A case of “OMG, the cops shot another unarmed man” is in trial as I write this, and new evidence is coming out that seems to favor the officer. It’s a classic example of why a recurring theme in this blog has been to avoid the rush to judgment and wait until all the facts are in before a one-sided accusation convinces us of someone’s guilt.
Unmeritorious cases can be brought against citizens as well as cops. My friend and student Ken Ewing recently lent me an instructive book: “Drawn to Injustice: the Wrongful Conviction of Timothy Masters,” written by Masters with law professor Steve Lehto. Masters was a 15-year- old boy who collected knives and, like many of his demographic, had a morbid interest in violent fiction. When a 37-year-old woman was stabbed to death near his home, detectives – one in particular – fixated on him as the suspect. Several years later they arrested him for it, overlooking more likely suspects, and a perfect storm of misinterpreted circumstantial evidence, exculpatory evidence withheld from the defense, a couple of overzealous prosecutors, and a psychologist who testified for the prosecution without examining the defendant or having full knowledge of the evidence, resulted in a conviction and a sentence of life without parole.
A decade later, DNA evidence conclusively proved that Tim Masters could not have been the killer.
“Though the wheels of God grind slowly, they grind exceeding small.” That’s sometimes true of the wheels of Justice, too. Masters was compensated by settlements that added up to roughly a million dollars per year of his imprisonment. The two prosecutors, who in the interim had been elected to judgeships, were censured by the state bar association and largely as a result of this, were booted off their benches by voters in the next election. The lead investigator was indicted on multiple counts of perjury, which were dismissed due to the statute of limitations. He remained suspended pending internal affairs investigation in spite of that, and resigned, ending a 33-year police career under an ugly cloud. A brave cop who stepped forward, and a new prosecutor who understood his obligations as a minister of justice, had a lot to do with the outcome, too.
Read the book. It’s so important to wait for ALL the evidence. Despite clear proof otherwise, there are still people who think Masters is a murderer, and are even confused enough to believe he was 37 and killed a 15-year-old, getting the ages backwards. For that matter, there are still people who think poor George Zimmerman is guilty of murder.
It’s a sad thing, and the kind of injustice we all have to work to keep from repeating.
An increasing factor, in this type of “rush to judgment”, seems to be the internet and the relentless 24-hour news cycle. Everyone jumps to be the first to “break” the story on the internet with the result that many facts are unknown and the “facts” that are reported often contain gross errors.
We saw this with the Zimmerman case where the news media whipped the story up to a shameless degree. The early reports were grossly wrong in their details. Mr. Zimmerman was painted as a villain and tried, convicted and sentenced on the internet. When he was actually tried in court, of course, the true facts could no longer be suppressed and the “storyline” could not be supported. As a result, no conviction (in the real world as opposed to the virtual world) could stand.
We saw another example of this recently with the case of Dr. Palmer and “Cecil the Lion”. Now, I don’t know the facts of this case. I don’t know if “Cecil” was hunted legally or if game laws were violated. However, I do know that another Zimmerman-style “rush to judgment” job was done by the news media. Dr. Palmer has also been tried in the media and convicted. Like Zimmerman, his life has been destroyed. The fact, that this has all been done without due process and without the accused being able to speak in his own defense, is another shameful episode of media abuse. True journalism no longer seems to exist in American anymore. All we have are media clown entertainers.
Thank You, Mas.
Not only for a fine recommendation and sound advice yet also, in my opinion, one of your finest posts in the history of this blog. Excellent point, excellent stuff.
“Though the wheels of God grind slowly, they grind exceeding small.”
God is everything – Big and small! Justice likewise, it’s all Him!
Mas, as long as you bring up DNA evidence: I have read stories where old bones or other evidence has been found and “experts” have said that if the DNA hasn’t deteriorated too far, they will try for a match. I am not a cop, but in the movies, the evidence room in police stations is not portrayed as a sterile, conditioned space. Hot and humid would be more like it. So the question is: How could a rape kit with semen as DNA evidence that has been there for several decades be used to free someone in prison because they can’t get a match. Perhaps the DNA has deteriorated to the point that you could not get a match with anyone that has ever lived?
