Parole Sought in 1964 Murder With Racial Backdrop
Parole sought by black man convicted in 1964 rape, murder of white woman in Alabama
By BOB JOHNSON Associated Press Writer
MONTGOMERY, Ala. June 29, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press
The crime — a pregnant white newlywed raped and murdered, the chief suspect a black escapee from a chain gang — jolted residents of north Alabama's Jackson County in 1964.
The wanted man, Johnnie Daniel Beecher, lost his leg and his freedom in the aftermath of a furious manhunt.
Now 75, Beecher is up for parole again Tuesday.
Time, however, hasn't faded the feelings in the case, which evokes an era of powerful racial tension in Alabama. Relatives of the victim, Martha Jane Chisenhall, and the local prosecutor are urging the board not to release Beecher.
"From my perspective as prosecutor and a citizen, there are certain crimes so horrendous and heinous that a life sentence ought to mean just that, that those people never get out of jail," said Jackson County's current district attorney, Charlie Rhodes.
Chisenhall, 21, was kidnapped from her home near Stevenson in northern Alabama, raped and strangled, her body hidden beneath a pile of uprooted trees. Relatives said the young woman, married for seven months, had just learned she was pregnant.
A posse of several hundred outraged white men hunted the accused across the mountain and caught him in a field in Tennessee. Beecher was shot in the leg and forced at gunpoint to confess. Later, his gangrenous leg was amputated at a prison hospital. Injected with morphine after the surgery, he signed a confession.
The mishandling of the case by law enforcement and prosecutors led to three convictions being reversed, including two death sentences. Beecher did plead guilty later to murder and received a life sentence, avoiding the electric chair. He is incarcerated at the Bullock Correctional Center.
David E. Kendall, an attorney who represented Beecher in the 1970s, said he hopes the parole board will consider Beecher's age and how long he has been in prison. Beecher, whose case is going to the board for a seventh time, is not expected to attend the hearing.
Comments
The convict was in jail for more than forty years. The punishment is for correction and deterrence. What ever be the crime, even if he is the real culprit, it is time to rethink, of his punishment. It has served the purpose of punishment more than enough. Hope th eParole board would make sensible decision.Molemax
Posted by:
jacthanni 7:42 PM
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"From my perspective as prosecutor and a citizen, there are certain crimes so horrendous and heinous that a life sentence ought to mean just that, that those people never get out of jail," said Jackson County's current district attorney, Charlie Rhodes.While I am not suggesting that this man be paroled ,I am suggesting that these DA's know the difference between life with the possibility of parloe and life without parole.It is not the inmates fault that the State offers parole and it is entirely up to the indepedent parole board to see fit that the inmate is freed or not.Thank goodness it is not up to the DA's office alone or no inmate would ever be freed from prison.
Posted by:
35Steve 7:15 PM
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It would be interesting to see how some of you posters would be reacting right now if the man was white instead of being black. Suddenly the concept of fair justice is ruled out, doesn't apply. This man never received a fair trial. Now as inhuman as this actual crime was, he was never convicted of this crime. Instead, he had a confession tortured out of him. True, the guy was a convicted rapist at the time of the crime (No Saint), but that in and of itself, doesn't automatically make him guilty. Where was his day in court? Here we have a guy who was tortured into confessing to a crime that he may not have committed. Then maybe some good ole boys thought it would make their jobs easier to simply pin it on a black guy and be done with it. Lords knows they got a double whammy and hit the jackpot with this fella. But while they were busy depriving him of his constitutional rights, the actual killer - may have gotten away scott free to kill again another day. And as we have become accustomed to learning from little tidbits of modern day forensic science, in all likelihood this woman may have been killed by SOMEONE SHE ACTUALLY KNEW. Though knowing all of this, most of you posters would still like nothing more than to see this guy burning in hell just because of who he is - black. So he's gotta' be guilty - right? Is that how it still goes in America circa 2008? What about the law? What about being innocent until proven guilty?
Posted by:
UoosierBrain 6:04 PM
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If there are legitimate questions about this man's guilt, then re-examine the evidence and see if the case holds. If so, then he should not be released. A life sentence should be just that - behind bars until breath and spirit leave the body. If there is truly reasonable doubt about his guilt, re-open the case and work on sealing it up tight in a legitimate manner. But don't take his word for it because most of these people ALWAYS say they're innocent, even when the evidence nails them to the wall. My condolences to the family for the loss of two lives - the woman and her unborn baby. It's hard to have the wound reopened again and again by parole hearings.
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MsKittyMom 5:44 PM
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Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Judge Wants Ex-Black Panther's Murder Conviction Tossed After 36 Years in Solitary
After 36 Years in Solitary, Prisoner's Conviction Could Be Overturned
Judge Wants Ex-Black Panther's Murder Conviction Tossed, State Disagrees
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH
June 27, 2008
An ongoing legal battle in Louisiana could result in the overturning of a murder conviction that sent a prisoner there to solitary confinement for 36 years. A judge recently recommended that the murder conviction of former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, be overturned. The State of Louisiana disagrees.
albert
Ex-Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, spent 36 years in solitary confinement. Now a judge is recommending his murder conviction be overturned.
