1. By: Aundra S. Parker
Twardy, Feature, Assignment 5
April 26th, 2012

2. Sean Bell
The memorial on the death site of
Sean Bell, is by far a more easier
sight to see now than it was the
morning of November 25, 2006. The
area that once lay drenched in bullets
now pop with flowers, balloons and
vigils to the 23 year old.
Bell and two friends, out celebrating
on the eve of Bell’s wedding came
under a flood of bullets from NYPD
police officers.
With a total of fifty shots being
fired, the life of Sean Bell had been
taken also gravely injuring his two
friends.
Bell, legally intoxicated the night of the
murder, has sparked a cop vs. civilian
debate leaving the police officers
claiming that they identified
themselves before the shots were
fired.
The officers charged in this case were
ultimately found not guilty of
manslaughter and reckless
endangerment even after it was
proven that one detective had fired 31
rounds of his own and reloaded during
the whole ordeal, provoking a bigger
altercation than the case itself.

3. Amadou Diallo
Shooting
When this 1999 shooting is brought to mind the first
couple of terms that are evident are racial profiling and
police brutality, common terms when dealing with the
topic of the ‘boys in blue’.
A new term I came across while researching the New
York city murder of Guinean Amadou Diallo is:
Contagious Shooting.
A “Contagious Shooting” is explained as cops firing
because other cops are firing.
Diallo, standing on the block where his home was
located, was addressed by four plainclothes officers
who misidentified Diallo as a serial rapist who was
later convicted of raping 51 people.
The four officers who blasted the unarmed Diallo, with
41 bullets were acquitted of the scholars murder.
Rock artist Bruce Springsteen’s hit song “41 Shots” is
about the fallen Diallo.
A article that was released around the anarchy of the
Sean Bell case gave Springsteen permission to make
a hit called “50 Shots” since “41 Shots” a song about
Diallo was such a success. (Connecticut Post Online:
Charles Walsh Column)
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2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-
8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:
journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=%27Contagious+shooting%27+rare%2C+bu
t+still+deadly&rft.jtitle=Connecticut+Post&rft.date=2006-12-
01&rft.externalDBID=CNNP&rft.externalDocID=1172316241

4. The cases of James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard
taking place in the 90’s have rolled with the ball of
time all the way to a paper on President Barack
Obama’s desk under the name of the Matthew
Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Prevention Act.
Signed into law October 28th, 2009 the two men
suffered horrifying deaths that grabbed the attention
of people everywhere.
Shepard was tied to a fence, pistol whipped, tortured
and left for dead by two boys who had offered to
give him a ride home. Byrd was beaten and tied by
his ankles to the bumper of a truck and was drug
for about three miles, ultimately removing his head
and one arm.
Shepard, believed to be targeted because he was a
homosexual and Byrd targeted because he was
black were served with the justice they deserve, as
both of their sets of murderers were punished to the
full extent of the law.
The act, formerly only covering hate crimes on race,
religion or national origin extended to assault on
people due to their sexual orientation, gender,
gender identity, according to the huffingtonpost.com
article “Hate Crimes Bill Signed Into Law 11 Years
After Matthew Shepard’s Death”.

5. Darryl Hunt Case
A native of my hometown, Winston-
Salem, Darryl Hunt was released from
prison after being wrongly convicted and
serving 19 and a half years for the rape
and murder of copyeditor Deborah Sykes.
A cliché case of racial profiling, Hunt was
granted his freedom in February of 2004
and was awarded 1.65 million dollars
from the city of Winston-Salem.
An array of articles, studies, and stories
came to light after Hunt was
released, HBO even presented a
documentary called the Trials of Darryl
Hunt, showing the process in how one
persons ignorance and hatred for a group
of people led to the manipulation of our
judicial system.
“The documentary highlighted the journey
of Hunt’s defense team as they fought to
get him released after his DNA cleared
him from the murder ten years earlier in
1993.” according to Hillary Atkin of
Electronic Media.
(http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.
edu/docview/203815639)
Since his release Hunt has become a
mentor, a community activist , a author
and founder of the Darryl Hunt Project for
Freedom and Justice and also the Darryl
Hunt Freedom Fighters.

6. Troy Davis
Not to be mixed up with the football
running back, this Troy Davis was
convicted and sentenced to death on
August 30th, 1991 and spent the rest
of his life in prison until he was
executed on September 21, 2011 for
the murder of Officer Mark
MacHail, who happened to be working
security at a local Burger King that
fatal night.
This case caused so much
controversy people from the highest
places lend their support. The Atlanta
Journal Constitution reported, “
Former President Jimmy Carter, Pope
Benedict XVI and former FBI Director
William Sessions say Davis should be
granted clemency.”
With only one eye witness linking
Davis to the crime and no murder
weapon and little evidence the sparks
began to fly again in 2011 as his
execution date rang closer, hoping to
get the President’s attention, time just
wasn’t on Davis’ side, as it ran out the
21st day of September in 2011.

