African American
Related: About this forumHorrible story out of Louisiana. This deserves to be widely known.
I crossposted it in GD, too.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/06/revenge-killing
Annals of Justice JULY 6, 2015 ISSUE
Revenge Killing
Race and the death penalty in a Louisiana parish.
The Caddo Parish D.A. recently told a reporter, I think we need to kill more people.
A week after his son turned one, Rodricus Crawford woke up a few minutes before 7 A.M. on the left side of his bed. His son was sleeping on the right side, facing the door. Crawford, who was twenty-three, reached over to wake him up, but the baby didnt move. He put his ear on his sons stomach and then began yelling for his mother. Look at the baby! he shouted.
Crawford was lanky, with delicate features, high cheekbones, and a patchy goatee. He lived in a small three-bedroom house with his mother, grandmother, uncle, sister, and a younger brother in Mooretown, a neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, bordered by a stretch of factories and next to the airport. His mother, Abbie, a housekeeper at the Quality Inn, rushed into the room and picked up the baby, who was named Roderius, after his father. He looked as if he were asleep, but his forehead felt cool.
Crawfords uncle called 911, and an operator instructed him to try CPR while they waited for an ambulance. Crawfords mother and sister took turns pumping the babys chest.
Im doing it, Maam, but he aint doing nothing! Abbie said, out of breath.
The ambulance seemed to be taking too long, so Crawfords younger brother called 911 on another line. The babys not talking, not breathing, not saying anything, he said. Can you get an ambulance?
They were used to waiting a long time for city services; the alarm could go off at their pastors church and ring all night, and the fire department would never come. There was a saying in the neighborhood that the police were never there when you needed them, only when you didnt. The community was populated almost entirely by black families, many of whom had grown up together. After a few more minutes, Crawfords brother called 911 again. We need an ambulance, Maam, he said. Its been twenty minutes!
<snip>
much, much more and much, much worse at the link.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)And this guy is responsible for half the death sentences in the state.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)That a jury could convict Crawford based upon such shaky evidence is astounding.
marble falls
(57,102 posts)brer cat
(24,576 posts)It hurts to even read it.