Civil lawsuit planned in beating of black man

[Judi Lynn]

Civil lawsuit planned in beating of black man
White assailants served brief terms in jail, sparking protests, outrage
By HOWARD WITT
Chicago Tribune


From left, John Wesley "Wes" Owens, Dallas Stone, Jame Cory Hicks and Christopher Colt Amox lured Billy Ray Johnson, a mentally challenged black man, to an open field, shouted racial slurs, beat him unconcious, then left him for dead. Three served only 30 days in jail and a fourth served 60 days.



KRT file
Family members say Billy Ray Johnson, 44, functioned at the level of a 12-year-old before the assault.
NEW ORLEANS - Civil rights lawyers representing a mentally retarded black man who was beaten unconscious and left for dead by four young white men in a small east Texas town were preparing today to file a civil lawsuit against the assailants, four months after local courts convicted them of misdemeanor charges and let them walk free after serving brief jail terms.

Attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate-group watchdog that has won punitive damages against the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist organizations across the country, say they hope to garner enough money for the victim, Billy Ray Johnson, 44, to move him from the grim nursing home where he is now confined to a better facility where he can receive therapy for the brain damage he suffered.

The racially tinged case was the subject of a Chicago Tribune story last June that sparked local protests and outrage among national civil rights groups angry over the sentences given to the defendants.

Johnson, a resident of Linden, Texas, who family members said functioned at the level of a 12-year-old before the assault, was lured to a party of white youths in a farm pasture on the night of Sept. 27, 2003, according to testimony in the criminal trials of two of the defendants last summer.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3359451
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[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. This is why I support the death penalty.

Scum like this don't deserve to live.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Almost looks like there's an endless supply of them,too,unfortunately n/t

[Roy]

5. But who would impose it?

Maybe if this guy had turned out to be tough and turned the tables on these four and left them in similar conditions, maybe then the death penalty would have been considered.

As a popular talk radio host here says, "It is not about the crime, it is about who is accused of the crime.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. If he did turn the tables, it would be self defense.

Totally justified, IMO.

[TahitiNut]

13. "Scum like this don't deserve to live."

I'd be willing to bet those four would unanimously agree regarding the victim. It's exactly the kind of thinking they'd comprehend. In thinking that way, we'd be no better than those four. This is the "Catch-22" of reactive support for the death penalty -- it's the mirror image of that which it pretends to oppose. In this fashion, "good citizens" model the very same thinking and rationalizations that such creatures wallow in.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

15. Maybe, but I stand by the death penalty.

Especially in this case. Why should these people be allowed to keep breathing?

[LibertyorDeath]

3. These people are parasites

4 against 1 and the one is mentally challenged

These maggots are the truly "mentally challenged"

just look at them.

They may as well have capital L's engraved on their foreheads.

[acmavm]

6. It took four of them to find the 'guts' to beat this poor guy. Poetic

justice would be that they be put in a room with four guys who's intent would be to do bodily harm. Then we could see how tough they really are.

I used to think the 'eye for an eye' biblical thing was wrong. I used to think that revenge and paybacks were to. Now I'm a firm believer. But what just slays me is the people who deserve it most (bush**, cheney**, these four guys**) usually end up getting off without a scratch. No matter how much harm they've done, how many people they've hurt.

[Voltaire99]

4. Brings to mind Sontag's famous remark about "the cancer of human history"

Behold four of its cells.

[ladylibertee]

7. Only 30 days? that's a malicious hate crime.Oh hell No..Texas?

They can give a black woman lethal injection but these trailer trash bastards get 30 days? MAJOR :wtf:

[ET Awful]

8. Gee, let's give the future Edgar Ray Killen's of the world a slap on

the wrist.

[Gman]

9. Good card-carrying members of the GOP

[sendero]

10. Sure..

..... play the race card. You people see racism everywhere. The guy didn't die did he, so what's the fuss. Let's see you spend 30 days in country.

:sarcasm:

They should be doing more than going after these 4 losers, they should be going after whoever it was that imposed this laughable sentence.

[genieroze]

12. 30 to 60 days in jail for attempted murder of a man with the mind of a

child. They left him for dead? Sounds like attempted murder to me :grr:

It must of been some "Good Ole Boy" fun.
:sarcasm:

[Ben Ceremos]

14. These are the faces

of the coming civil war in the USA. May you be properly armed against these subhumans.

[MrSlayer]

16. Disgusting, absolutely disgusting and horrible.

Justice would be throwing them into a prison with an 80% black population. Would be as fair as what they did. What scum.