Randy, I’d have to leave that question to a DNA expert, which I am not.
Typically “Rape kits” end up frozen, and the old ones can sit in the bottom of the freezers or on the back shelves for years.
An ‘unarmed’ white teen was shot dead by police. His family asks: Where is the outrage?
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By Abby Phillip August 6 at 5:33 PM
(Courtesy: Eric Bland) Zachary Hammond. (Courtesy of Eric Bland)
Zachary Hammond was on a first date when he was fatally shot by a police officer in his car during a drug bust in South Carolina, his family says.
At the time the 19-year-old was shot and killed, his date, Tori Morton, was eating an ice cream cone, according to the family’s attorney, Eric Bland.
Morton, 23, was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana — all 10 grams of it — which, according to police, was the reason undercover agents set up the drug buy.
The official police report never mentioned the two gunshots that killed Hammond on July 26 in a Hardees parking lot. Seneca police say a second report — which has not been released to the public — details the officer’s account of the shooting.
Amid heightened scrutiny of fatal police shootings across the country, Hammond’s death has prompted numerous questions, few answers — and almost no national outrage.
More than a week after Hammond’s death, his family’s attorney says race is almost certainly playing a role in the disconcerting silence. Unlike the victims in the highest-profile police shootings over the past year — in cities from Ferguson and Cleveland to North Charleston and Cincinnati — Hammond was white.
[DATABASE: People shot dead by police this year]
“It’s sad, but I think the reason is, unfortunately, the media and our government officials have treated the death of an unarmed white teenager differently than they would have if this were a death of an unarmed black teen,” Bland told The Washington Post this week. “The hypocrisy that has been shown toward this is really disconcerting.”
He added: “The issue should never be what is the color of the victim. The issue should be: Why was an unarmed teen gunned down in a situation where deadly force was not even justified?”
So far this year, 25 percent of the people shot dead by police have been black, according to data collected by the Washington Post. But black people make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population.
[Police shot and killed more people in July than any other month so far this year]
Police say the officer was a victim of “attempted murder” by Hammond, who was driving the vehicle. According to Seneca Police Chief John Covington, Hammond was driving the car “toward the officer” who was trying to make the stop.
The officer fired twice, striking Hammond in the shoulder and torso.
His death was classified as a homicide; an autopsy conducted by the Oconee County Coroner’s Office did not specify from which direction the bullets hit Hammond’s body.
On Wednesday, Hammond’s family released the results of a private autopsy, which concluded that both bullets entered Hammond’s body from the back. According to the autopsy, the second bullet proved to be fatal, entering from the back of Hammond’s left side and passing through his chest, piercing his lungs and heart.
In a statement Wednesday, Coroner Karl E. Addis said he does not know how Hammond’s body was positioned at the time he was shot.
The facts of the fatal shooting are not unlike other cases that have prompted national outcry — most recently the shooting death of Sam DuBose, an unarmed black man who was shot dead during a traffic stop by a University of Cincinnati police officer. Officials released police dashboard camera footage of the incident which appeared to contradict the officer’s report that he was being dragged by DuBose’s vehicle. The video showed that the car was not moving when the weapon was fired and the officer was named and charged with murder.
The officer, who has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is pending, used a similar rationale as the one in Cincinnati — that the vehicle was being used as a weapon.
“The driver accelerated and came toward the officer,” Covington, the police chief, said a day after the shooting, according to Fox Carolina. The officer “fired two shots in self-defense, which unfortunately were fatal for the suspect.”
Initially, Covington said his department would not release the officer’s name because of fear that it would “possibly subject the officer and family to harassment, intimidation or abuse.” But on Thursday, he told the Washington Post that the officer’s name and the report of the shooting would be released in “the next few days.”
