Post by the Scribe on Sept 20, 2022 0:15:37 GMT
Family says fatal shooting case shows ‘stand your ground’ defense doesn’t work for Black men
www.aol.com/news/family-says-fatal-shooting-case-213221190.html
Yahoo News
MARQUISE FRANCIS
September 19, 2022, 2:32 PM
William “Marc” Wilson was recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a shooting that he says was in self-defense against a racist attack on a Georgia highway, and his family and lawyers say the case reveals a racial double standard for “stand your ground” laws.
“If you put me in Marc’s shoes, there’s no way that I would've been prosecuted,” Wilson’s cousin, Chance Pridgen, who is white, told Yahoo News. “Odds are I would've been given a medal — probably gotten a parade in my name. It’s unreal how he was treated just because he’s a little bit more tan than I am.”
Wilson, a biracial Black man, 21 years old at the time of the shooting on June 14, 2020, fired his legal handgun at a pickup truck of white teens who he says were yelling racial slurs at him and trying to run him and his white girlfriend off the road near Statesboro, Ga. One of those bullets struck and killed 17-year-old Haley Hutcheson, who was in the back seat of the truck.
Marc Wilson, left, and Haley Hutcheson
Wilson, left, and Haley Hutcheson. (Bulloch County Sheriff's Office via AP, Facebook)
After an emotional seven-day trial late last month in Bulloch County Superior Court, a jury found Wilson guilty of felony-level involuntary manslaughter. Wilson was acquitted on the other charges, including felony murder, which carried with it a potential life prison sentence. He is set to be sentenced Tuesday.
“We believe that this verdict is a verdict that speaks the truth,” Ogeechee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Daphne Totten said outside the court after the Aug. 31 ruling. “We ask juries every day to return verdicts that speak the truth, and the truth in this case is that what Marc Wilson did that night on the bypass was a crime.”
Prosecutors argued that Wilson did not need to fire his weapon, while the defense contends that he exercised legal self-defense under the state’s “stand your ground” law.
A number of states, including Georgia, have implemented the controversial laws loosening the restrictions on using deadly force when threatened, stating there is no duty to retreat first.
The case against Wilson was closely watched by legal experts and civil rights advocates who have long criticized the use of “stand your ground” laws as racist. Perhaps the most high-profile case was the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen. George Zimmerman, who killed Martin, successfully argued that the use of force was justified under Florida’s self-defense laws.
more
www.aol.com/news/family-says-fatal-shooting-case-213221190.html
Yahoo News
MARQUISE FRANCIS
September 19, 2022, 2:32 PM
William “Marc” Wilson was recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a shooting that he says was in self-defense against a racist attack on a Georgia highway, and his family and lawyers say the case reveals a racial double standard for “stand your ground” laws.
“If you put me in Marc’s shoes, there’s no way that I would've been prosecuted,” Wilson’s cousin, Chance Pridgen, who is white, told Yahoo News. “Odds are I would've been given a medal — probably gotten a parade in my name. It’s unreal how he was treated just because he’s a little bit more tan than I am.”
Wilson, a biracial Black man, 21 years old at the time of the shooting on June 14, 2020, fired his legal handgun at a pickup truck of white teens who he says were yelling racial slurs at him and trying to run him and his white girlfriend off the road near Statesboro, Ga. One of those bullets struck and killed 17-year-old Haley Hutcheson, who was in the back seat of the truck.
Marc Wilson, left, and Haley Hutcheson
Wilson, left, and Haley Hutcheson. (Bulloch County Sheriff's Office via AP, Facebook)
After an emotional seven-day trial late last month in Bulloch County Superior Court, a jury found Wilson guilty of felony-level involuntary manslaughter. Wilson was acquitted on the other charges, including felony murder, which carried with it a potential life prison sentence. He is set to be sentenced Tuesday.
“We believe that this verdict is a verdict that speaks the truth,” Ogeechee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Daphne Totten said outside the court after the Aug. 31 ruling. “We ask juries every day to return verdicts that speak the truth, and the truth in this case is that what Marc Wilson did that night on the bypass was a crime.”
Prosecutors argued that Wilson did not need to fire his weapon, while the defense contends that he exercised legal self-defense under the state’s “stand your ground” law.
A number of states, including Georgia, have implemented the controversial laws loosening the restrictions on using deadly force when threatened, stating there is no duty to retreat first.
The case against Wilson was closely watched by legal experts and civil rights advocates who have long criticized the use of “stand your ground” laws as racist. Perhaps the most high-profile case was the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen. George Zimmerman, who killed Martin, successfully argued that the use of force was justified under Florida’s self-defense laws.
more