Death penalty now a possibility in alleged Mississippi hate killing

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By Drew Griffin and Scott Bronstein, CNN Special Investigations

August 18, 2011 8:56 p.m. EDT

Hate crime? Killing caught on video

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Charge against teen suspect Deryl Dedmon upgraded from murder to capital murder
• Justice Department investigating alleged hate crime killing of black man by white teen driver
• James Craig Anderson, 49, was run over and killed on June 26
• Authorities say white teens targeted Anderson because he was black

Editor's note: The following story contains language some readers may consider offensive.

Jackson, Mississippi (CNN) -- The prosecutor investigating the hit-and-run killing of a black man in Jackson, Mississippi, announced he has upgraded the charge against suspect Deryl Dedmon from murder to capital murder. This makes the white 19-year-old suspect eligible for a possible death sentence if convicted.

Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith released a statement that said the upgrade to capital murder was made after new evidence was discovered that supported the allegation that Dedmon committed the crime of robbery during the commission of the killing of James Craig Anderson.

"It does not change the theory of the case," Shuler Smith told CNN. "It is still a hate crime."

The killing -- which sparked national attention after CNN obtained and aired exclusive surveillance video that shows the attack as it took place -- is also being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department, federal and Mississippi officials tell CNN.

Anderson, 49, was first beaten by the group of teens as he stood in a hotel parking lot early on the morning of June 26, according to some of the teens who were interviewed by police.

After the beating, a group of the teens drove a large Ford pickup truck over Anderson, according to witnesses and officials. Anderson died from his injuries later the same day.

Deryl Dedmon Jr., right, could face the death penalty in the case. John Aaron Rice has been charged with simple assault.

Federal investigators are in Jackson at the request of Smith, who says he will be seeking indictments against some or all of the white teens in coming weeks.

"This was a racially motivated murder, committed because the victim was black. We want to prosecute and bring justice in this case to the fullest extent of the law," said Smith, explaining that he called Justice Department officials and asked for more investigators to come to Mississippi to help interview witnesses and pursue leads in the crime.

Under federal law, authorities can pursue further charges and punishment if it is determined that a crime was racially motivated. Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed to CNN that "the department has an ongoing investigation."

Opinion: Hate crimes are a national problem

RELATED TOPICS

• Hate Crimes
• Jackson (Mississippi)
• Racial Issues

The group of teens that night was led by Dedmon of Brandon, Mississippi, according to police and officials in the DA's office. Dedmon is being held in Jackson.

Another teen, John Aaron Rice, was also charged with murder at first, until a judge reduced his charges because Rice was not believed to be driving the vehicle used to kill Anderson.

Smith and officials in the Hinds County District Attorney's office say they plan to indict both Dedmon and Rice for murder and a hate crime.

Attorneys for Dedmon and Rice did not return CNN's calls.

During a bond hearing, Dedmon's attorney told the court he saw nothing to back up the "racial allegations."

Neither teen has pleaded yet, and none of the other teens has been charged.

But Hinds and officials from the DA's office say they hope to bring indictments against not only Dedmon and Rice, but also other teens who were in their cars and part of the attack that early morning.

DA: Video shows white teens driving over, killing black man

Dedmon led and instigated the attack, according to officials; he took part in and led the beating of Anderson, and Dedmon was also the driver of the Ford 250 truck that served as the murder weapon, according to officials.

Before the murder, as the teens were partying and drinking miles away from Jackson that night, in largely white Rankin County, Dedmon told friends they should leave, saying, "Let's go fuck with some niggers," according to law enforcement officials.

Then the gang of teens climbed into Dedmon's green truck and a white SUV Cherokee and drove 16 miles down Interstate 20 to the western edge of Jackson, a predominantly black area.

The teens would have seen Anderson immediately as they exited the highway, because the parking lot where he was standing is just beside the exit ramp.

"This is the first business that you get to coming off the highway and so that was the first person that was out here and vulnerable," said Smith.

On the videotape, obtained and reviewed by CNN, a truck is seen pulling into the parking lot and stopping where Anderson is standing, though he is just off camera and not visible.

Teens can then be seen going back and forth between their cars and Anderson.

