Yesterday, Howard Morgan a 61 year old black off duty police who was shot 28 times by white on duty police officers and survived was sentenced to 40 years in jail!
He was charged and sentenced with attempted murder.
According to police, Morgan opened fire with his service weapon when four white officers tried to arrest him, which caused them to shoot him 28 times. They initially stopped him for driving the wrong way on a one way street.
28 times?! You mean to tell me that you needed to shoot a man 28 times (21 in the back and 7 on the front) to get him to calm down?! These officers left a man to die in a pool of blood after littering his body with bullets and somehow HE is the one charged with attempted murder?!?! Morgan didn't even have gun powder residue on his hand, how could he have shot anyone?
This is also his second trial. Apparently he was previously acquitted and found not guilty on three counts, including discharging his weapon, and the same jury that cleared him of opening fire on the officers, however, deadlocked on a charge of attempted murder. Another jury found him guilty in January. To make things worse, the January jury was not allowed to hear that Morgan had been acquitted of the other charges.
So I guess in this case the 'double jeopardy rule doesn't apply.
When is enough, enough? I can't imagine surviving being shot 28 times, and then basically being given a life sentence for allegedly trying to murder those who clearly tried to murder me.
Wake up America! It's time to get it right!
What is most telling about this is that I am not surprised that this has happened. It is 2012 and every time racism raises its ugly head like this, I still get the same sick feeling that I get when I listen to Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit.” It is simply terrifying that such cowardly and disgusting acts can take place and yet one is not surprised. Let’s face it…the judicial system is a farce! Who gets to have justice? W.E.B. Du Bois said the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line...he didn't realize that it would be the problem of the Twenty First Century as well.
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