The Sweet Tune of Death part 3

 

 

It’s that time again! Part 3 is done! It took a little longer than expected but hey, it takes time to create a masterpiece. J This is the mega Sparta battle of the court trials that I’ve been talking about. So please if you could and would turn off all disruptions and get ready for a show-down.

P.S if you haven’t read the first two parts of “The Sweet Tune of Death”, I highly suggest that you go The Sweet Tune of Death part 1 and 2…like now.

                I shall begin with the trial of Emmitt Till.- yes, I’m going in order. This is no time for rule-breaking!-  Now after a day or two of Emmett’s disappearance, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were arrested in connection. This where everyone whoops and yells and screams for the belief that Lady Justice has won her battle with Sir Evil but I must sadly remind you that this event took place in 1955.

                When officers arrested the two men, the Sheriff, H.C Strider made a disappointing-but not surprising remark- that he didn’t believe the body was that of Emmett Till. He said that the body resembled a grown man than a pubescent boy. He even included the body looked like it had been submerged for about 4 or five days instead of three. Strider told reporters that he believed that Emmett was still alive.

                People wanted justice. Blacks AND whites wanted justice for Emmett Till. Everyone knew those two men were responsible for Till’s death and people were furious at the nonchalance of their crime. The Mississippi governor of that time, Hugh White, urged District attorney, Gerald Chatham, to have no mercy on the duo. To quote the good D.A Chatham, “Murder is murder whether it is black or white…..” Quite frankly I believe that they wanted to pull a Sparta move and throw Bryant and Miriam done the Death hole.

                But all in favor of the Death hole sentence quickly changed sides when the NAACP Exec. Secretary, Roy Wilkins, claimed that the state of Mississippi was in favor of White Supremacy by killing Negro children. Boy oh boy, he didn’t ruffled feathers, he ripped them from the root. Mississippians were just a wee bit miffed. And because of that comment, the prosecution lost all support and hope for a guilty plea. On a story cut short, Bryant and Milam had every lawyer in the state and within in six hours in jury selection, they had an entire jury composed of angry white men. And of course, who walked away, guilty-plea free and ear to ear grins? Vingo! You guessed correct!

I shall now transition back into the 21^st century with the “too loud” Florida killing trial that took place in February this year. When I first heard about this case, it was Trayvon all over again for me. I knew for a fact that Florida wouldn’t pull through and do the right thing. But then again, I believed we all knew that.
                Michael Dunn, as I explained in S.T.O.D part 2, was visiting out of town when he decided to shoot up a Dodge Durango filled with 4 black young men. Mainly because he did not like what 17 year old Jordan Davis was playing through his speakers. And because of his opinionated view on Davis’ music, Dunn shot him 3 times. This tragic event took place on Nov. 23, 2012.  

Now the trial lasted about 6 days and with a trial being that short nowadays, you would have thought it was a clean cut, open and shut case. It seems that the jury of four white men, four white women, two black women, one Hispanic man and one Asian American woman –and partridge in a pear tree- could break the deadlock which caused a mistrial in murder of Jordan Davis. They dropped the ball and let it roll towards De Ja Vu Lane. The jury even failed to try to catch the ball by not being able to reach an agreement on the lesser charges. But Angela Corey, State attorney wasn’t going to allow Dunn to walk away from this. She vowed to make sure Dunn faced his time for first degree murder. But not all hope is lost: The jurors did find Dunn guilty of three counts of 2^nd degree attempted murder. Hey its something….

Both of these cases have and are changing history. Emmett Till was the starting point for the civil rights movement and Jordan Davis, I believe, will be the start of a new movement. Even though they decades apart, the trials still show how far we have come from the violent lynchings.  But they also show the racism that we once thought had died off. And it pains me to see this type of situation happen in this particular day and age. My generation has not been exposed to such violent acts due to race and trying to explain to them why this happened, grandparents catch the goose bumps they once had in the 50’s-60’s.And it is a painful sight to see.

Alvarez, Lizette. "Jury Reaches Partial Verdict in Florida Killing Over Loud Music." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2014. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

Linder, Douglus O. "Emmett Till Murder Trial: Selected Testimony." Emmett Till Murder Trial: Selected Testimony. N.p., 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/till/tillaccount.html>.