murder

4Apr

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Journalism

Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown – talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’

Cyntoia Brown walked out of prison in August 2019 after serving 15 years of a life sentence for a murder she committed when she was 16. Her story is the focus of “Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story,” a Netflix feature documentary. Dan Birman directed this documentary and another on Cyntoia’s life that aired on PBS in 2011. He is a professor of professional practice and teaches documentary at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. What does Cyntoia’s case tell us about the US justice system? Cyntoia Brown’s case follows a complex social and legal path, but her story is common to thousands of young people in the justice system. As of 2017, there were nearly 44,000 juveniles locked up in America, and more than two-thirds were black or ...

4Apr

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White Officer Aaron Dean Charged With Murder Of Atatiana Jefferson

Texas police officer Aaron Dean shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson as she stood inside her home on Saturday morning. Bouquets of flowers and stuffed animals are piling up outside the Fort Worth home where a 28-year-old black woman was shot to death by a white police officer [Jake Bleiberg/AP Photo] A white police officer who shot and killed an African American woman in her Fort Worth, Texas, home in the presence of her eight-year-old nephew was charged with murder on Monday after resigning from the force. The Fort Worth Police Department said its officers were responding to a call from a neighbour, who reported to a non-emergency line, that Atatiana Jefferson's front door had been left open. The responding officer fired a shot through a window, killing 28...

2Oct

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Journalism

Ex-Dallas officer Amber Guyger’s murder conviction ‘a huge victory for black people in America’

A former Dallas police officer convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of a black neighbor in his own home could be sentenced to as little as two years in prison, a judge ruled at a sentencing hearing Wednesday. Amber Guyger, who fatally shot Botham Jean a year ago as he ate a bowl of ice cream, normally would face a sentence ranging from five years to 99 years. But Judge Tammy Kemp ruled the jury can consider a "sudden passion" defense that could reduce a sentence. Kemp made the ruling at the behest of the defense – with the support of prosecutors. Guyger, who is white, had testified at trial that she returned from an extended police shift and incorrectly believed she had entered her own apartment. She said she panicked when she saw Jean, an accountant from St. Lucia who she had never m...

4Apr

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US court tosses black man’s murder conviction over racial bias

Supreme Court tosses out Curtis Flowers's conviction in sixth trial of 1996 murders, citing racial bias. Curtis Giovanni Flowers, left, listens to testimony in his third capital murder trial [Winona Times/Dale Gerstenslager/AP Photo] The United States Supreme Court on Friday threw out the murder conviction and death sentence for a black man in Mississippi because of a prosecutor's efforts to keep African Americans off the jury. The defendant already has been tried six times and now could face a seventh trial. The removal of black prospective jurors deprived inmate Curtis Flowers of a fair trial, the court said in a 7-2 decision written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The long record of Flowers's trials stretching back more than 20 years shows District Attorney...

8Jan

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Darknet Murder-For-Hire Suspect Remains Under GPS Monitoring Program

Tina Jones, who was arrested for attempting to hire a hitman to murder a woman alleged to of had an affair with her husband, has hit the headlines once more. This time, George Bakalis, , the DuPage County Judge, ordered the suspect to remain with the GPS monitoring device she has been wearing after she was given the conditions of bail. Jones has been living with her parents in Georgia with the strict condition not to leave the county unless attending the court hearings in Illinois. The bail terms also order her not to be in Illinois for more than twenty-four hours. This was in accordance with the conditions set to monitor her whereabouts as she awaits her final hearing and sentencing. The federal court charged the suspect with four counts for conspiring murder for hire. She was also char...

4Apr

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Ex-officer Roy Oliver guilty of murder for killing Jordan Edwards

Jury convicts white former Texas police officer who shot and killed 15-year-old African American in April 2017. A Texas jury has found a white former police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager last year guilty of murder. Roy Oliver shot into a car full of teenagers as they were leaving a party in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs in April 2017. Fifteen-year-old Jordan Edwards, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was struck and killed. "It's been a hard year ... I'm just really happy," Edwards's father, Odell, told reporters at the court after the verdict on Tuesday. At the time of the shooting, Oliver claimed the vehicle was trying to run over his partner, but several witness accounts and body-cam footage showed the car was moving away from the officer. Oliver w...

US reopens investigation into Emmett Till murder case from 1955

16Jul

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Journalism

US reopens investigation into Emmett Till murder case from 1955

Two men, who later admitted to the civil rights-era murder that had become a symbol of racial oppression and violence, were found not guilty by an all-white jury in Mississippi. One of the most notorious cases of racial violence in US history will be reopened by federal investigators. The lynching of black teenage boy Emmett Till in 1955 shocked the nation and spurred the growing civil rights movement. by Rob Reynolds Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports.

4Apr

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A Dubious Arrest, a Compromised Prosecutor, a Tainted Plea: How One Murder Case Exposes a Broken System

The case of Demetrius Smith reads like a preposterous legal thriller: dubious arrests, two lying prostitutes, prosecutorial fouls and a judge who backpedaled out of a deal.It also delivers a primer on why defendants often agree to virtually inescapable plea deals for crimes they didn’t commit.ProPublica has spent the past year exploring wrongful convictions and the tools prosecutors use to avoid admitting mistakes, including an arcane deal known as an Alford plea that allows defendants to maintain their innocence while still pleading guilty. Earlier this year, we examined a dozen such cases in Baltimore. Source: A Dubious Arrest, a Compromised Prosecutor, a Tainted Plea: How One Murder Case Exposes a Broken System – The UrbanJournalist

4Apr

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Oak Park man gets 30-45 years in Backpage murder

An Oak Park man will serve at least 30 years in prison in connection with the slaying of a Detroit woman who went missing last August after she met him on a social media escort website. Jerome Moore, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on March 9 and was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Mark Slavens to 30-45 years in prison, according to Maria Miller, spokeswoman of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. Cynthia Worthy, 23, was found stabbed to death last August on the city's west side in an alley in the 4000 block of Davison. She was last seen at her residence in the 3200 block of Cortland prior to her death, according to Detroit Police, who said Worthy's sister told investigators she was supposed to meet up with an unknown man later that day. Source: Oak Park man gets 30-45 years in...