Watch the video (contains graphic images; discretion advised)

Witnesses told law enforcement officials this is when the repeated beatings of Anderson took place. Dedmon pummeled Anderson repeatedly as he crumpled to the street, according to officials, though this is not visible in the videotape.

After the beating, some of the teens left and some got into the truck.

At this moment on the video, Anderson becomes visible, as he staggers into view and walks toward the headlights of the truck. The truck suddenly surges ahead, running over Anderson, then continues at high speed away from the scene.

Shortly after he allegedly drove the truck over Anderson, Dedmon allegedly boasted and laughed about the killing, according to the testimony of police detectives who interviewed the teens.

"I ran that nigger over," Dedmon allegedly said in a phone conversation to the teens in the other car. He repeated the racial language in subsequent conversations, according to the law enforcement officials.

"He was not remorseful. He was laughing, laughing about the killing," said district attorney Smith.

pipeline that supplies gas from Egypt to Israel exploded

Cairo (CNN) -- A pipeline that supplies gas from Egypt to Israel exploded Monday in the northern Sinai Peninsula near Bir el-Adb, an Egyptian security official said.

The explosion appears to be an act of sabotage, saidGen. Saleh al-Masri, the head of security in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula.

"Itis an act of sabotage, but the army and members of Egyptian Natural Gas Company are on the scene trying to understand what happened," al-Masri said.

The explosion has shut off the flow of gas to Israel and Jordan, said Ayman Jahin, a general manager at the gas company.

It is the third such attack on Egyptian pipeline infrastructure since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's government earlier in the year. The first two attacks resulted in a halt in the flow of gas to Israel, which receives about 40% of its natural gas from Egypt.

The army cordoned off the area around the explosion, asking onlookers to return home," Mohamed Sabry, a freelance journalist at the scene, told CNN.

He said flames could be seen shooting into the sky hours after the explosion. Firefighters were working to contain the fire, he said.

Delivery of Egyptian gas to Israel came to a halt after an April attack on a pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula. The flow of gas through the pipeline to Israel was restored in early June.

In February, a gas pipeline in El Arish that sent natural gas to Jordan was set on fire, shutting off the flow of gas to not only Israel but but Syria, Jordan and Lebanon as well.

The issue of gas sales to Israel has become highly controversial in Egypt with various allegations circulating that Israel received below market prices for the gas and that Egyptian government officials enriched themselves on the deal.

The Israeli government and Israeli investors in the pipeline have categorically denied below market pricing for the gas and last month one of the major investors released a statement expressing public frustration that the Egyptian government was not moving more quickly to get the gas flowing again and threatened to pursue legal action.

The pipeline between Egypt and Israel became operational in 2008 and the arrangement represents one of the major economic agreements between the two countries.

CNN's Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.

A Dream or Premonition

Today I was awakened by a dream or premonition that might come to fruition. There was a great war between Israel, Gaza(Hamas-Fatah) and Lebanon(Hezbullah). The Palestinians went to the United Nations and sought recognition to exist as the Nation State of Palestine. Almost all the Nations agreed to the resolution, while others obstained from voting but the United States Of America voted "no". The State Of Palestine was born anyway. The Palestinians had be smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt before and after its statehood was granted. Hamas and Fatah having joined together fought for the city of Jerusalem to be their capitol. They wanted the Jews living there to be removed and the entire city and all Jewish historic and religious sites on Palestinian land, to be turned over to the Palestinian state. Israel refused their demands and a great war was launched against Israel by Hamas/Fatah in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and other Palestinians from neighboring countries also joined in the fight. The empathy of the world was with the Palestinians not Israelis. The Palestinians over ran the UNFIL peace keeping observers and attacked Israel with rockets and missiles they had acquired from Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other anti-Israel Nations in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Israel did not have the man and woman power in it military to push back the invading forces. The United States was committed militarly in Afghanistan and other insurrections across the world by other anti-Israeli, anti-American terrorist groups and could not come to the aid of Israel. Israel soon realized it could not hold Jerusalem, its Jewish holy and historical sites. She began to use low yield nuclear battlefield weapons against the attacking forces. I recalled being killed and buried in a pine coffin with the Israeli flag draped over my coffin. I also recalled the Palestinians captured my partner Makedah. Because she was blind, they killed her without torturing or raping her. I woke up from the dream.

Micaiah

Each moment we exist is one minute less we have to live.

