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A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 2 March 2022
Justices weigh if trafficking defense applies to homicide

By TODD RICHMOND Legislature intended,” Bar- the state Justice Depart-
Associated Press ber said. “The state does ment’s Office of Crime Vic-
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The not believe that killing tim Services before becom-
Wisconsin Supreme Court someone to get out of a ing a judge, responded to
grappled Tuesday with trafficking situation is what’s Barber’s arguments that
whether to allow a woman contemplated under the the shooting wasn’t a di-
accused of killing a man statute.” rect result of trafficking with
to argue at trial that the He also argued that the disbelief, telling him that
homicide was justified be- shooting wasn’t a direct re- trafficking isn’t a one-time
cause she was a sex traf- sult of trafficking because crime and a victim can be
ficking victim in a case that Kizer traveled to Kenosha trapped in it for years.
could help define how far to see Volar and had time “I think what the other side
immunity extends for traf- to contemplate shooting is saying is it’s a direct re-
ficking victims across the him. sult out of these years of
country. York insisted most of the ev- abuse,” said Karofsky, a
Prosecutors allege Chrys- idence in the case hasn’t liberal. “I don’t understand.
tul Kizer shot Randall Volar emerged yet and a jury Your argument doesn’t
in the head at his Kenosha should be allowed to de- make any sense to me.”
home, burned down the Chrystul Kizer sits in the Kenosha County Courthouse on Thursday, cide how closely the shoot- The Associated Press does
Feb. 6, 2020.
house and stole his BMW in Associated Press ing and the alleged traf- not typically identify peo-
2018. ficking were connected. ple who say they are vic-
Kizer, who was 17 at the mitted as a result of being arguments Tuesday that The justices appeared to tims of sexual assault, but
time of the shooting, con- trafficked. Almost 40 states prosecutors are wrong. wrestle with the concepts. Kizer discussed her case in
tends she met Volar on a have passed laws that pro- “The Legislature chose (the Patience Roggensack, a an interview from jail with
sex trafficking website and vide sex trafficking victims wording of) ‘any offense,’” conservative, said the law The Washington Post that
he went on to sexually as- at least some criminal im- York said. “They certainly does seem to trample es- was published in 2019.
sault her and traffic her to munity, according to Legal could have limited (im- tablished self-defense doc- It’s unclear when the jus-
others. She told detectives Action of Wisconsin, which munity) to certain types of trine. She called it “a real tices might rule. Their deci-
she shot Volar after he tried provides legal assistance to crimes, but they did not do conundrum” and Kizer’s sion could set a precedent
to touch her, according the poor. so.” case “really bad for me.” for how far criminal immu-
to a criminal complaint. An appellate court in June Assistant Attorney Timothy “You’re telling us this is nity extends in other states,
Charges she faces include ruled Kizer could make that Barber said York’s inter- stronger than self-de- according to legal experts.
arson, theft and first-de- case to the jury. Prosecu- pretation would create an fense,” Roggensack said. More than a dozen anti-vi-
gree intentional homicide. tors appealed to the state unprecedented expansion “(Kizer) doesn’t have to olence groups from around
Kizer’s attorneys want to Supreme Court, contend- of self-defense doctrine prove there’s no other way the country have filed briefs
argue that she’s immune ing the immunity statute by removing any ques- around the bush when she supporting Kizer. They con-
from prosecution under can’t possibly extend to tions about whether killing shot him in the head. She tend that trafficking vic-
a 2008 state law that ab- homicide. someone was reasonable had an absolute privilege tims may feel they have to
solves sex trafficking vic- Kizer’s attorney, Katie York, or necessary. to do it under the statute.” take matters into their own
tims of any offenses com- told the justices during oral “This can’t be what the Jill Karofsky, who directed hands to escape.q

Mississippi county OKs contracts for

Emmett Till statue

GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi county rights activists.
has approved contracts for a sculptor to make Leflore County’s two contracts are with the
and install a bronze statue of Emmett Till, the Utah-based company Big Statues, run by
Black teenager whose 1955 lynching became sculptor Matt Glenn. The first contract says Le-
a catalyst for the civil rights movement. flore County will pay $110,900 for making and
Leflore County supervisors voted on the con- shipping the statue. The second contract says
tracts Monday, about seven months after they the county will pay $5,640 for installation.
initially agreed that the county would have a Mississippi has dozens of statues of Confeder-
statue of Till, the Greenwood Commonwealth ate soldiers at county courthouses, but it has
reported. few statues of Black historical figures.
Installation is expected by about Oct. 1 at Rail State Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood se-
Spike Park in Greenwood. cured $150,000 from the state last year to
The Justice Department announced in De- pay for the statue. A few weeks after Till was
cember that it was ending its investigation into killed, Jordan attended the trial of Roy Bryant
the killing of Till. The 14-year-old from Chicago and J.W. Milam, the two white men who were
was visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta charged. An all-white jury acquitted them.
when he was abducted, tortured and shot af- The Justice Department reopened an investi-
ter witnesses said he whistled at a white wom- gation of Till’s killing after a 2017 book quoted
an in a rural grocery store in Money. The small Carolyn Bryant Donham, who was married to
community is in Leflore County, about 10 miles Roy Bryant in 1955, as saying she lied when she
(16 kilometers) north of Greenwood. claimed Till grabbed her and made sexual
Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on advances while she was working in the store.
an open-casket funeral in Chicago, and Jet Relatives have publicly denied that Donham, An undated portrait shows Emmett Till.
magazine published photos of his brutalized who is in her 80s, recanted her allegations Associated Press
body. Those horrific images galvanized civil about Till.q