial.
White Media & Cops Focus on "Parking Dispute" [nothing racial here] White police officers have said Hicks, 46, appeared to have been motivated by a long-running dispute over parking spaces at the condominium complex near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he lived in the same building as dental student Barakat and his wife. Dornfried said Monday that Hicks had revealed details about the killings while under questioning by investigators.
"There were certain issues he described involving parking," Dornfried told the judge. "He went and retrieved a firearm from his residence, then proceeded over to the residence of the victims. ... The door was answered by Deah Barakat. There was a brief interaction, at which time the defendant pulled out his concealed firearm." Parking? Right. Sounds like bullshit doesn't it?
The New York Times reported in February that photos taken the day after the shootings showed that none of the cars that Barakat, his wife or her sister used was parked in Hicks’ assigned space.
Federal investigators are conducting an inquiry into whether case evidence supports federal hate-crime charges, which are very specific and difficult to prove. In such cases, where religious bias is alleged, the religion of the victims must be the predominant motivating factor for the crimes for a successful prosecution, legal scholars say. Religous? Do you think he would have done this to some white Muslim folks?
Dornfried said Hicks shot Barakat multiple times, then entered the apartment and shot each of the screaming women in the head. He then pumped another slug into Barakat as he left the apartment, the prosecutor said.
Racism is a worldwide system of control & oppression against non-white people. It is the dominant feature of the criminal justice in the United States and Alabama. The death penalty is a form of violence committed through the America's criminal justice system against mostly poor, non-whites. [MORE]
More than half of the 3095 people on death row nationwide are people of color; 42% are African American. Prominent researchers have demonstrated that a defendant is more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is black. The key decision makers in death penalty cases across the country are almost exclusively white. Despite decades of evidence showing that the administration of the death penalty is permeated with racial bias, courts and legislatures’ refusal to address race in any comprehensive way reveals a fundamental flaw in America’s justice system.
Alabama has the highest death sentencing rate in the United States. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, each year in Alabama, nearly 65% of all murders involve black victims, yet 80% of the people currently awaiting execution in Alabama were convicted of crimes in which the victims were white. Only 6% of all murders in Alabama involve black defendants and white victims, but over 60% of black death row prisoners have been sentenced for killing someone white.
Although black people in Alabama constitute 27% of the total population, none of the 19 appellate court judges and only one of the 42 elected District Attorneys in Alabama is black. Nearly 63% of the Alabama prison population is black. The State of Alabama disenfranchises more of its citizens as a result of criminal convictions than any other state in the country. [MORE]
Mr. Hinton spent 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. From [HERE] Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, spent half his life waiting to die on Alabama's death row, sentenced to die for two 1985 murders that for decades he insisted he did not commit. He was set free Friday after new ballistics tests contradicted the only evidence — an analysis of crime-scene bullets — that connected Hinton to the slayings. "They had every intention of executing me for something I didn't do," Hinton said outside the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham.
Chief Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney John Bowers and Assistant District Attorney Mike Anderton filed a motion late last Wednesday afternoon to drop the prosecution of Hinton on the capital murder charges. The charges are being dropped after "three experts found that they could not conclusively determine that any of the six bullets" were fired from a gun found in Hinton's home, the motion states. No one saw him commit the crimes and nothing else linked him to them. There were reasons beyond the firearms evidence to doubt Mr. Hinton's guilt. He was at work, several people testified, when the third shooting happened. The car he was said to have driven on the night of the third shooting had been repossessed months before. The restaurant robberies continued after his arrest.
Bryan Stevenson, his lead attorney from the Equal Justice Initiative called Hinton's conviction a "case study" in what is wrong with the American justice system.
"We have a system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty then if you are poor and innocent and this case proves it. We have a system that is compromised by racial bias and this case proves it. We have a system that doesn't do the right thing when the right thing is apparent," Stevenson said.
"Prosecutors should have done this testing years ago." The Alabama attorney general's office declined to comment.
EJI attorneys engaged three of the nation’s top firearms examiners who testified in 2002 that the revolver could not be matched to crime evidence. State prosecutors never questioned the new findings but nontheless refused to re-examine the case or concede error. After another 12 years of litigation, the United States Supreme Court reversed lower court rulings in 2014, and Judge Petro granted him a new trial. She entered an Order of Nolle Prosequi last week after the State informed the court that forensic scientists with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences have tested the evidence and confirmed the prior testing which revealed the crime bullets cannot be matched to the Hinton weapon.
After 30 years in custody for crimes he did not commit, Mr. Hinton’s release is bittersweet. “We are thrilled that Mr. Hinton will finally be released because he has unnecessarily spent years on Alabama’s death row when evidence of his innocence was clearly presented,” said attorney Stevenson. “The refusal of state prosecutors to re-examine this case despite persuasive and reliable evidence of innocence is disappointing and troubling.”
When it comes to non-white defendants, due process, equal protection of the law, and reliability in criminal adjudications are not as important as finality. [MORE] In 2003 the state's lawyers did not attack the new findings and conclusions. They attacked the idea that such a hearing should be allowed at all. In emergency appellate papers seeking to stop the hearing in 2003 white prosecutors stated, "if the State of Alabama has to spend even one additional day in Birmingham, Alabama, defending the state, the state will be unduly injured in the form of additional per diem expenses, transportation expenses and loss of two assistant attorney generals for a complete work day." At that time, the state attorney general, Bill Pryor, said in a statement that he was not convinced by the new evidence. "The experts did not prove Mr. Hinton's innocence," Mr. Pryor said, "and the state does not doubt his guilt." [MORE]Pryor, in photo, is now a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and a Commissioner on the United States Sentencing Commission.