Each moment we exist is one minute less we have to live.

                                                            Micaiah Ben Malachi

                                                            Makedah Bat Leah

 

My partner Makedah Bat Leah is the best partner there could ever be

She helps groom me and dress me

She is blind and yet her fingers see more than those with eyes can see

She makes my medical appointments and make sure I am there on time

She helps me in and out of the tub and dry my body

She is there to cuddle and comfort me when I breakdown in tears

Reminding me we are but poor ass Niggers in everyone's eyes

We do not live day- to- day  but exist from day- to- day

 

Micaiah Ben Malachi is the kindest partner there could ever be

He is there to give me advice and watch my back

He protect me from those who seek to harm me and from myself

He loves me for me and not my body but all I can be if given a chance

He loves me unconditionally and never betray my trust

He holds and cradle me in his arms when I am frightened

Even if he knows the odds are against us making it in this world

He gets up and try anyway

He knows if we  exist from day-to-day then death is knocking on our door

RE: Website URL Chabad Bombing

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/10/3086795/police-seek-suspect-in-santa-monica-chabad-house-bomb-attack

FYI

 

Police eye suspect in Chabad House bomb attack

April 10, 2011

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- Police are seeking a 60-year-old man who is suspected of being responsible for an explosion next to the Chabad House in Santa Monica, Calif.

Santa Monica Police identified the suspect as Ron Hirsch, also known as Israel Fisher, The Los Angeles Times reported. A photo of Hirsch, released by police, showed a heavy-set man with a bushy brown beard and green eyes.

The April 7 blast, believed to be deliberately set after initially being classified by police as an industrial accident, forced the evacuation of the Jewish center and synagogue during early morning prayers. It raised security concerns at Los Angeles-area synagogues and Jewish institutions.

Hirsch is known to frequent synagogues and Jewish community centers seeking charity from patrons, according to the police bulletin, which warned that Hirsch, a transient, should be considered "extremely dangerous."

The explosion launched a 300-pound metal pipe encased in concrete, which smashed through the roof of a home next door to the Chabad House.

Initial reports attributed the blast to hazardous construction material stored in an alley near the Chabad House, but further investigation by police, the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found evidence that the blast was caused purposely by an explosive device.

Items found near the site were linked to Hirsch, who is being sought on state charges of possessing a destructive device and additional charges.

On Friday, Amanda Susskind, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, issued a security alert to Jewish institutions and houses of worship in the Los Angeles area urging residents to be on the lookout for the apparently disturbed man.
 

 

Our Passover Message

Our Passover Message

Micaiah Ben Malachi

Makedah Bat Leah

 

Most non-Jews and some Jews think of Moses played by Charleston Hesston in Ceil B. DeMills's The Ten Commandments when thinking of the Passover story.  Some Jews think of the horrific suffering and deaths of the Holocaust era 1930 to 1946.  Both are correct and both are wrong.  It is true we suffered four hundred and thirty years before we were permitted to leave Egypt.  We left in the middle of the night.  So fast did our ancestors leave the Land of the Pharaohs, their bread did not have time to rise and to this day for seven days and nights we are commanded to have no leaven. We are descendents of disgruntle, distrusting and ungrateful people.  A loosely disorganized people of all skin colors and nationalities who took their first steps into freedom in the darkness, following one man and he was following a cloud that pointed their way.  Moses lead them to Mount Sinai and they became a people named the Israelites ancestors of the modern era Jews. 

 

World Jewry has continually suffered and habitually been murdered in mass killings called "pogroms" by non-Jews.  The world only knew of European Jewry's murders because of the invention of printing press and populations that learn how to read the printed word. This invention and the education was denied largely to non-Europeans therefore, the assumption all Jews are either Ashkenazim or Sephardim are held as fact.  The real fact is Jews were dispersed to every known and unknown land in the world. The most documented and best known of the pogroms is what is called the Holocaust.  Know one can know the number of Jews and non-Jews who perished in this fit of societal hatred.  German and Gestapo soldiers killed Jews, Gypsies, Mentally ill, African-German offspring, captured Jewish Allied soldiers and Black soldiers. Many of these people were killed on the spot and so no records were kept.  We only know of the mass bodies in the camps, those that were so malnourished they died in the camps and those murdered when they attempted to return to their places of origin.

