Flashback: Still another person who was "Nifonged", LaCresha Murray

[bluestateguy]

Texas DUers will be familliar with this case. In this case, the matter went much father than the Duke case, landing the girl in prison for several years. In addition, the DA is not the only one culpable here. The Austin Police department behaved in a way that was thuggish and dishonest. I was so outraged by this case that I actually voted for Ronnie Earle's Republican opponent in 2000 (he promised to fold up the case if elected).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Earle#LaCresha_Murray_case

LaCresha Murray case

In 1996, Earle indicted 11-year-old LaCresha Murray for capital murder involving 2-year-old Jayla Belton - the youngest homicide prosecution in Texas history. Earle's evidence rested on an alleged confession by Murray, obtained by interrogation at a children's shelter in the absence of any attorney or family member. Murray's case provoked several public protests of Earle's office and at the Texas State Capitol from her detention in 1996 until her 1999 release, when the case was reviewed. <1>

She was again tried and convicted of intentional injury to a child, receiving a 25-year sentence. In 2001, the Texas' 3rd Court of Appeals reversed and remanded her sentence after finding that her confession was illegally obtained. Earle dropped all charges against her. <2><3>

In 2002, a suit was filed against the Travis Co. District Attorney's Office and a host of other individuals and various agencies. The lawsuit alleges that Lacresha and her family have been victimized by malicious prosecution, defamation, mental anguish, libel and slander. Charges of racism are also raised in the suit, suggesting that the Murray family would have been treated differently had they been white. Murray's suit was dismissed; on November 28, 2005, the US Supreme Court refused to revive the lawsuit.<4>

[Dhalgren]

1. Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens a lot in the minority community.

No one gives a damn. This was a poor black girl - so it doesn't matter. It did not get a tenth - a hundredth - of the coverage the Duke case did. If she had been rich and white, it would have been different.

Now let's see me get raked over the coals.

[bluestateguy]

2. No, you are right.

I would just add this: none of that changes the fact that the Duke case was an abominable outrage. In fact, I think because the Duke players and their families DO have financial resources and connections, they have a responsibility to use those resources to severely punish Nifong and the university, such that they can't bring such harm upon less powerful people. It looks as if the Duke players are trying to do just that, and I applaud them for it.

[noamnety]

6. Or

they could use their resources to pay the legal fees of people who can't afford the kind of attorneys they were able to hire.

[pnwmom]

3. If she had been black and RICH, it would have been different.

I think the ability to pay for good legal representation is the key factor, not race.

Think O.J. Simpson.

[Dhalgren]

5. You are right, to an extent wealth trumps race, but it is so unevenly distributed...

[Brewman_Jax]

4. Here's another graphic example

The famed Tulia, TX drug sting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulia,_Texas

Being black, rich or not, should not be a "Go straight to jail" card.