W.VA. Rape-Torture Case...

Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 32

NATIONAL NEWS
West Va. March

West Va. Attorney General Wants Rape-Torture Case
by Cash Michaels
Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal

What started out as one of the most horrendous racial rape/torture cases in recent memory, has now devolved into a legal circus, as the prosecutor in charge of the Megan Williams case, and the West Virginia State Attorney General, are engaged in a very public power struggle not only over the issue of whether hate crime charges should be leveled, but which office will actually try the case if it ever goes to trial.

The state AG has made it clear that he doesn’t think Logan County prosecutor Brian Abraham can handle the racially explosive case.

In return, Abraham has called state Attn. Gen. Darrell McGraw’s position on the matter “half-assed.”

Meanwhile the alleged victim and her mother are scheduled to meet this week with Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee [D-Texas] and members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. to tell her story, gain support, and push for a strengthening of federal hate crime laws.

That scheduled meeting will take place one week before Megan Williams’ attorney, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, hold a rally and fundraiser for Williams’ on Dec. 18 in Charleston in a continued effort to garner more support for her cause. The prosecutor says he’s now worried about the impact of that event on a possible and probable predominately White Logan County jury.

But in an exclusive interview, attorney Shabazz expressed strong concerns about the political and legal tug-of-war between West Virginia State Attorney General McGraw and Logan County prosecutor Abraham.

“It is a shame that at this stage of the prosecution, that there’s this much back and forth around the issue of hate crime charges,” Shabazz said by phone Tuesday evening from Washington, D.C.

“What must be done, according to objective standards of pursuing justice, is to charge the defendants with the maximum charges, which include hate crimes. That’s what any good prosecutor would do.”

According to published reports, McGraw says he wants to take over the prosecution of the Megan Williams rape/torture case because it is too hot for the local prosecutor to handle.

“Mr. Abraham is a competent and capable prosecutor. ... I would not presume to co-opt the prosecutor,” McGraw is quoted as telling The Charleston Gazette in its December 2 edition. “If this case is problematic, even inflammatory, particularly at the local level, we would be willing [to take over] if it would remove the case from the local concern. ... It’s not good for people to operate under the pressure of being put in a corner.”

McGraw had already embarrassed Abraham by refusing a request from the Logan County prosecutor to issue a legal opinion as to whether West Virginia’s hate crimes statue applies in the Williams case.

Williams, a 20-year-old Black woman, was allegedly kidnapped by six White career criminals last August, held captive in a desolate mobile home trailer for several days, during which she was beaten, raped, fed animal feces, stabbed, strangled and threatened with death if she tried to escape.

The alleged victim was rescued by Logan County Sheriff’s deputies Sept. 8 after someone called in a tip that she was being held against her will.
At least two of the suspects have confessed that Williams was told, “This is what we do to niggers around here.”

The alleged crime outraged the African-American community across the nation. Williams’ attorney, Malik Shabazz of Black Lawyers for Justice and the New Black Panther Party led a mass rally and march on Nov. 3 demanding that prosecutor Abraham level hate crime charges, in addition to the felony kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault charges the six suspects already face.

Those felony charges are expected to be put before a Logan County grand jury in January. A conviction on kidnapping alone could net up to life in prison.

However the Logan County prosecutor has been noncommittal on the hate crimes issue, particularly after federal authorities refused to be involved. Abraham, in a move many saw as opting for political cover, instead formally asked the state Attorney General’s Office for a legal opinion on whether West Virginia’s hate crimes statute applied in the Williams case.

Abraham said if he decides to apply the charges, the attorney general’s opinion would hold more weight in court.

But in a move that surprised, angered and embarrassed Abraham, state AG Darrell McGraw refused to issue an opinion, saying that the Logan prosecutor knows the law and is qualified to make his own decisions.

“…Mr. Abraham is trying to avoid making the political, tough decision,” a spokesperson for Attn. Gen. McGraw told The Charleston Gazette. “We have no beef with the prosecutor in Logan County. But it is not our role to do what he has asked. It’s his role. ... We have many times been involved with controversial issues.”

“He is as capable of making the determination of what the law is as the attorney general in this context,” the attorney general's spokesperson continued. “He is a lawyer and he is an elected official. He has to make those difficult decisions and not put it on the Attorney General’s Office.”
A furious Abraham, who got the bad news in what he called “a half-assed letter,” was even more lathered after McGraw suggested that maybe a judge should assign the case to the state Attorney General’s Office since the Logan prosecutor is feeling heat, and may not have the experience to deal with such a racially explosive case.
Abraham bristled.

“I don’t think [McGraw] has any criminal jurisdiction to prosecute state statutes,” he told The Charleston Gazette. “I do not want him to prosecute it. I don’t need it; I’m perfectly capable of prosecuting it.”

Needless to say, Megan Williams and her family are not pleased with the ego exercises being displayed by what otherwise are supposed to be sober, well-grounded law enforcement officials.

