As far as the rape, mutilation and murders of Channon Christian, 21 and Christopher Newsom, 23, some in the media are saying this case doesn't represent a hate crime. Well, it sure as hell doesn't symbolize a night of love and bonding between the young couple and those who butchered them. Was the cutting off of Chris' penis an act of human kindness? Was the cutting off of Channon's breast and pouring bleach down her throat an act of compassion and love? This was pure hatred, nothing less. How could any person of sound mind and thinking look at this case and say with absolute certainty that hate wasn't involved in the commission of the atrocities against Christian and Newsom? For full story click here.
Torture: Channon Christian was forced to watch the attackers rape and kill her boyfriend Christopher Newsom before she was murdered
It was the kind of crime that strikes terror into the hearts of parents everywhere.
A bright young couple were carjacked after a Saturday night date and murdered in the most brutal way imaginable.
Christopher Newsom, 23, was tied up and raped, shot in the back of the head and then dragged to a railway track and set on fire.
His girlfriend, 21-year-old University of Tennessee student Channon Christian’s fate was even more horrific.
Her death came only after hours of torture, during which time she was raped and savaged with a broken chair leg.
She was beaten in the head and a household bleach was poured down her throat and over her bleeding and battered genital area in an attempt by her attackers to cover any evidence of rape – all while she was still alive.
Then she was ‘hog-tied’ with curtains and a strip of bedding and a plastic bag was wrapped over her face.
Her body was stashed inside five bigger rubbish liners and dumped in a bin, where, according to the autopsy report, she slowly suffocated to death.
On Monday, the alleged ringleader of the gang accused of the killings goes on trial in Knoxville, Tennessee.
One of the gang has already been convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Lemaricus Davidson, centre, goes on trial over the murders this week. Letalvis Cobbins, top right, has been jailed for life. Eric Boyd, Vanessa Coleman and George Thomas will be tried after Davidson
Life: Letalvis 'Rome' Cobbins was found guilty of multiple counts of first degree murder. He was also convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery
But, even though the killings happened in January, 2007, they have attracted very little national and international coverage.
That’s because they do not fit into the conventional contours of an attack in America’s Deep South, where a shameful history of racial intolerance has meant assaults by whites on blacks have historically been regarded in the context of race.
In this case, the races were reversed: the victims were white and the four men and one woman charged in connection with the murders are black.
Ironically, the case has now generated more publicity surrounding the furore over whether or not political correctness was behind the US media’s decision to largely ignore the story than it did for the murders themselves.
Defence lawyers were quick to say that some of the accused dated white women and even prosecutors denied any racial overtones.
‘There is absolutely no proof of a hate crime,’ said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Attorney Randy Nichols.
‘It was a terrible crime, a horrendous crime, but race was not a motive. We know from our investigation that the people charged in this case were friends with white people, socialised with white people, dated white people.
'So not only is there no evidence of any racial animus, there’s evidence to the contrary,’ he added.
But that hasn’t stopped conservative critics from blaming liberal bias in the US mainstream media for failing to cover the attacks.
Victims: Channon christian, 21, and boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, were carjacked and murdered after a Saturday night date in Tennessee in 2007
Columnist and right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin weighed in, saying: ‘This case – an attractive white couple murdered by five black thugs –doesn’t fit any political agenda.
'It’s not a useful crime. Reverse the races and just imagine how the national media would cover the story of a young black couple murdered by five white assailants.’
Country music singer Charlie Daniels pointed out the media frenzy that came after a black woman accused three white members of the Duke University lacrosse team of raping her.
The players were later cleared after their accuser changed her story.
But Daniels said on his website: ‘If this had been white on black crime, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and their ilk would have descended on Knoxville like a swarm of angry bees.’
Outrage: Campaigners believe the murders haven't received extensive media coverage because of race issues
Much of the criticism over the scant coverage of the murders has been on the internet through blogs and websites.
University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds said the American media has a ‘template’ for covering white-on-black crime but not the reverse.
‘I think it would have gotten a lot of national play faster if it had been a black couple kidnapped and killed by five white people,’ he told the local paper in Knoxville.
According to court testimony, Chris, a talented carpenter and former high school baseball player, and college senior Channon had gone to a friend’s home after a date at a local restaurant when they were held up at gunpoint and carjacked on January 6, 2007.
They were forced to drive to an old clapboard house in one of Knoxville’s toughest neighbourhoods, where their captors, some of them ex-convicts, subjected them to the nightmare ordeal. - dailymail.co.uk - on 16th October 2009
See also - http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp
0 comments:
Post a Comment