 

Even today the Nation of Israel is in a constant state of war with the Palestinians.  Jews have been killed defending the only place left on earth for Jews to flee persecution.   But Passover is not about the numbers of Jews killed.  It is not about the rituals we are commanded to perform each year at this season.  It is about character.  It is about why we were chosen from all the world's people to be those whom G*d made a covenant with.  We were chosen because of the promise G*d made with Abraham.  We were told to put lamb's blood over our doorposts so the Angel Of Death would "Passover" our home the night in which the first born of Egypt was slaughtered.  The mere act of marking our doorposts set us apart from the Egyptians.  Why? Why were we to remain separate?  We were to do so in that G*d would know his/her and their children from those of the evil ones that rule the hearts and minds of mankind. 

 

The Jews of Europe and Eastern Europe became so intermixed with Europeans, they began to think, act and believe they were Europeans.  They practiced the same racial prejudices, elitism, idolatries, bigotry and religious intolerance their European host nations did in order to fit in.  Every land the Europeans and European Jews as well stepped upon, they enslaved, dehumanized and cause those populations to because just as idolatrous as they were.  Instead of leading non-Jews to the G*d of Abraham, they caused them to despised the "white-skinned" G*d.

Passover is about Jews individually and Jews as a people. Do we have the courage to stand out apart from this world individually and as a people and proclaim the truth and message of the one and only true G*d? We all are made in their image. Do we have the will to reach out to other Jews who do not look like us, whose custom may not mirror our own but are equally valid?  Are we willing to open wide the doors to our congregations and community centers and welcome all who seek to be apart of our Jewish community and families, both in the communal sense and also literally.

.  Passover is not only remembering the past but the hundreds and millions of people who suffer in this world now.  It is about the countless generations that pass never knowing freedom but hoping their children may one day have what they never had. When we as an individual and as a people proclaim our inheritance this Passover, let us not only remember those who died a physical death because they were identified as Jews, but also realize and accept not every Jew willingly step up to the axe man's chopping block and die because they were Jews. There were many then, as is the case today, who would betray their own Jewish mother, father, brothers and sisters if it meant saving their life or that of a lover.  We should recall also the million of other Jews seeking inclusion and non-Jews seeking sincere conversion but who were turned away to wonder as strangers because they did not look like Jews do or they did not have the income and education most European and Euro-American Jews were fortunate to possess.  Lastly, let us not forget those seekers who pedigree did not have Jewish sounding names but were probably more a Jew than those standing in judgment of who shall be allowed in the door and those who will be turned away.

 

Passover is about life, living, hoping and blind faith in that which we cannot prove.  Passover is about the millions who have died but the millions left alive to tell the story.

Passover is about You and Me

 

 

Purim

Purim

Micaiah Ben Malachi

 

            Almost every Jew knows of the story of Purim.  I say almost because many Jews know the words of the story but never lived the story.  I have been a live five and one half decades.  I was born during a time when my people fled the Upper and Lower South in America.  They came North, above the Mason – Dixon line in search of better jobs, better housing, better schools for their children and freedom from Jim Crow.  My paternal grandmother knew nothing but hard work as a sharecropper.  She knew Black Americans and African American children could expect nothing else for their future unless she acted.  It was not an easy decision to make. My grandmother left her young son in the care of her aging father and went North.  In 1941, she stepped off the train in Illinois.  This Esther did not know if her move would cost her everything or be a promise of freedom for herself and her son.      My grandmama traded her life of a sharecropper to be a housekeeper for an ill white lady.  Eventually, Grandmama found a job working for a hotel as a maid.  Little did she know Adonai was guiding her steps in this polite but never the less racist northern South. This courageous and outspoken woman worked her way to become a floor supervisor of the maids and met many of the permanent residents of the hotel.  Many of the residents were former soldiers of World War II.  Among these men was a comical and loving White Jewish man.  He and my grandmother became close friends and their friendship lead to her meeting some of the most wealthy and influential and Jewish people in the community. Over the years she was offered and bought a house in which she lived in before her death at age 95.  This house set upon a hill and was visible from a long way and had an open door policy.  Race, religion and gender did not matter; there was always room to stay with her while people traveled on to their next stop. About seven years passed and she sent for her son to come live with her.  He did for a while but returned to the South. He could not forgive the hurt he suffered at the hands of White people before and after her absence.

