Mistrial In McRae Case

Danya Bacchus

2:19 PM CDT, April 19, 2010

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-still-no-verdict,0,910587.story

UPDATE 4/19/2010) A mistrial has been declared in the federal trial of former Memphis officer Bridges McRae. McRae was charged with violating the civil rights of Dwayne "Duanna" Johnson.

Jurors said they could not come to a consensus on a verdict. They began deliberating last Wednesday.

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Mistrial In Beating Of Transgender Woman

Shaun Chaiyabhat
5:49 PM CDT, April 19, 2010

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-mcrae-mistrial-declared,0,5162586.story

(Memphis 4/19/2010) A federal judge declared a mistrial in the case of a former Memphis police officer accused of violating the civil rights of a suspect in the county jail.

A jury of 12 remained deadlocked for four days, with one lone dissenter.

One juror said she did not believe justice was served.

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Mistrial Declared in McRae Trial

Updated: Monday, 19 Apr 2010, 5:16 PM CDT

    * Les Smith

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/041910-mistrial-declared-in-mcrae-trial

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Just before 2 o'clock Monday afternoon, armed with a Bible in hand, former Memphis Police officer Bridges McRae and his family headed for "judgment day" inside a federal courtroom.

After deliberating for a combined three days, a frustrated jury had, at the order of federal judge, Thomas Anderson, finally gone the last mile in trying to break a deadlock in deciding whether McRae had violated the civil rights of the late transgender Duanna Johnson after an arrest in February 2008.

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Transgender Beating Case: Judge Declares Mistrial
Reported by: Matthew Peace

Last Update: 4/19 7:56 pm

http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/mostpopular/story/Transgender-Beating-Case-Judge-Declares-Mistrial/U9en1LZArUS43fVS0GYPcw.cspx

Memphis, TN - A jury has deadlocked in the trial of a former Memphis police officer accused of beating up a transgendered woman.

The judge in the case has declared a mistrial.

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Mistrial declared in police beating case involving transgender prisoner

    * By Lawrence Buser
    * Posted April 19, 2010 at 2:18 p.m. , updated April 19, 2010 at 11:22 p.m.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/apr/19/mistrial-declared-memphis-police-beating-case-invo/

After four days and about 20 hours of deliberations, a weary federal court jury on Monday announced for a second time that it was deadlocked in the case of a former Memphis police officer accused of beating a transgender prisoner in 2008.

U.S. Dist. Court Judge S. Thomas Anderson, who told jurors on Friday to keep trying, reluctantly declared a mistrial this time and said he would rule later this week on prosecutors' request for a new trial date for Bridges "Sutton" McRae.

One female juror, who asked not to be identified, said later that the verdict was 11-1 in favor of guilty.

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Reaction To Judge's Decision In Transgender Beating Case
   Reported by: Kevin Holmes

Last Update: 4/19 10:29 pm

http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story/Reaction-To-Judge-s-Decision-In-Transgender/h8OywgpFJ0m8eVQMWkDZpQ.cspx

MEMPHIS, TN – One juror tells myEyewitnessNews.com, the justice system has failed. Will Batts with the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Center agrees. "It looked to be unprovoked. It looked to be excessive on the part of the police officer. It looked to be just an attack on someone in a police station with other people standing around. And it was just incredibly violent."

At the center of the case was a video that shows McRae beating transgendered woman Duanna Johnson. "It just seems so clear cut to me," says Batts.

It seems like there are parts of this country in which the "good old boy's" are still living in the "good old days". You know, lynch mobs, shootings, cross burnings and beatings. Just the fun stuff. Never mind the jury, "we got that fixed fer ya."


Sad, so very sad. RIP, Duanna.



Dawn

At least, some thought McRae was guilty.  And a mistrial may or not be the end, if the Prosecutor can find new evidence they can retrial.

But the worst part is no Justice for Duanna.  RIP.

