Charges Dropped In Texas Dragging Death
With the Presidential election just 6 months away, what will the political fallout be for the anemic May jobs report? Rebecca Jarvis and Anthony Mason asked this of CBS News political director John Dickerson.
Two white men accused of killing a black man in a racially charged dragging death in East Texas were released from jail Thursday after murder charges were dismissed, the prosecutor said.
Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley were released Thursday afternoon in Paris after a judge granted the special prosecutor's motion to dismiss the case. The two men had been charged with fatally striking 24-year-old Brandon McClelland with a pickup truck in September following the trio's late-night beer run to Oklahoma.
The case was hampered by a lack of eyewitnesses and physical evidence. Last month, a gravel truck driver gave a sworn statement acknowledging he might have accidentally run over McClelland.
Special prosecutor Toby Shook said the investigation will continue, and that Finley and Crostley have no restrictions on their freedom. The gravel truck driver is unlikely to face charges.
"After investigation, it has been determined this case should be dismissed in the interests of justice," Shook said. "The decision is about the state of the evidence in the case as it exists today."
The dismissal was met with incredulity by civil rights activists who had protested how county authorities handled the case.
"His body was dragged and nobody gets charged?" said Brenda Cherry, a Paris resident and the president of Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality. "Even if a trucker came forward, that's all it takes? Even the trucker's not charged? If you hit someone, you don't get charged? Nobody gets charged with this?
"It's not surprising, but it's sad. It appears that a black man's life means nothing here in Paris."
Attorneys for the two former defendants also said they were not surprised their clients were freed - albeit for different reasons.
"I believed all along there was insufficiency of the evidence," said Ben Massar, Finley's attorney. "The facts in this case did not add up to these two kids being guilty of the charge."
Finley and Crostley had been unable to post their bonds and had remained in the Lamar County jail since being arrested last year. Finley's trial had been scheduled to begin next month, with Crostley's to follow in September.
"He was very happy. He knew that this was going to happen," Massar said of Finley. "He was a little disappointed it took so long, but he was very grateful."
Crostley's attorney said both defense lawyers worked closely with Shook to get the dismissal.
"I think it's very simple," said David Turner, Crostley's lawyer. "These fellows didn't do it."
Authorities had said Finley, Crostley and McClelland were friends who drove across the Oklahoma border for beer in September. They argued on the way back about whether Finley was too drunk to drive, and McClelland got out of the car to walk home.
Authorities alleged that Finley then ran down McClelland, whose body was caught under the truck and dragged about 70 feet. His mangled body was found along a country road.
The protest was not the first event indicating racial problems in Paris, which is about 73 percent white and 22 percent black. In 2007, a black girl was sentenced to up to seven years in a juvenile prison hundreds of miles from her home for shoving a teacher's aide at school, while a white girl was sentenced by the same judge to probation for burning down her parents' house. The case drew international media attention.
In March, civil rights attorneys alleged discrimination at a pipe fabrication facility that employs about 700 workers in Paris. Two black workers alleged widespread racism and said supervisors did not respond to complaints about racist graffiti, nooses and slurs.
"Hopefully this will go some distance in healing race relations in Paris," Turner said. "It was not motivated by race or any criminal intent. It was just a tragic accident."
Deric Muhammad, a Nation of Islam member from Houston who helped organize last year's protest, called the dismissal "too see-through, too weak, too cellophane."
"I guess that's just small-town Texas law," Muhammad said.
Shook said he spoke with Jacquline McClelland, Brandon's mother, to tell her he was dismissing charges. Her voicemail box was full, and a friend told The Associated Press she was not at home.
"As you can imagine, Ms. McClelland is very upset over this entire process," Shook said. "She is a very brave woman and she is trying to deal with all these issues. Your heart goes out to her because she has lost her son. She is having to continue to deal with his death and having someone brought to justice in it. It is a frustrating experience."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley were released Thursday afternoon in Paris after a judge granted the special prosecutor's motion to dismiss the case. The two men had been charged with fatally striking 24-year-old Brandon McClelland with a pickup truck in September following the trio's late-night beer run to Oklahoma.
The case was hampered by a lack of eyewitnesses and physical evidence. Last month, a gravel truck driver gave a sworn statement acknowledging he might have accidentally run over McClelland.
Special prosecutor Toby Shook said the investigation will continue, and that Finley and Crostley have no restrictions on their freedom. The gravel truck driver is unlikely to face charges.
"After investigation, it has been determined this case should be dismissed in the interests of justice," Shook said. "The decision is about the state of the evidence in the case as it exists today."
The dismissal was met with incredulity by civil rights activists who had protested how county authorities handled the case.
"His body was dragged and nobody gets charged?" said Brenda Cherry, a Paris resident and the president of Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality. "Even if a trucker came forward, that's all it takes? Even the trucker's not charged? If you hit someone, you don't get charged? Nobody gets charged with this?
"It's not surprising, but it's sad. It appears that a black man's life means nothing here in Paris."
