No fucking way, black woman gets kidnapped, tortured, is almost killed...

[originalpckelly]

...the folks doing it are big fat racists, and it's not going to be a fucking hate crime?

:grr: :nuke:

I will not be able to create understandable sentences after this point for the fact that I'm so enraged!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Was race the motivating factor?

[CC]

3. According to the suspects

it was.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Huh.

Weird.

[originalpckelly]

7. The story goes that they literally told her that they did it because she was black.

I posted it from CBS below.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Has the prosecutor offered an explanation?

[originalpckelly]

11. Not that I know of.

It's going to be interesting to hear the excuse on this one.

These are federal charges too, so it's an AUSA or even a USA making this decision possibly with guidance from the higher ups.

[pitohui]

40. yes, the victim was an ex of one of the perps

it will be hard to convince a jury that she was singled out because she was black

she was singled out because she had rejected the girlfriend-beating punk, they have a police record of a domestic call-out between the two of them

they'll still put these evil doers under the jail, don't worry, they'll just have to handle it a little differently

[originalpckelly]

6. Here:

"At one point, one of her captors cut her ankle with a knife and used the N-word in telling her she was victimized because she is black."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/12/national/main3253257_page2.shtml

[atreides1]

14. That would be hard to determine

Since the US Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia has decided to turn the case over to the local prosecutor, after only investigating the case for 5 days.

The report states that the victim and Bobby Brewster, had a previous relationship. Brewster had been charged in July with domestic battery and assault after a domestic dispute involving the same woman.

So maybe it wasn't racial hate crime, perhaps the hatred was based on a woman having the audacity to bring charges against mr macho!

Hate crimes don't only cover race, they can include gender, sexual orientaton, even religious belief.

[Warpy]

20. I'm sure there were several components

and a major one was "No N..... B.... is gonna turn ME down!"

The rest of the pack who participated were doing it out of bigotry, shared misogyny, and male bonding.

Hate crime laws have rarely been written to cover women.

[originalpckelly]

2. This is just happening on CNN Headline News...

story is over now, but good God, how do they manage to get away with it?!!?

[MissB]

5. You're kidding?!

[originalpckelly]

8. No, I'm not. Isn't this fucking outrageous, and this isn't local either...

this is federal charges!

How does Condi feel about her admin. co-workers actually deciding that?

[Beaverhausen]

10. The victim had a relationship with one of the kidnappers - had him arrested in July

for domestic violence. Maybe that is why they are saying no hate crime?

edit to add this:

W.Va. victim knew torture suspect

BIG CREEK, W.Va. - A young black woman who authorities say was tortured for days at a remote hillside home, sexually assaulted and forced to eat rat droppings was not a random target, the county prosectutor said Wednesday.


One of the six suspects arrested in the case, Bobby Brewster, had a previous relationship with the victim, Logan County Prosecutor Brian Abraham told The Associated Press. He said Brewster had been charged in July with domestic battery and assault after a domestic dispute involving the same woman.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070912/ap_on_re_us/woman_tortured;_ylt=Aoyw2H9okZOMmBQX3u7CJVis0NUE

[originalpckelly]

13. Maybe, I do remember something about her hanging around...

but when it comes to being tortured like this by so many people, it looks like a hate crime, not domestic violence.

[Beaverhausen]

17. But it looks like this group of sick fucks did it to get back at her for what she did...

...to that guy, and perhaps not soley due to the fact that she is black.

It is certainly hateful, but if you look at the background of these people, it seems to be normal behavior for them. :puke:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

24. "sick fucks"

That's one point I'll not argue.

What they did to that woman was beyond horrific.

If she did have a relationship with Brewster, and this was some sort of vendetta attack, shouldn't this open more areas to prosecute them on?

[RavensChick]

34. Absolutely!

This has to be the most horrible, sickening, hateful thing to hear about. Makes me wonder where we're going as a nation. These people should certainly get the death penalty for this!!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. Any word on why exactly yet?

I heard that she knew one or more of her assailants and next thing I know I'm hearing they're not prosecuting as a hate crime.

Are the two related somehow? If you know the person who does such a thing to you does that negate it being a hate crime?

If that's true it's fucking stupid, but I'll wait to get really pissed off until I know for sure.

[originalpckelly]

16. Not really, because there were many many unrelated people involved in this...

it looks like a modern day version of a lynching, only instead of just hanging someone they tortured this poor young lady.

It might even be that she was having a relationship with one or more of these folks, and the rest of the family went insane when they found out.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

45. I've not been able to find much more on this

But I did find this one snip:

Frankie Brewster and her son Bobby Brewster, both of Big Creek, are each charged with kidnapping, sexual assault and malicious wounding. The mother is also charged with giving false information during a felony investigation while her son is also charged with assault during the commission of a felony.

Conviction of those charges could be enough to put the suspects away for life, Miller said.