The response to Hammond’s death has been disappointingly muted in Seneca, in South Carolina and nationally, said Bland, the family lawyer. He insists there would be more focus on the case if Hammond had been black.
“They’re called the civil rights organizations, they’re not called the black rights organizations,” Bland said. “The color of his skin should not matter. White-on-white crime does not get the same impact as white-on-black crime.”
Black activists are similarly asking why more people who countered the Black Lives Matter movement by saying “All Lives Matter” have been so silent on Hammond’s death.
#ZacharyHammond was gunned down (what seems much) like Sam DuBose was. Where are the violent cop defenders screaming #AllLivesMatter ????
— . (@MamaCrimz) August 5, 2015
There are a number of unanswered questions that remain in the case, which is being investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
A spokesman for SLED, Thom Berry, confirmed that dashboard video of the incident does exist and is part of the ongoing investigation. Berry said it has not yet been determined whether that video will be released.
“The whole issue of race is getting distorted and what’s getting lost is the real issue which is excessive force,” said Bland, the attorney. “All people need to be outraged by this. All people need to be asking the hard questions.”
[This post has been updated.]
Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the amount of marijuana found in the vehicle. It was 10 grams, not 10 ounces.
MORE READING:
A year after Ferguson, 6 in 10 Americans say changes are needed to give blacks and whites equal rights
Family of Sandra Bland sues Texas trooper and county jail for wrongful death
Justice Dept. report criticizes police response to Ferguson protests
Abby Phillip is a general assignment national reporter for the Washington Post. She can be reached at abby.phillip@washpost.com. On Twitter: @abbydphillip
Mas, over the years you’ve helped me learn to heed your advice about reserving judgment until the facts come in. Thank you.
Back in the early 90’s I worked as a deputy in corrections. We had a case of a mom and dad who were murdered. My friend, a patrolman at the time, was first on the scene and the one who found the bodies. Also found was the couple’s adult son sleeping off his high in the house. The man was arrested, convicted of the murders, and given the death penalty. It was the first death penalty case in our county in over 25 years. No murder weapon was ever found.
Working in corrections I spent eight hours a day with the man. I came to know him. In my mind there was no way that this man was capable of the crime he was sentenced to death over. When I told my patrolman friend this he laughed at me. I wasn’t on the scene. I didn’t see what this man had done. He assured me that he was as guilty as they came.
The man appealed his sentence and got it reduced down to life in prison without parole. Ten years later a biker was bragging about the murders over a beer. Someone reported it and the man was detained for questioning. On his person was the murder weapon that still had the dried blood of the two people on it. Justice was served and the man who originally was sentenced to death for the crime was set free.
When I asked my patrolman friend about it he just shook his head and said he couldn’t believe the guy was innocent. He saw with his own eyes what the evidence was. But seeing was misleading. Lady Justice wears a blindfold for that very reason. We all should learn from her example. There is always more than one side to a story and we do an injustice when we fail to get them all before deciding the case in our minds.
The Defense will show you only the recording from dash cam#1 and you will believe that this is another example of a white cop shooting an unarmed black man minding his own business.
The Prosecution will show you dash cam #2 and you will believe it was a justified shooting.
And then read the comments and you will realize the truth doesn’t mean much to some people and they will believe what they want to believe despite the evidence one way or the other.
Sorry, you have to log in to view the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv6I-3ETfhM&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DMv6I-3ETfhM&has_verified=1
Ron Rogers: “unarmed” is used unthinkingly a lot by various media. Anything can be a weapon. I am reminded of the Eskimo woman who choked an attacking polar bear by shoving a hand warmer down the bear’s windpipe.
It’s funny: as I was reading this entry Zimmerman came to my mind and then I saw that Mas mentioned the case. Typical rush to judgment BS and, as TN-MAN said, I think we’re bound to see more and more of it. The process is accelerating. Years ago I quit buying the daily paper to read only the Sunday one for that reason: I always preferred editorials and op-eds with some perspective to the fresh (and incomplete or erroneous) news. More recently I canceled my cable and quit watching TV altogether because of news and programming promoting that hectic, frantic and stressful atmosphere we all breathe these days. I still know what’s going on by monitoring online forums and blogs like this one, often thanks to links in the comments sections if not directly.