Attorneys for the two former defendants also said they were not surprised their clients were freed - albeit for different reasons.
"I believed all along there was insufficiency of the evidence," said Ben Massar, Finley's attorney. "The facts in this case did not add up to these two kids being guilty of the charge."
Finley and Crostley had been unable to post their bonds and had remained in the Lamar County jail since being arrested last year. Finley's trial had been scheduled to begin next month, with Crostley's to follow in September.
"He was very happy. He knew that this was going to happen," Massar said of Finley. "He was a little disappointed it took so long, but he was very grateful."
Crostley's attorney said both defense lawyers worked closely with Shook to get the dismissal.
"I think it's very simple," said David Turner, Crostley's lawyer. "These fellows didn't do it."
Authorities had said Finley, Crostley and McClelland were friends who drove across the Oklahoma border for beer in September. They argued on the way back about whether Finley was too drunk to drive, and McClelland got out of the car to walk home.
Authorities alleged that Finley then ran down McClelland, whose body was caught under the truck and dragged about 70 feet. His mangled body was found along a country road.
The racial implications of the case reminded some of the East Texas dragging death of James Byrd in Jasper 11 years ago and brought out about 200 protesters, many of them from the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party. The rally last year also attracted at least one acknowledged member of the Ku Klux Klan to Paris, about 90 miles northeast of Dallas.
The protest was not the first event indicating racial problems in Paris, which is about 73 percent white and 22 percent black. In 2007, a black girl was sentenced to up to seven years in a juvenile prison hundreds of miles from her home for shoving a teacher's aide at school, while a white girl was sentenced by the same judge to probation for burning down her parents' house. The case drew international media attention.
In March, civil rights attorneys alleged discrimination at a pipe fabrication facility that employs about 700 workers in Paris. Two black workers alleged widespread racism and said supervisors did not respond to complaints about racist graffiti, nooses and slurs.
"Hopefully this will go some distance in healing race relations in Paris," Turner said. "It was not motivated by race or any criminal intent. It was just a tragic accident."
Deric Muhammad, a Nation of Islam member from Houston who helped organize last year's protest, called the dismissal "too see-through, too weak, too cellophane."
"I guess that's just small-town Texas law," Muhammad said.
Shook said he spoke with Jacquline McClelland, Brandon's mother, to tell her he was dismissing charges. Her voicemail box was full, and a friend told The Associated Press she was not at home.
"As you can imagine, Ms. McClelland is very upset over this entire process," Shook said. "She is a very brave woman and she is trying to deal with all these issues. Your heart goes out to her because she has lost her son. She is having to continue to deal with his death and having someone brought to justice in it. It is a frustrating experience."
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Channon Christian was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breasts and put chemicals in her mouth... and then murdered her.
Knoxville (WVLT) - The District Attorney General of Knox County announced the list of charges facing now five suspects in the double murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The District Attorney General Randy Nichols is not saying whether or not he will seek the death penalty, but he does say the State will seek conviction for all charges filed in a 24-page indictment from the Knox County Grand Jury.
Lemaricus Davidson, 25 , faces a total of 46 charges.
Letalvis Cobbins, 24 , faces a total of 46 charges.
George Thomas, 24 , faces a total of 46 charges.
Vanessa Coleman, 18 , faces 40 Tennessee state charges.
Eric Boyd, 24 , also arrested in connection with the fatal car jacking, only faces federal charges as an accessory after the fact.
SO!!!!!
Where's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Are they providing counsel and help to the families of the victims?
Of course not - the victims were white
Why hasn't this received National coverage by the news media like the Duke 'rape' case?
Oh, that's right - the victims were white
Why hasn't the NAACP, ACLU, New York Times etc., called for an investigation?
Must be cause the victims were white
Why hasn't the FBI been called in to investigate this as a hate crime?
Oh, that's right - the victims were white'
So, if a white radio shock jock uses the phrase 'Nappy headed', it gets 2 weeks of constant news coverage.
If two white people are tortured, raped, and murdered by a group of black people, it barely gets a blip in the news.
Pass this around, and maybe, just maybe, it will land in the hands of someone in the media or politics, that has the guts to stand up for the white people!! Or don't because you don't have the guts either!!
Channon Christian was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breasts and put chemicals in her mouth... and then murdered her.
Knoxville (WVLT) - The District Attorney General of Knox County announced the list of charges facing now five suspects in the double murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The District Attorney General Randy Nichols is not saying whether or not he will seek the death penalty, but he does say the State will seek conviction for all charges filed in a 24-page indictment from the Knox County Grand Jury.
Lemaricus Davidson, 25 , faces a total of 46 charges.
Letalvis Cobbins, 24 , faces a total of 46 charges.
George Thomas, 24 , faces a total of 46 charges.
Vanessa Coleman, 18 , faces 40 Tennessee state charges.
Eric Boyd, 24 , also arrested in connection with the fatal car jacking, only faces federal charges as an accessory after the fact.