“It puts stress on the family,” attorney Shabazz said. “It confuses the family, and they just want justice.”

They were already upset with prosecutor Abraham because he attempted to have the court appoint a guardian ad litem (legal guardian) for 20 year-old Megan, saying that the people around her did not have her best interests at heart allowing her to give media interviews and take part in rallies.

Shabazz blasted the prosecutor for the move, saying Megan was legally an adult, had two parents and two attorneys to guide and advise her effectively without the court’s help.
Abraham backed off after the family promised no more press interviews, but the incident did little to foster strong confidence in him.

His public tiff with McGraw does little to bolster that confidence.
“[This controversy] seems to indicate that the prosecutor is unable to apply the [state hate crimes] law himself or he hasn’t had an adequate comprehension of the law to apply it, which is why he sought an outside opinion,” atty. Shabazz said.

What was more puzzling was why Abraham unnecessarily tried to get the state AG’s Office to provide him with a legal opinion, but said even if that opinion confirmed that hate crimes did occur against Megan Williams, that would be no guarantee that he would apply those charges.

“That’s insane, and it begs the question as to whether or not he was hoping the attorney general would advise against it being charged as a hate crime, which would give him cover,” Shabazz said, later adding that all of prosecutor Abraham’s fence-sitting on the issue, “…seriously questions the judgment of this prosecutor.

He opened the door to question his own capacity to effectively advocate for Megan Williams,” attorney Shabazz said.
Shabazz said part of the problem is that while West Virginia may have hate crime statutes on the books, it has little history in actually prosecuting hate crime cases for the simple reason that hate crime charges are rarely leveled, even when warranted.

According to the state’s own tourism website(www.wvtourism.com), “Today, African-Americans represent just over three percent of West Virginia’s total population.”

The alleged brutality in the Megan Williams case, backed up by solid physical and medical evidence, now challenges the lack of hate crimes prosecutions, putting extraordinary legal and political pressure on West Virginia’s criminal justice system to put its statutory muscle where its criminal justice mouth is.

“The position of the Black community nationwide and worldwide is that this case better be handled properly, and we’re going to stay in the fight 100 percent to make sure that whoever prosecutes this case, prosecutes it right, and that the proper charges are added,” Shabazz said, “and that the case is not bungled, and a Black woman left victim...once again, with white racists walking free.”

The latest controversy has attorney Shabazz so concerned, that he said it would be better if the case were transferred out of Logan County.
“I hope that this case is tried in Kanawha County. I’m not comfortable with it being tried in Logan County at all. I prefer it be tried in Charleston. I think the defendants have too much sympathy in Logan County,” Shabazz said.

But Shabazz was quick to add that “I am not taking an official position that the case should be moved right now. I’ll let the natural course of events here take their place. I’m only upset, as others are, that hate crime charges have not been filed, and that the case is being pushed around like a football.”

The burgeoning legal controversy and uncertainty about what will happen next in the Megan Williams case have served to “heighten our efforts” for justice, attorney Shabazz said.

“On Dec. 18, Rev. Sharpton and I will be in Charleston, and we’ll be co-keynoting a rally at First Baptist Church for Megan Williams,” Shabazz said, assuring that unlike the Nov. 3rd march and rally at the State Capitol when Sharpton, who was billed to speak but did not show, will appear this time.

Prosecutor Abraham, however, doesn’t want Megan and her family appearing at the rally. He says while many Logan County residents sympathize with Williams’ ordeal, they object to “social issues” being injected into the case, and don’t like how White West Virginians were portrayed after the Nov. 3rd march and rally.

Shabazz counters that Megan deserves the support of the community, and the issues raised are valid.

This week, Megan and her mother Carmen will travel to Congress to confer with Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee and other Congressional Black Caucus members “so that national eyes can be on the wheels of justice in West Virginia,” Shabazz said.

A legal analysis of why hate crime laws should apply in the Williams case is due shortly from the Black Lawyers for Justice, in addition to a statewide petition that will demand hate crimes charges be applied, Shabazz added.

Beyond the handful of local Black leaders who stood with Megan Williams during the Nov. 3rd march and rally at the state Capitol, Shabazz says he hasn’t heard from the local or state NAACP, or the Black Ministerial Alliance, two of the major groups who opposed his involvement in the case.

Given the current controversy concerning the case, Shabazz says the local leadership needs to understand that now, more than ever, this is all about getting justice for Megan Williams, and nothing else.

“They clearly see that there are issues around this case they need to stand up for,” Shabazz said, “whether they choose to stand with me or not.”

Meanwhile a spokesperson for Montel Williams’ nationally syndicated television talk show says the segment Megan and her mother flew to New York a month ago to tape will not air on the program until sometime in 2008.

The program is scheduled to be in reruns for the remainder of 2007.
Williams promised to help Megan get her GED, give her a laptop computer, and contribute to a fund so she could attend college in the future.