7. Jena Six
After a white student was beaten and
left with a concussion and several
bruises six teenaged Black boys from
Jena, Louisiana were charged with
attempted murder and conspiracy.
No one guy deserves to be beaten by
six men, even if he hangs nooses from
trees in the schoolyard. And that’s
exactly what Justin Barker did. He
hung several nooses, which in our
society has a connotation with racism
against Blacks and African Americans.
The embroilment starts when the six
boys accused of beating Barker are
tried under what some think are
trumped up charges leaving the boys As time went on the Jena 6 were seen on award shows
subject to spend 100 years in prison
chatting with Hip Hop artists, made appearances on talk
without parole, according to the
shows, “Free Jena 6” bumper stickers were on every bumper
democracynow.org article “The Case of
and every laptop. 2006 was the year of Jena 6.
the Jena Six: Black High School
As the case was blinded by the spotlight of attention it gained
Students Charged with Attempted
Murder for Schoolyard Fight After questions that should have been answered that were left
Nooses are Hung from Tree”. unsolved. There is no doubt the young men should be
charged with some crime, but none as serious as attempted
murder, had the nooses not been hung, which shows a sign
of racial hate, would the beating have occurred? If you throw
out the case of a hate crime you throw out the basis of why
the Jena 6 allegedly attacked Barker.

8. These seven cases have rocked America onto a new plateau of justice. Some taking place before this generation came into
existence, the cases have muscled their way into the prominent cases we refer to as we raise our children.
Discovering and naming the fatal “contagious shooting” instances that have occurred far too many times, have allowed us to
pinpoint this problem and deal with it accordingly.
The James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard Hate Prevention Act is a newly defined version of the act that had previously only
covered hatred against race, religion, and national origin. Extending the act to protect victims of hate crimes due to
gender, gender identity and sexual orientation has brought more awareness to being sensitive to those who feel different.
Darryl Hunt, a sunray of light out of all the cases that I reviewed, ended with a beautiful bang. Hunt, after attaining his newly
returned freedom began to speak, write, and live life after ¼th of it was wrongly taken away. Hunt used the adversity he
faced in his life and overcame it with a vengeance.
The Davis case is an especially sad exemplification in the judicial system. When a lawman is murdered all justice for the
opposing party is thrown out of the window. The case, against a blitzkreig of justice, is often a bad situation for the
accused, which it was for Davis. Sitting in prison for 20 years, fighting his fight from the inside, 7,300 days weren’t enough for
Davis to prove his innocence and find another culprit. Before Davis’ execution, his case gained more attention, with
countdowns on daily newscast, protest tweets and Facebook status’ September 21st, 2011 was a dreary day for all who were in
affect.
I remember writing a current event summary in my high school advanced placement class about the Jena 6. Going to a
predominantly black high school I think my view then was a little tainted, but as you grow and compare different aspects and
terms of life you evolve and so does your opinion. The same amount of justice, as implied in the documents that our country
was birthed from, should be allotted to every person, as should punishment.
Whose not to say the judicial system doesn’t have it’s downfalls? Change.org, supplied to be a channel of staying up to date
on different campaigns from around the world and also a way to start your own, says you can sum up these flaws in just three
points. In an article titled, 3 Things Wrong With America’s Criminal Justice System, by Matt Kelly, Kelly says “1. It puts to many
people away for too long. 2. It criminalizes acts that need not be criminalized. 3 It is unpredictable.” Although I think you
could get more in depth with the systems problems, these three points are how Kelly refers to it in the article, as a “simple
takeaway that isn’t over simplified.” (http://news.change.org/stories/3-things-wrong-with-america-s-criminal-justice-
system)
I originally started this project on a quest to find other cases similar to that of the recent Trayvon Martin. As I corralled more
and more research, compared and contrast different cases, being that there were so many I could choose from, something else
became more evident. Martin’s case, like the others, are wrong and are wrong on so many different levels. One of the levels in
the Martin case is the Stand Your Ground Law, a law stating that one may use deadly force, with reasonable belief of a threat.
A defense the media has already assigned to Zimmerman, the murder defendant’s case. In a few years we will be looking back
at this case and hopefully we will see a change in our system Our generation has produced some high stakes cases of it’s own
and here were just a few that helped define the law