SO!!!!!
Where's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Are they providing counsel and help to the families of the victims?
Of course not - the victims were white
Why hasn't this received National coverage by the news media like the Duke 'rape' case?
Oh, that's right - the victims were white
Why hasn't the NAACP, ACLU, New York Times etc., called for an investigation?
Must be cause the victims were white
Why hasn't the FBI been called in to investigate this as a hate crime?
Oh, that's right - the victims were white'
So, if a white radio shock jock uses the phrase 'Nappy headed', it gets 2 weeks of constant news coverage.
If two white people are tortured, raped, and murdered by a group of black people, it barely gets a blip in the news.
Pass this around, and maybe, just maybe, it will land in the hands of someone in the media or politics, that has the guts to stand up for the white people!! Or don't because you don't have the guts either!!
-------------snip----------------------
I'd like to see the source for that story. I can't imagine why you did'nt post it along with your comments.
Posted by stuart2000 at 4:42 PM : Jun 7, 2009
Try Google, it finds all . . . decide for yourself the merits of the story.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124451552193396877.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
This story states that the charges were dropped against the 2 boys who where his FRIENDS. AND that another person confessed to the crime of killing the 3rd boy. AND that the 2 boys had already spent many months in jail for something they didn't do! WHAT'S racist about that? Did you want them convicted of something they didn't do just because the color of their skin was different than the victim? THAT is racist!
When the Texas authorities (admittedly they seem kinda slow) get their act together, I'm sure they will charge the truck driver since he ADMITTED to the crime. Why don't you press for that action rather than all the name calling and denigration of all of Texas who has the highest incarceration rate of the whole country? And I'm sure the MLM will let everyone know when that happens since it sounds like manslaughter rather than murder to me since the boy was walking along an unlit road, at night, drunk, when the trucker hit him.
CBS sure didn't spell it out well, but, then, the emphasis here was how accused whites were released after being accused of murder of a black.
Thanks CBS for emphasizing the skin color of the people involved, now, why don't you add the nationality and religion of everyone you report on so more people can get all riled up for all the wrong reasons because they want to read a headline and jump to PC conclusions and remember incidents connected to their outrage instead of facts. Like when a US black newly converted MUSLIM does a drive-by shooting killing US soldiers at a recruiting station? OH YA, you don't want us to know how blacks are jumping into a violent cult and learning how to create chaos INSIDE the US from american hate mongers because they have learned from stories like this that blacks in the USA are downtrodden, disenfranchised and have no opportunities! (let's see, half-black president, black top golfer in the world Tiger, black blockbuster stars on TV and movies including the highest paid entertainer Will Smith, black top talk show host Oprah, black supreme court justice Thomas, black head of the RNC Steele, and the percentage of blacks that are classified in middle class is higher than the percentage of blacks in the general population due to the hispanic take over of low paying jobs, the most loved comedians of all races were the esteemable 60s Flip Wilson and 70s 80s 90s Bill Cosby, singers Beyonce and Aretha whose voice ANYONE recognises on the first word they say, that the percentage of blacks active in churchs exceed the percentage of whites. ya, seems like black opportunities in this county are extremely limited.... OH sorry, that doesn't fit the liberal agenda either) I bet this comment gets deleted by the moderators.
Channon Christian was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breasts and put chemicals in her mouth... and then murdered her.
Knoxville (WVLT) - The District Attorney General of Knox County announced the list of charges facing now five suspects in the double murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The District Attorney General Randy Nichols is not saying whether or not he will seek the death penalty, but he does say the State will seek conviction for all charges filed in a 24-page indictment from the Knox County Grand Jury.
Lemaricus Davidson, 25 , faces a total of 46 charges.
Letalvis Cobbins, 24 , faces a total of 46 charges.
George Thomas, 24 , faces a total of 46 charges.
Vanessa Coleman, 18 , faces 40 Tennessee state charges.
Eric Boyd, 24 , also arrested in connection with the fatal car jacking, only faces federal charges as an accessory after the fact.
SO!!!!!
Where's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Are they providing counsel and help to the families of the victims?
Of course not - the victims were white
Why hasn't this received National coverage by the news media like the Duke 'rape' case?
Oh, that's right - the victims were white
Why hasn't the NAACP, ACLU, New York Times etc., called for an investigation?
Must be cause the victims were white
Why hasn't the FBI been called in to investigate this as a hate crime?
Oh, that's right - the victims were white'
So, if a white radio shock jock uses the phrase 'Nappy headed', it gets 2 weeks of constant news coverage.
If two white people are tortured, raped, and murdered by a group of black people, it barely gets a blip in the news.
Pass this around, and maybe, just maybe, it will land in the hands of someone in the media or politics, that has the guts to stand up for the white people!! Or don't because you don't have the guts either!!
Remember.... we teach by example and conversation with our children. We must actually do this. Prejudice people set examples for thier children everday. We can not win by no example and no conversation. It will not be wished away.