            In the 1940's, a young Black former soldier living in the State of Louisiana return from the war with two Jewish children from a Displaced Persons Camp in Europe.  The children were from a German concentration camp.  The children were raised as his and they left home to begin their lives elsewhere.  This Black man was nicknamed by the Whites as Jew Boy. A White man was contracted to install a septic tank.  However, he did an unsatisfactory job and the Black man told him, he would not be paid until the job was complete.  The White man cursed at him and swung at him.  The former Black soldier knocked the White man to the floor.  The White man rose to his feet and declared to the Black man, he had better be out of town before sundown or he would not see another one.  Haman was reborn in the form of this White man.  The Deep and Upper South was full of the sons and daughters of this deceitful, lying, racist patriarch.

            The former Black soldier called some of old war buddies who lived in Illinois and told them about the threat.  They sent a White Esther to save the life of a Black man.  He was placed under the floorboard of the car and the woman drove all night until he was in Illinois and out of the Southern Klu Klux Klan area.  When he arrived they provided him clothing, a place to sleep and hired him as a grounds keeper so his pride was not hurt. Eventually, the Black man was introduced to my Grandmama and he became my Grandfather.  The point of my story is to point out reading the mere words of the Book of Esther cannot convey the true fear and persecution the Jews suffered and the real danger they faced if Haman got his way.  Today, there are many children of Haman.  Their hatred is boundless.  They can be found in every race, every religion, every country, every town and yes, in every family.  Purim is not about what happened yesterday long ago, but rather a warning to Jews and non- Jews alike of what evil lurks in the hearts of men and women who are Haman's descendents.  Esther placed herself second and her people first when it came to saving them from utter annihilation.  We owe her so much.  We also owe all those who shoulders held our weight so we could climb over the high walls of hatred.

The Storm Is Near

The Storm Is Near

Micaiah Ben Malachi

Monday, January 24, 2011

Let those with eyes read my words

The Days of Reckoning is soon upon us.

the seeds of racial prejudice and xenophobia,

religious intolerance and ethnocentrism

have begun to grow up out of the Earth.

They were like tiny plants but growing stronger and taller.

Many will walk over them hardly taking notice of them,

yet a select few of us will see and recognize these poisonous sprouts.

Already they have begun to change humankind.

Nations do not trust one another while pretending they do,

But behind closed doors they are building and acquire lethal weapons.

They lie to their citizens of their undertakings.

Evil men, women and children walk this big blue marble.

Their aim is to create mistrust, self-doubt and fear of everyone,

there is no respect for authority, the clergy, our leaders or family privacy.

Fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers do not trust one another,

while institutions have become our children's trust companions.

America, Europe, and Scandinavia you were singled out amongst the Nations.

Your posterity and technology was to be a beacon piercing the darkness of idolatry, hate, hunger,desperation and destitution in this world.

Yet, your hands drip with the blood of millions and

you exported your racism, elitism, greed, vanity and weapons of war to allow those without hope to wage war against one another, while you set untouched and uncaring.

The world's children have now become adults and grandparents, they tell

tales of your misdeeds heaped upon them and their ancestors.

Today there is no where you, your children or your children's children welcome.

Soon your light will disappear and the world plunged into genocide and war.

Freedom, joy, happiness will be replaced with fear and foreboding.

Yisrael, you are the flower that blooms in the desert, but

like your big sistersin Europe, you were created by the Light to be a Light.

You were offered the best fruit of the harvest and still

you rejected the best for the worst.

Have you forgotten the many years you were estranged from your homeland? Have you forgot being hungry and wondering in the desert?

When you were in need of a place to lay your head your sisters locked their doors.

Their heart were cold, insensitive and even denied being your relatives.

But now you pattern yourself after them so as to fit in.

Turn back to the Light and be that which you were created.

Already in distant lands they prepare for a Great War.

Your sisters again will reject you but this time you must stand your ground;

For there is no place for you to escape to.

There will be no angels come to defend you as in time gone by.

Change the linen on your bed and open wide the windows in the room,

welcome your children from the four corners of the world.

Give them no reasons to doubt they are your relatives,

For they must die defending your right to exist.

Only they shall come forth to your rescue.