A public that’s overstimulated and bombarded with a constant stream of commercials and news so intertwined that it can’t tell the difference and becomes apathetic is so much easier to manipulate with attention-grabbing headlines and one-liners. I believe it’s calculated that way and it’s up to us to resist the urge to stay on the surface and buy the easy hooks.
There are untold numbers of examples where a “justice” system has decided who they think is guilty and then shaped the evidence and prosecution to fit their theory of the crime. In the process ignoring evidence that doesn’t fit and others who could have committed the crime simply because it makes their version inconvenient. They are in a rush to a guilty verdict and their 15 minutes of fame or that discovering a person is innocent of the charge may disrupt a long string of guilty verdicts or disrupt their future career agenda.
Any officer of the court, prosecutors especially, should be interested in truth and justice over putting someone, anyone in jail. Anyone who is found to have zealously pursued an innocent person while ignoring exculpatory evidence that points to another should be dealt with severely.
Illinois Bob – what a great “take” on Lady Justice’s blindfold! Mas – anyone – do you know how that image came to be? It should be a reminder to everyone, especially in today’s “sound-bite world.”
Don-Pa.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice
Unfortunately, people who get their news from PCNN and MSDNC hear, “A black motorist was shot by a white police officer after the cop stopped the driver for a minor traffic violation.” Or, “A man was shot by police who mistook him for an armed robber.” Later, they hear that the grand jury did not indict the cop, or that the cop stood trial, but was acquitted. A steady diet of that kind of “news” can convince you that (1) there is a wave of unjustified police shootings, and (2) the racist legal system allows the trigger-happy cops to get away with it. It’s even worse when a civilian shoots someone, because it looks like some vigilante who thought “Death Wish” was a training film. (When the woman in Loganville, GA, shot an intruder who followed her into the attic, MSNBC reported that she “took matters into her own trigger-happy hands.”)
Then, a year or so later, “gun freaks” get the real story, in a column in the American Handgunner or Combat Handguns. The driver ran a red light, the cop stopped him and walked toward the car, the driver pointed a shotgun at the cop (or put the car in gear and deliberately tried to run over the cop), and the cop shot him in self-defense. Or, cops stopped a man for questioning because he fit the description of the robbery suspect, he pulled a knife and lunged at the cop, and, again, the shooting was in self-defense.
And, as Two-Gun Steve noted, anyone who does not have a gun is considered by the MSM to be “unarmed.” Trying to run you over with an SUV is somehow not the same as shooting at you with an AR-15, although you are just as dead either way.
And, as Michael JT pointed out, a lot of prosecutors (and the media) are less interested in the truth than in what will further The Agenda.
Re: the shooting of Nicholas Hammond in South Carolina (and of Dillon Taylor in Salt Lake City), it’s just proof that the civil rights activists and news media are themselves racist, and have a double standard. “Black Lives Matter” means “Only Black Lives Matter.” (Or, worse, “Only Thugs’ Lives Matter.” The activists and media fan the flames when a black criminal gets shot, but they don’t care when some innocent black child is killed with a stray bullet from a drug deal gone bad, or when black bystanders get caught in the crossfire of a gang turf war.)
I don’t claim that either case was necessarily a bad shoot. Maybe Hammond was trying to run over the cop, and the shooting was justified. And maybe Taylor made a furtive movement, like reaching toward his waistband after being told to raise his hands, and a well-intentioned cop made a tragic mistake when he was forced to make a life-or-death decision in a split second.
But, if you apply that same benefit of doubt to Ferguson or Cleveland, you are a “racist.”
Mas – thanks for the link, you always teach me something. I learned “Lady Justice” didn’t always wear a blindfold! I guess there were some cases that were easier to look at than others.
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