Quote from: Dawn D. on April 20, 2010, 10:15:07 AM
It seems like there are parts of this country in which the "good old boy's" are still living in the "good old days". You know, lynch mobs, shootings, cross burnings and beatings. Just the fun stuff. Never mind the jury, "we got that fixed fer ya."


Sad, so very sad. RIP, Duanna.



Dawn

Not to defend Memphis and very surely not to defend this travesty BUT...

The "good ol' boy" BS is a fixture pretty much everywhere.

Also, i wouldn't mix up this kind of senseless application of police force with crap like cross burning and Lynch mobs - that stuff is SO fifty years ago. Best not to water down today's problems by invoking stuff that never happens anymore (except in the occasional case of some isolated nutter - and their are hateful nutters all over the spectrum)

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Post Merge: April 20, 2010, 11:15:01 AM

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Quote from: Janet Lynn on April 20, 2010, 10:22:01 AM
At least, some thought McRae was guilty.  And a mistrial may or not be the end, if the Prosecutor can find new evidence they can retrial.

But the worst part is no Justice for Duanna.  RIP.

I'm very gratified the prosecutors are not giving up. My understanding is that the civil suit is still going to happen despite her murder.

If you really want to get your back up, read some of the ignorant comments on some of those news stories.

I don't think Memphis has - or has ever had - a true 'good old boy' network.  Memphis is urban, and the whole GOB deal is a largely rural bit of work.  And though the South gets its GOB network picked on a lot because of a) there is a certain history, strange fruit hangin' from the popular trees and all, and b) the mass media character of that kind of County Sheriff like that idiot in those two bad Bond movies, or the slightly more refined Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit coupled with the Boss Hogg type from The Dukes of Hazard and you're there...almost.

Now that's the stereotype, but enough of that stuff has gone on that it does ring true to some degree.  But the reality, is like the GOB deal in rural Iowa, where we can see it stripped of that 'character' stuff and see it for what it is, which is a familial based power (and money, mostly in the form of jobs)

Young Officer Anderson there, is writing you a ticket, albeit unfairly (though you 'aren't from round here are you?') and your going to protest it.  So you go to court and try to tell old Judge Olsen there that young Officer Anderson is pretty much lying - but hey, you don't know that Anderson is Olsen's nephew, and damn it, his favorite nephew at that.  And that Anderson is the third generation of his family to be on that small police force, and that's nothing compared to Olsen whose family had been important going back to the 1850s, and half the stuff in the country is named for him, and his father was also a Judge.  Grandpa was just the largest landowner in the county.  ... and so, the Judge is not going to let you out of that ticket just because nephew - who he might even lecture - cut a corner or two. 

But that's a rural deal, and Memphis is not rural.  Once upon a time Memphis was pullin' in money big time.  HUGE amounts.  And pretty much Memphis has always been a city, a city on a river, a city on The River.  And like most urban trade centers the system is a very small, but insanely wealthy group of families and individuals who really power all the decisions.  And, Memphis, like all port cities had a very large group of people that the very small, but insanely wealthy group found largely 'undesirable' yet were absolutely essential to the actual workings of the port, the real source of the money that the very small, but insanely wealthy group was making.  So, pretty much suppression more than policing was always the order of the day. 

LA is pretty much the same way as Shelby County and the Memphis cops, and that's pretty brutal on pretty much a day to day basis.  I've watched both LA and Shelby/Memphis boys in action and you don't want to get in their way.  Both places have a history of almost casual day to day violence going back a long time, and (as witnessed by the one dissenting juror) a pretty solid block of citizens that support it.  That have always supported it.  They believe that the cops need to, and should, work to suppress people, and if some people get hurt, well you can't make an omelet w/o breaking a few eggs, and everybody knows not to mess with them cops to begin with. 

People get their asses beat by cops in Memphis all the time.  TG or not, its nothing special at all.  That's not the good old boy deal, it's far richer and more powerful than that.