The early Seventies were a rather turbulent time for race
relations in America, and my hometown had its share of controversy. My memory
is not the best in the world, but as I recall one of the most turbulent times
came when three young blacks were prosecuted for the killing of two whites. At
some point I represented all three of the defendants in this murder case. I
started off defending the two who were initially arrested, and withdrew from
the representation of one because I anticipated working out an immunity deal
for the other client to testify against the gunman. My remaining client’s
brother did not think I was defending her vigorously enough, and hired another
lawyer. When the third defendant was arrested, I worked out an immunity deal
for him to testify against the gunman. It was all rather straightforward, but local
forces within the black community took the case as a cause celebre and
organized marches and protests over the prosecution. As I recall, this was the
beginning of a two year period of racial
tension in my community.
I was an assistant state attorney when the tension came to a
climax. Someone called the Sheriff’s Office with the warning that two deputies
would be killed that weekend. This, of course, put all law enforcement on high
alert, and there was much discussion of the threat leading into the weekend.
Imagine my horror when I received a phone call early Sunday
morning (or maybe it was early Monday morning) and the Sheriff’s Office
dispatcher told me that two deputies had been killed. I immediately got dressed
to go to the jail, but before I left I considered calling dispatch and verifying
that two deputies had actually been killed. I vetoed that idea and headed for
the jail, which was where dispatch was located, thinking that I could verify
the call when I got there. When I got to the jail, I didn’t need to ask whether
it was true. All it took was one look at the demeanor of the officers standing
on the doorstep.
Thus began one of the worst nights of my legal career. I
considered the officers who had been killed to be friends, and I had trouble
functioning as I sought to do my duty as a prosecutor. I made a lot of mistakes
that night, but fortunately I did nothing to compromise the case. It wasn’t long before we
got word that a suspect had been arrested, and I left the scene to go to the jail to interview him.
Somehow the investigating officer maneuvered me into the position of being the interrogator when we talked to the defendant. The defendant confessed, and at the ensuing trial the defense attorney accused me of beating the confession out of him. Others who heard the tape recording of the confession criticized me for being too polite to the defendant. My response was "He confessed didn't he? I must have done something right."
There was one small glimmer of a silver lining to the cloud
that was this case. The killing had nothing to do with the racial tension in
the community. The defendant was a probationer from Orlando who was in our
jurisdiction without permission of his probation officer. His biggest concern
seemed to be that his probation was going to be violated and he was going to
have to serve a five year prison sentence. That was why he shot and killed two
deputies, because he didn’t want them to tell his probation officer that he was
violating his probation.
The next week the Sheriff’s Office received another
anonymous telephone call saying that more deputies were going to be killed, but
that call—like the first—was bogus. It was the merest of coincidences that the
first call had been made the week before a probation violator decided that
killing two police officers was preferable to getting his probation violated.
If any good can come out of such a tragedy, you would have to say that the
easing of racial tension which followed the killings was good.
I want to point out one fact that might easily be overlooked
in this story. The officers who made contact with the defendant arrested him
peacefully. I have seen cases where suspects got arrested and carried to jail
with black eyes, bloody noses, and split lips. The defendant in this case was completely
unmarked. Some folks portray all law enforcement officers as neo-Fascist stormtroopers
just looking for an excuse to abuse someone. The arrest made in that long ago
case is strong evidence to the contrary.
Fast forward to today, when we seem to be having a
recurrence of racial tension, most of which is aimed at law enforcement.
Ismaaiyl Brindsley decided to act out on that tension by killing two law enforcement
officers. He fled the scene with officers in hot pursuit and eventually killed
himself. Note that the officers in pursuit did not avail themselves of the
privilege granted them by Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85L.Ed.2d 1 (1985) to “shoot
to kill a fleeing felon.” Are New York Police Officers neo-Fascist stormtroopers? I think not. If any miniscule iota of good can come out of such a
tragedy as this, perhaps it may be that it contributes in some way to an easing
of today’s racial tension.
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