(Courtesy State of Louisianna )
In her report, Magistrate Judge Christine Noland said that Woodfox's attorneys were ineffective and had been unable to cross-examine the state's lead witness "regarding the promises made to him in exchange for his testimony because such information was still being suppressed by the State at the time of the 1973 trial."
Earlier this week, the State of Louisiana filed an objection denying allegations that it suppressed information that would have discredited its lead witness, a convicted rapist imprisoned at the time, and that Woodfox's attorneys at his second trial in 1998 failed to raise crucial objections.
"It's significant to me that two juries 27 years apart heard this information and convicted [Woodfox] of murder," said John W. Sinquefield, the original trial prosecutor who is now Louisiana's first assistant attorney general. "The case should not be reversed."
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Woodfox, who became known as one of the Angola Three when it was revealed that he and two other inmates were segregated for over three decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, had argued that the state should have revealed that Hezekiah Brown had been rewarded for his testimony.
Brown testified that he saw Woodfox and three other inmates murder prison guard Brent Miller. At the time, Brown was serving a life term without parole after being taken off death row, according to court documents.
But other documents from the prison's record office, and obtained by ABC News, show that after the trial, the prison's warden began campaigning for a pardon for Brown and authorized the use of prison dollars to pay for an advertisement urging his clemency. (click here to see the Warden's letter)
And in another letter, the warden makes a request that Brown be delivered a carton of cigarettes every week to "partially fulfill commitments made to him in the past with respect to his testimony." (click here to see the Warden's letter)
Judge Wants Ex-Black Panther's Murder Conviction Tossed, State Disagrees
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH
June 27, 2008
An ongoing legal battle in Louisiana could result in the overturning of a murder conviction that sent a prisoner there to solitary confinement for 36 years. A judge recently recommended that the murder conviction of former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, be overturned. The State of Louisiana disagrees.
albert
Ex-Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, spent 36 years in solitary confinement. Now a judge is recommending his murder conviction be overturned.
(Courtesy State of Louisianna )
In her report, Magistrate Judge Christine Noland said that Woodfox's attorneys were ineffective and had been unable to cross-examine the state's lead witness "regarding the promises made to him in exchange for his testimony because such information was still being suppressed by the State at the time of the 1973 trial."
Earlier this week, the State of Louisiana filed an objection denying allegations that it suppressed information that would have discredited its lead witness, a convicted rapist imprisoned at the time, and that Woodfox's attorneys at his second trial in 1998 failed to raise crucial objections.
"It's significant to me that two juries 27 years apart heard this information and convicted [Woodfox] of murder," said John W. Sinquefield, the original trial prosecutor who is now Louisiana's first assistant attorney general. "The case should not be reversed."
Related
Crime You Didn't Commit? Make a Movie
Public Defenders May Refuse Cases
Black Marchers Protest St. Louis Crime, Violence
Woodfox, who became known as one of the Angola Three when it was revealed that he and two other inmates were segregated for over three decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, had argued that the state should have revealed that Hezekiah Brown had been rewarded for his testimony.
Brown testified that he saw Woodfox and three other inmates murder prison guard Brent Miller. At the time, Brown was serving a life term without parole after being taken off death row, according to court documents.
But other documents from the prison's record office, and obtained by ABC News, show that after the trial, the prison's warden began campaigning for a pardon for Brown and authorized the use of prison dollars to pay for an advertisement urging his clemency. (click here to see the Warden's letter)
And in another letter, the warden makes a request that Brown be delivered a carton of cigarettes every week to "partially fulfill commitments made to him in the past with respect to his testimony." (click here to see the Warden's letter)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Racism Not Always Black and White: Indian style
Racism Not Always Black and White
Experts Say Immigration Rancor Fuels Hatred
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
June 25, 2008
Sparkle Reid Rai's 6-month-old daughter probably heard the commotion when a man and two women pretending to deliver a package showed up at their Union City, Ga., apartment in 2000.
There, say prosecutors in the high-profile murder trial, the 300-pound man allegedly choked and repeatedly stabbed Rai — a newlywed, whose only apparent crime was being black.
Today, a Fulton County jury began deliberating whether India-born businessman Chiman Rai ordered hit men to murder his daughter-in-law. Prosecutors contend Rai, 68, feared the mixed marriage would smear the family name in a caste-conscious Indian society.
Prosecutors established with black and white non-family witnesses that Rai had never told them his son "Ricky" had married a black woman and that they had a daughter. Sparkle Rai was killed a month after they wed. They are seeking the death penalty.
This case, which turned from a simple murder investigation into an alleged hate crime across two communities of color, highlights the complexity of race relations in a country that has often framed its prejudice in black and white.