Federal charges tend to carry a more severe penalty, he said. But hate crimes charges are usually filed against those who intend to prevent their victim from exercising a federally protected right, such as voting, gaining employment or housing, according to a federal hate crimes law passed in 1968.

"The fact that a crime is motivated by racial animosity doesn't always make it a federal crime," Miller said. "Because of the seriousness of this case and the state statutes, the penalties are still severe."

http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/2007091276/BREAKING-NEWS-Six-Logan-residents-wont-face-federal-hate-crime-charges/

I don't know if this is true or not, but it does appear to be the angle of the reason they're claiming.

[EFerrari]

15. In our two party dysfunctional "system", one of those parties is powered

by racism.

This is horrible but, is it surprising?

[originalpckelly]

18. No, sfexpat2000, it's not surprising in a way...

but I hope the bastards in the DOJ who did this get fried in the media for it. This was a federal decision on federal hate crimes charges, that means somehow the Republicans are involved.

[Bluebear]

44. ..

wrong spot

[cali]

19. How about this?

How could the murderers of Channon Christian and Chris Newsome
not have been charged with a hate crime? They were kidnapped, tortured for days, and then murdered. The victims were white and the perpetrators were black.

While she watched, they cut off Christian's penis, and then shot him and set his body on fire. Following that they brutally raped and tortured her for 4 days, cutting off her breast and urinating on her, among other acts. Like this case, it wasn't only males.

So why no hate crimes prosecution? Presumably because they didn't have the requisite elements to bring the charge. And before I leapt to conclusions in this case, I'd take that possibility into consideration.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp

http://www.volunteertv.com/special/headlines/5483316.html

[fishwax]

41. actually, later reports contradicted most of those claims

Specifically, it's now reported that neither of the victims were dismembered and that the woman was killed within a day of her abduction, not raped and tortured over four days (though Chris's body was burned). Still heinous, but it appears that the other details which spread like wildfire over the Internet were not reflective of what actually happened.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18745632/

[cali]

46. You're right, but that

hardly negates the basics. She was raped for a day before being killed.. He was killed in front of her and also raped.

All I'm saying is that there's not enough evidence yet in the West Virginia case to make the judgement that racism is the reason that they aren't pursuing fed hate crime prosecution.

[bluestateguy]

21. The state can still charge her under West Virginia hate crime laws

Which is where most hate crime prosecutions should be handled. There has to be a federal jurisdiction, and in this case, I'm not sure that there is.

[Xithras]

22. Doing so might have hurt more than helped.

The problem with hate crime laws is that you have to prove the suspects committed the crime, AND prove their behavior was racially motivated. If you charge them with a hate crime and can't prove intent, the suspects can walk away even if the prosecutor has proved the basic crime itself.

In this case, one of the accused had a previous relationship with the woman (according to MSNBC), which provides enough of a window for a good defense attorney to introduce doubt. At that point, the defense simply has to argue that the suspects were motivated by something stemming out of the previous relationship. Doubt. Not guilty. The racists go free.

If the DA is sure that he can prove the crime, and the sentences they face are stiff enough anyway (20+ years for kidnapping and rape, minimum), it would be stupid to jeopardize that guaranteed conviction by introducing an enhancement that might get them off.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Uh, are you sure?

Can't they still prove and convict on the lesser offense? Like when prosecutors fail to prove murder one, they can still get a conviction for murder two?

[Xithras]

33. Yes, but not the way you're thinking of.

First, I'm not a lawyer. Second, my understanding is that this varies a bit between the states. That said, juries can only convict you of the crime you're charged with.

As an example: With a standard Murder charge, you have to prove two things: Action and Intent. You have to prove that they physically completed an action that killed another, and that they intended to do so. With a hate crimes enhancement, the DA is making things harder on himself. In that case, he has to prove that the person committed an action that killed another, and that the intent was specifically driven by the assailants desire to hurt the minority community (i.e., the "target" was the racial group, not the individual).

AFAIK, juries cannot simply choose a different crime to charge you with if the DA doesn't prove the original. Double jeopardy laws also prevent DA's from filing more than one charge against someone for the same crime (you can't charge someone with two counts of murder if they only killed one person).

What can happen, of course, is that multiple charges can be filed if multiple crimes are committed. If a person kills two people, for example, one murder can be charged in the first degree, and one in the second. That provides the DA with some cover if he fails to prove intent.

The same concept applies to rape, torture, and kidnapping. If any lawyers want to correct me on this, I'm all ears.

[stillcool]

25. reminds me of this story...

To some in Paris, sinister past is back
In Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation. A black one shoves
a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. The state NAACP calls it 'a signal to black folks.'
By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 12, 2007
----------------------------------------------
There was the 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims' family.

There are the Paris public schools, which are under investigation by the U.S. Education Department after repeated complaints that administrators discipline black students more frequently, and more harshly, than white students.

And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.
Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120170mar12,1,1921178.story?coll=chi&ctrack=1&cset=true

[gateley]

32. Boy am I naive! I didn't think this type of BLATANT discrimination

was still going on. WTF??

