Page 24 - Florida Sentinel 10-28-16 Online Edition

National
Family Gets Letter 14 Years After Son Is Murdered
Petition Started To Include Clarence Thomas At African American Museum
Florida Inmate To Get New Trial After 40 Years In Prison
Jacob Dougan was con- victed for the 1974 racially mo- tivated murder of Stephen Orlando, 18, in Jacksonville, Fla., over four decades ago and is now going to receive a new trial.
Police said that Dougan was one of many who were part of a group called the Black Libera- tion Army. Apparently, group members went out looking for a white person to kill in order to protest racial inequality.
According to CBS News, Or- lando was found dead at a trash dump with multiple stab wounds and gunshot wounds to the head. Later on, his mother and several media out- lets received recordings de- scribing how Orlando had begged for his life. Dougan ad-
JACOB DOUGAN
mitted to making the record- ings but reportedly testified that he did not kill Orlando.
Dougan is now getting a new trial after the state’s high- est court agreed that there were problems with his first trial, in- cluding false testimony from the sole eyewitness.
STOCKTON, California – A long-lost letter made a return trip 14 years after a Stockton high school student was mur- dered.
Nineteen-year-old Aaron Vickers was killed in a drive- by shooting in 2002. Thanks to Facebook, one of Vickers’ for- mer teachers is sharing a piece of his life.
“When I opened the letter and saw his handwriting, tears filled my eyes,” said Tyra Vickers-Kearney, Aaron’s sister.
In his own words, by his own hand, Aaron’s innermost thoughts and dreams are in- spiring his family 14 years after his death.
“May 23rd, 2000, Aaron wrote a letter to his future self and it was a high school as- signment. From the high school assignment that Aaron wrote to himself, the teacher kept it,” Tyra Vickers-Kear- ney said.
That teacher was Daryl Hutchins, who used to work at Plaza Robles High School.
With a promise to mail the letters back to students after 10 years, Hutchins turned to Facebook to help find Aaron’s family after learning the high school junior had been shot and killed in 2002.
“The days waiting for the let- ter, the anticipation was so high. We were wondering,
Aaron Vickers was killed by a drive-by shooter.
what did the letter say? You know, I hope it’s not like a one- liner,” Tyra Vickers-Kear- ney said.
But what that four-page let- ter contained was a priceless gift.
“I’ve never felt his presence like that in the past 14 years, but I felt like he was sitting right next to the side of me as she was reading this letter,” said Aaron’s mother Deanetta Vickers.
Perhaps the most surprising wasn’t just his hope for a fam- ily, but his profoundly opti- mistic and eerily accurate take on the country’s political cli- mate.
“He mentioned in 10 years, we’ll probably have a black vice president. Or maybe a woman would be president,” Tyra Vickers-Kearney said.
The person responsible for killing Aaron has never been caught. He left behind a son who is now 13 and shares his father’s name.
CLARENCE THOMAS
WASHINGTON, D.C. --- After Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was visibly excluded from Washington, D.C.’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, a petition has been created for the museum to highlight his contributions the nation’s legal system.
The only place Thomas is featured is in a video where Anita Hill is testifying against him during the sexual harass- ment scandal. Those who cre- ated the petition believe the sex scandal should not overshadow his accomplishments and con- tributions to our nation’s his- tory.
“Justice Clarence Thomas is the second black man to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court and a steadfast conservative who protects our closely held freedoms. He has established himself as one of the brightest legal minds of his generation, yet the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture fails to include any mention of his numerous acco- lades,” read a statement from the petition’s organizer Megan Thomas.
“This obvious oversight is even more glaring since this month commemorates Justice Thomas’ 25th anniversary on the Court.” The petition has garnered over 7,000 support- ers.
NAACP: Mississippi Student Gets Noose Put Around
Neck And Near Strangled And Nothing Is Done
WIGGINS, MS --- White students at a Mississippi high school put a noose around a black schoolmate’s neck and “yanked backward,” the state NAACP revealed Monday.
According to the report, Mis- sissippi NAACP spokesperson Ayana Kinnel said the inci- dent took place Oct. 13 at a field house at the Stone County High School in Wiggins, Miss. The NAACP is accusing officials of not handling the situation properly, saying that no one has been charged with a crime in the incident and that the stu- dent’s parents have not been told of any punishment for the other students involved.
“They failed to protect this student throughout this or- deal,” the NAACP said, accord- ing to the newswire. “Allowing students to commit blatant hate crimes without severe consequences sends a message to students that their safety and well-being are not valuable enough to be protected.
“The students have not been expelled and the victim’s par-
Derrick Johnson, left, pres- ident of the Mississippi NAACP, talks to the media on behalf of Stacey Payton, center right, and Hollis Payton, right, the parents of the high school student, in front of the Stone County Courthouse in Wig- gins, Miss.
ents are not fully aware of any punishment,” the group added. “The school’s own policy calls for the automatic expulsion of any student committing a vio- lent act against another stu- dent. Yet, to our knowledge, this policy has not been ad- hered to in this case.”
According to the Center Daily Times, the NAACP is call- ing for a federal hate crime in- vestigation into the incident.
New York Man Arrested For Kidnapping And Murdering Landlord
Erskin Felix is in custody for the 2014 murder of Menachem Stark.
BROOKLYN, NY --- Erskin Felix, 38, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was the mastermind of a plan that resulted in charges of first-degree kidnapping and second-degree murder in the abduction and death of a wealthy landlord, officials say. The landlord, 39-year-old Menachem Stark, was ab- ducted in Brooklyn outside his office the night of Jan. 2, 2014, by Erskin Felix and his cousin Kendel Felix, author- ities charge. Kendel Felix was convicted last month of kidnapping and second-degree murder.
According to CBS News, Stark’s charred remains were found in a Long Island, N.Y., dumpster at a gas station the day after his abduction.
According to authorities, Erskin Felix worked for Stark and was trying to extort money from him when he and his cousin kidnapped him.
Stark died of asphyxiation from one of the men sitting on his chest, officials charge.
Kendel Felix faces up to 25 years in prison and is to be sentenced next month. Er- skin Felix, if convicted, also faces 25 years in prison.
Teenage Girls Attack Elderly Man And Video It
SYRACUSE, NY -- Two teenage girls living in Syra- cuse, New York, were arrested after allegedly attacking a 62- year-old man on video.
Apparently, the elderly man asked a group of teens sitting on his lawn to leave, at which point they became violent and confrontational. One girl is seen punching the victim in the face twice and when he be- gins to run after her, another
Teen attacks elderly man
spins him around while the others record and laugh in the
background.
Two girls, 14 and 15, have
been arrested at this time and face third-degree assault charges. One of the girls’ moms is offering her apology to the victim and says her daughter will face the conse- quences for what she did. The footage has been viewed more than 1 billion times on Face- book.
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