A dedicated reader of this blog just informed me, in the Deryl Dedmond, 'Let's go get an "N-word"' case,
in which a middle-aged Black man, named James Craig Anderson was run over by a color-aroused white youth with a pickup truck, now the Black victim's family has asked that the death penalty not be sought against any of the culprits.
The New York Daily News reports,
Deryl Dedmon, 19, was arrested on a charge of capital murder, which is punishable by death or life without parole. He has not been indicted and it will be up to a grand jury to decide on the formal charges. Capital murder in Mississippi is defined as a murder that happens during the commission of another felony. The underlying offense in this case is the alleged robbery of Anderson.
Police say that Dedmon and a group of teens had been partying late that night in suburban Rankin County when he asked a group of them to go out looking for a black man to "mess with." Seven people allegedly loaded up in two cars and headed to Jackson.
However, the New York Daily News quotes the family as saying:
Those responsible for James' death not only ended the life of a talented and wonderful man. They also have caused our family unspeakable pain and grief. But our loss will not be lessened by the state taking the life of another.
( . . . )
"We also oppose the death penalty because it historically has been used in Mississippi and the South primarily against people of color for killing whites. Executing James' killers will not help balance the scales. But sparing them may help to spark a dialogue that one day will lead to the elimination of capital punishment."
Most of the time, the facts of case of police brutality and atrocity speak for themselves, but I have strong feelings and opinions about this case.
Francis L. Holland says:
I wish the family had waited until the penalty phase of the trial to come out with this ameliorating statement. The white boy with blue eyes will probably now get a life sentence with eligibility for parole in ten or fifteen years. The victim's family short-circuited the color-aroused criminal justice system by asking that the boy not receive the harshest penalty for the harshest crime. Now, the trial and subsequent injustice will get far less attention than it deserves nationally and internationally.
Certainly, the death penalty was taken off of table in the O.O. Simpson case, but that case lacked video evidence of the accused beating and then running over his victim with a pick-up truck.
As a matter of reality, there was no way this kid was going to get the death penalty and have it sustained on appeal in Mississippi. There are all sorts of ways they could and would have avoided inflicting the death penalty, such as changing the venue of the trial to an all-white town, doggedly keeping Blacks off of the jury, etc.
The injustice system should have been allowed to embarrass itself and show its skin-color-based decision processes through every phase of the case, as it does in cases in which Blacks are the victims.
I strongly disagree that the victim's family has created a teachable moment this way. Whites think they have a right to kill Black people, so they will think that the Black family's act of generosity and selflessness it is not magnanimous but just another example of Blacks knowing they should step off of the sidewalk when whites go by.
Martin Luther King, Jr. would have approved of this action by the family, where the family tries to teach white people how vengeful they are as a color-group, compared to sane people, in the hopes that embarrassment and the high road will reach their hearts.
I have a color-aroused suspicion that, when this trial is over and the Dedmond, kid will soon be out on probation, doing three months of community service at his local chapter of the Klu Klux Klan chapter.
In expressing that opinion, I have to admit my own experience. When I was seven years old, my sister was shot in the chest by white men who confessed to the act, but served no prison or jail time. Not even for disturbing the peace.
Perhaps the family is wise to argue against the death penalty, since Dedmond wouldn't have gotten the death penalty in any case.
Francis L. Holland
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