Racial Tension in East Texas
[Guest post by DRJ]
It happened in mid-September but this case may soon be in the headlines:
“In a gruesome case with powerful echoes of the dragging death of James Byrd a decade ago, a black man was killed underneath a pickup truck in East Texas and two white men have been charged with murder.
Black activists and the victim’s mother are calling last month’s killing of 24-year-old Brandon McClelland a racist attack. But prosecutors cast strong doubt on that Friday.”
Read the link. It’s a sad story no matter who you believe.
— DRJ
As in many small towns, some of the players are connected. The district attorney, Gary Young, was once the court-appointed lawyer for Finley, who was charged with murder in 2003. Finley eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to four years.
In that same case, McClelland pleaded guilty to perjury for providing a false alibi for Finley. He was sentenced to five years’ probation but served some jail time when he violated its terms, prosecutor Bill Harris said.
The real shame is that we waste precious judicial resources (err, that’s taxpayer money) on this trash.
nk (5dcbab) — 10/25/2008 @ 12:36 amThree men, one African-American and two white, go out for a night on the town. They have known each other for a long time and the African-American perjured himself for one of the white men about five years ago.
They were drinking and the African-American thought that they were all too drunk to drive so he got out of the truck and started walking.
The two drunken white idiots did something that they probably thought was funny – driving up behind the African-American and nudging him with the front bumper. They were as drunk as the African-American thought and, instead of merely bumping him, they knocked him down and dragged his body 70 feet.
Under these circumstances, only a complete idiot would call it a racist attack.
longwalker (850cda) — 10/25/2008 @ 10:12 amI don’t think it was a racist attack either, but I do not blame the prosecutor in the least for charging murder instead of, for example, aggravated vehicular homicide or involuntary manslaughter. I would want this trash out of circulation as long as possible too. So I am on the side of the Black Panthers on this one although for different reasons.
Or maybe not so different. A safer world for black people is a safer world for white people too.
nk (5dcbab) — 10/25/2008 @ 12:15 pmThere’s are sections of East Texas and Western Louisiana that have recurring problems like these: the Byrd case in Jasper, Jena 6, and now this Paris case. I know there are good people that live in this region and there are bad people everywhere, but it’s hard not to notice the undercurrents of race that surface in these stories. Is it because race is an underlying factor, because race is a convenient scapegoat, or both?
DRJ (c953ab) — 10/25/2008 @ 12:22 pmTrash knows no color!
Another Drew (a9cfc2) — 10/25/2008 @ 12:23 pmI agree with another Drew. Most of my criminal clients were white and there were occasions when I had a gun in my desk and wore another on my waist.
Until I thought it would be more prudent that I had better clients. 😉
nk (5dcbab) — 10/25/2008 @ 12:52 pmBut I did not answer your question, DRJ.
Is it because race is an underlying factor, because race is a convenient scapegoat, or both?
I would say that race is a convenient tool for all kinds of agendas and psychologies. If it helps to put these animals away for a long time, though …? I would not object.
(Casuistry is a valid philosophy.)
nk (5dcbab) — 10/25/2008 @ 1:02 pmComment by nk — 10/25/2008 @ 12:52 pm
The trials and tribulations of a career in criminal law.
Another Drew (a9cfc2) — 10/25/2008 @ 1:08 pmToo many clients from Joe’s Bar, and not enough from the Country Club.
Unless you specialize in White-Collar Criminal Law –
With a gun you can steal a few hundred dollars;
with a pen, you can steal millions.