January 24, 2004
Modern day (court approved!) lynching
The story: A jury with a single black person deadlocks, so the judge declares a mistrial. At the second trial, the prosecutor sees to it that there are no black persons on the jury. The lily white jury takes 30 minutes to convict a black man for murdering a white man. Notice that in the Tribune’s story a “black man” punches a “white teenager,” despite the fact that they were both legal adults at the time of the death. Also, their ages must have been much closer before we stopped counting for one of them. Descriptions like this tend to subtly, er, color most readers’ opinions.
An all- white Tampa jury took about 30 minutes today to find a black man guilty of murder for killing a white teenager with one punch.Posted by Norwood at January 24, 2004 12:47 AMThe jury found Alan Thompson Jr., 23, guilty of third- degree murder and manslaughter for the May 19, 2002, punching death of Christopher Fannan, 18, in a Steak 'N Shake parking lot in the Town 'N Country neighborhood.
Fannan's family said they were pleased with the verdict.
``We've waited for this for a long time. I'm happy,'' said Cyndi Fannan, Christopher Fannan's mother.
Minutes after the verdict, Thompson's family criticized the fairness of the jury selection and the speed of the verdict.
``I don't think the jury was a jury of Alan Thompson's peers,'' said Latarsha Brown, Thompson's cousin who is also a student at the Stetson University College of Law. She said a more racially balanced jury would have at least taken more time to deliberate.
Thompson was tried in November, but the sole black on the jury would not support a guilty verdict and the judge declared a mistrial.
But in the second trial, which began Tuesday, there were no blacks on the final jury panel.
That is because one black man was removed during the jury selection. The prosecutor, Curt Allen, used a peremptory challenge to remove the juror.