But racial intolerance, sometimes in the form of violence, is increasingly more inclusive. Experts say that such bias is nothing new, although the national immigration debate has fueled that hate, giving bigots of all complexions more excuses to act on their ignorance.
Donna Lowry, who married Sparkle Reid's father and is now raising the victim's daughter, said, "It was such a shock to us when we found out a few years ago and we were floored.
"We had no idea it would go in this direction," she told ABCNEWS.com today en route to the trial. "It's mind-boggling. We are raising her biracial child and there is so much hatred on the other side of the family."
Rai's lawyer, Don Samuel, told ABCNEWS.com, "I'm arguing that my client is not guilty. There is no racial issue involved at all."
A dozen witnesses of all colors who had known Rai -- once a professor at two historically black colleges -- said he was not a racist. But Rai's former cellmate, a convicted forger, testified this week that the accused had made bigoted remarks while in jail, according to reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
American-born Amardeep Singh, director of the national Sikh Coalition, which defends the civil and legal rights of Sikhs, admits that his own ethnic group is capable of bigotry.
"You don't come to American to learn to be a bigot," Singh said. "There is bigotry in India. The caste system is deeply ingrained and South Asians in the U.S. still practice caste exclusion."
And he, too, has been a victim.
Racial Slurs Against Sikhs
The 37-year-old is routinely a victim of racial slurs because he wears a beard and a turban. Just recently, while walking home from a Starbucks in culturally diverse Hoboken, N.J., a passerby shouted, "You've got to take that sh-- off your head, you look like a terrorist."
And not just by rednecks. "To be honest, I've been called a terrorist by every single racial category — white, Latino or black," Singh said.
Last month, during a fire drill at Hightstown High School in New Jersey, for instance, an African-American teenager set fire to a Sikh student's turban, singeing the boy's hair.
The incident at this diverse public school with a significant number of blacks, Latinos and Asians enraged New Jersey's large Sikh community
"The fact that something like this could have happened is beyond comprehension, especially in this day and age," the victim's mother told the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
Experts Say Immigration Rancor Fuels Hatred
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
June 25, 2008
Sparkle Reid Rai's 6-month-old daughter probably heard the commotion when a man and two women pretending to deliver a package showed up at their Union City, Ga., apartment in 2000.
There, say prosecutors in the high-profile murder trial, the 300-pound man allegedly choked and repeatedly stabbed Rai — a newlywed, whose only apparent crime was being black.
Today, a Fulton County jury began deliberating whether India-born businessman Chiman Rai ordered hit men to murder his daughter-in-law. Prosecutors contend Rai, 68, feared the mixed marriage would smear the family name in a caste-conscious Indian society.
Prosecutors established with black and white non-family witnesses that Rai had never told them his son "Ricky" had married a black woman and that they had a daughter. Sparkle Rai was killed a month after they wed. They are seeking the death penalty.
This case, which turned from a simple murder investigation into an alleged hate crime across two communities of color, highlights the complexity of race relations in a country that has often framed its prejudice in black and white.
But racial intolerance, sometimes in the form of violence, is increasingly more inclusive. Experts say that such bias is nothing new, although the national immigration debate has fueled that hate, giving bigots of all complexions more excuses to act on their ignorance.
Donna Lowry, who married Sparkle Reid's father and is now raising the victim's daughter, said, "It was such a shock to us when we found out a few years ago and we were floored.
"We had no idea it would go in this direction," she told ABCNEWS.com today en route to the trial. "It's mind-boggling. We are raising her biracial child and there is so much hatred on the other side of the family."
Rai's lawyer, Don Samuel, told ABCNEWS.com, "I'm arguing that my client is not guilty. There is no racial issue involved at all."
A dozen witnesses of all colors who had known Rai -- once a professor at two historically black colleges -- said he was not a racist. But Rai's former cellmate, a convicted forger, testified this week that the accused had made bigoted remarks while in jail, according to reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
American-born Amardeep Singh, director of the national Sikh Coalition, which defends the civil and legal rights of Sikhs, admits that his own ethnic group is capable of bigotry.
"You don't come to American to learn to be a bigot," Singh said. "There is bigotry in India. The caste system is deeply ingrained and South Asians in the U.S. still practice caste exclusion."
And he, too, has been a victim.
Racial Slurs Against Sikhs
The 37-year-old is routinely a victim of racial slurs because he wears a beard and a turban. Just recently, while walking home from a Starbucks in culturally diverse Hoboken, N.J., a passerby shouted, "You've got to take that sh-- off your head, you look like a terrorist."
And not just by rednecks. "To be honest, I've been called a terrorist by every single racial category — white, Latino or black," Singh said.
Last month, during a fire drill at Hightstown High School in New Jersey, for instance, an African-American teenager set fire to a Sikh student's turban, singeing the boy's hair.
The incident at this diverse public school with a significant number of blacks, Latinos and Asians enraged New Jersey's large Sikh community
"The fact that something like this could have happened is beyond comprehension, especially in this day and age," the victim's mother told the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
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