Texas judge explains Shaquanda's stiff sentence; courthouse locked down as protesters gather.

[LiberalHeart]

Well, it looks like some people are buying the Judge's reasoning -- but others aren't going to let it rest any time soon:

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/03/texas-judge-explains-stiff-sentence-he.html

[hlthe2b]

1. I know no more about the issue, the case, nor the decision...

after reading your post and the link, than when I started....:shrug:

[tammywammy]

3. This link has the judge's explanation

http://dallassouthblog.com/2007/03/25/judge-supervilles-expains-his-thoughts-on-verdict-of-14-year-olds-case-in-paris-texas/

[hlthe2b]

5. thanks... I can sort of piece the story together now..

[stillcool]

6. and here's the original article...

To some in Paris, sinister past is back
In Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation. A black one shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. The state NAACP calls it `a signal to black folks.'
By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 12, 2007
PARIS, Texas -- The public fairgrounds in this small east Texas town look ordinary enough, like so many other well-worn county fair sites across the nation. Unless you know the history of the place.

There are no plaques or markers to denote it, but several of the most notorious public lynchings of black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries were staged at the Paris Fairgrounds, where thousands of white spectators would gather to watch and cheer as black men were dragged onto a scaffold, scalded with hot irons and finally burned to death or hanged.
----------------------------------------------------There are the Paris public schools, which are under investigation by the U.S. Education Department after repeated complaints that administrators discipline black students more frequently, and more harshly, than white students.

And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.

"All Shaquanda did was grab somebody and she will be in jail for 5 or 6 years?" said Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who is president of the state NAACP branch. "It's like they are sending a signal to black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120170mar12,1,1921178.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

[hlthe2b]

8. thank you very much... what a disturbing story...

We really do not value our children when we let this kind of thing happen...

[stillcool]

9. that story is being linked with this one....

http://www.texasobserver.org/pdfs/TYC_version_1.pdf
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2455
New Evidence of Altered Documents in TYC Coverup
March 12th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

A disciplinary report confirming misconduct by former West Texas State School Assistant Superintendent Ray Brookins was altered with the apparent approval of Texas Youth Commission Inspector General Ray Worsham shortly after Brookins was given a promotion, documents obtained by the Observer show. Worsham was suspended with pay last week after allegations surfaced that he may have been responsible for altering a key internal review of the agency’s handling of the crisis at Pyote. New, unreleased documents show that Worsham may have been covering for Brookins much earlier.

[LiberalHeart]

11. Thanks for that info. Very interesting.

[hlthe2b]

12. What to say.... what to say?

Just when you think you can't get more disgusted...

[LiberalHeart]

7. At the bottom of the post at the News Grinder post there's a link to case background.

And there are links there to several other case-related stories.

[depakid]

2. Nothing coming out of Texas surprises me

That state's "justice" system is a shame and blight upon the nation.

[Catherine Vincent]

4. Free Shaquanda!

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. I have Texas Fatigue

Except for Molly Ivins and a few others, Texas has produced nothing but pain and misery for America.

[lonestarnot]

13. And people better not let this one rest any time soon!