[stillcool]

47. kind of makes me wonder...

how I could possibly think I know what's going on in Iraq, when I don't even know what's going on here.

[mmonk]

26. Sorry but that ideology that crimes motivated purely on hatred

based on differences such as race, orientation , religion, and the like should not be dealt with any differently has stuck out there in la la land unfortunately.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

27. Personally I Don't Care If It's A Hate Crime Or Not. I Just Want Them To Spend Life In Prison.

[RainDog]

30. my bet: they're dead

they will not last long in prison... that's my guess. Dahmer was killed too.

[Beaverhausen]

31. One of them already served a whooping 5 years for murder

what makes you think they will get life?

[pitohui]

42. she served 5 years for manslaughter

while maybe it should have been murder, the ruling was manslaughter and 5 years is not an unusual sentence for that

she'll get a lot more this time, no way around it

[seriousstan]

28. Funny, this wasn't a hate crime.

According to news
reports, Christian and Newsom had gone on a date at a local restaurant on Saturday, January 6, 2007, but did not return home. During their night out, the couple was "hijacked, bound and blindfolded and taken back to Lemaricus Devall 'Slim' Davidson's rented house on Chipman Street."<4>

Christian's parents found her abandoned Toyota 4-Runner two blocks away from the Chipman Street house on Monday, with the help of her mobile phone provider. An envelope recovered from the vehicle yielded fingerprint evidence that led police to Lemaricus Davidson and 2316 Chipman Street. When police went to the address on Tuesday, January 9, they found the home unoccupied and Christian's body in a trash can in the kitchen. Christian had been strangled to death.<5> According to the grand jury presentment, Christian had also been raped vaginally, orally, and anally.<2> One of the suspects, Vanessa Coleman, later told police that "she witnessed Christian's mouth being cleaned with a bottle of some type of cleaner," in an attempt to remove DNA evidence.<6> Coleman also said that she had seen "clothes that were stained with blood and smelled of gas being put in the washing machine at the house."<6> Newsom was shot three times, "his body wrapped in a blanket, set afire and dumped alongside nearby railroad tracks." <5><7> He had also been anally raped.<2>

The national news media was initially criticized by some for not giving the crime adequate coverage<4><8> because the victims were white, and the suspects black, but some commentators have explained that "as bad as this crime is, the apparent absence of any interest group involvement or any other 'angle' might also explain the lack of coverage." <9><10> This criticism was also fueled by erroneous reports of dismemberment, mutilations, and the duration of Christian's rapes allegedly committed by the suspects, especially in early reports.<11> Most of the original reports were later denied by the District Attorney, along with misinformation reported from a federal deputy in the arresting state of Kentucky shortly after the suspects were apprehended.<11> The crime and its lack of mainstream media coverage prompted two small demonstrations in Knoxville by white nationalist groups, resulting in one arrest.<12><13> <14><15>

Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said that there is no indication the crimes were racially motivated, and that the murders and assault "appears to have been a random violent act."<16> "There is absolutely no proof of a hate crime," said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Atty. Randy Nichols. "We know from our investigation that the people charged in this case were friends with white people, socialized with white people, dated white people. So not only is there no evidence of any racial animus, there's evidence to the contrary." <17> Some commentators, including Newsom's parents, disagree, claiming that such a crime would require a motive of racial hate. <17>

murderers...


victims..
http://www.northwesthomeland.org/Chris%20and%20Channon,%202.jpg


January 6, 2007, I don't recall the MSM making a big deal about this either.

[originalpckelly]

35. Were they targeted specifically because they were white?

In this case, it has been alleged that the accuser was specifically told by her torturers that she was targeted for being black, though I doubt they said it in such formal language.

[cali]

43. It's also being alleged, as I understand it

that the victim in the W. Virginia case, had a prior relationship with one of the perpetrators. If, for instance, they were friends or dated, that would work against hate crime charges. In the Knoxville case, one of the reasons, I believe, that the perps weren't charged with a hate crime, was because at least one of them had white friends.

We'll never know what the perps in Knoxville said; the victims are dead, but some of the things they did to the victims could fairly be described as reflective of hatred.

The point is, we just don't know enough to judge in this case.

[Lucinda]

29. What will this mean in terms of sentencing?

With a prior relationship and mental issues (i'm not sure what they are but I remember her mother mentioned that there were some issues) I gues they figured that they might not be able to make it stick?

Sickens me though.

[originalpckelly]

36. Federal crimes usually have more severe punishments.

[BadgerLaw2010]

37. Hate crime requires race to be the motivation. And you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Very difficult to do that if there is credible other evidence for why she was targeted, i.e. they knew her.

[peacebaby3]

38. Because a "hate crime" conviction carries a sentence of 10 yrs. but a state

kidnapping charge carries a sentence of life in prison.

[BlooInBloo]

39. (shrug) White folks can't STAND the existence of hate crimes. No news there.