Supply: AP / AP
In 2023, a Black man in Georgia who had beforehand spent 16 years in jail for a criminal offense he didn’t commit was shot and killed by a deputy after a site visitors cease turned violent. On Tuesday, a district legal professional introduced the deputy won’t face legal fees for the deadly capturing. It’s the type of case the place even in case you consider the choice to not prosecute was truthful, you would need to admit the justice system, as an entire, is just not.
As we beforehand reported, 53-year-old Leonard Remedy was killed simply three years after he was exonerated in Florida, the place he was wrongfully convicted of armed theft in 2004. On Oct. 16, 2023, a Camden County, Georgia, sheriff’s deputy pulled Remedy over for dashing on Interstate 95 close to the Florida line and ordered him to exit his car. Physique- and sprint digicam video confirmed Remedy refusing to place his palms behind his again because the deputy commanded, and it confirmed him bodily combating the deputy earlier than he was shot at point-blank vary.
From the Related Press:
“Use of lethal drive at that time was objectively affordable on condition that he was being overpowered at the moment,” District Lawyer Keith Higgins instructed The Related Press in a cellphone interview Tuesday.
Higgins, Georgia’s high prosecutor for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit, mentioned he instructed Remedy’s household of his choice throughout a gathering Monday and in addition notified the deputy, Employees Sgt. Buck Aldridge.
Attorneys for Remedy’s household have insisted Aldridge used extreme drive.
“This choice is a devastating failure of justice, sending the message that legislation enforcement officers can take a life with out consequence,” household attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels mentioned in an announcement.
Aldridge nonetheless works for the Camden County Sheriff’s Workplace, assigned to its administrative division, mentioned Deputy Dalton Vernakes, a spokesman for Sheriff James Kevin Chaney. Aldridge had been positioned on administrative go away whereas Remedy’s capturing was investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“The GBI did an intensive investigation and the district legal professional got here to the suitable conclusion concerning Mr. Aldridge’s use of drive on this occasion,” Aldridge’s legal professional, Adrienne Browning, mentioned by e mail. “We’re comfortable he’ll be capable of proceed to serve the residents of Camden County as he’s executed for the previous 12 years.”
Remedy’s household speculated that he solely resisted arrest as a result of he was nonetheless traumatized by his unjust keep in jail, which he was exonerated and free of in 2020.
And that is smart, doesn’t it?
Think about in case your final main encounter with legislation enforcement resulted in your whole pure life being upended for the higher a part of 20 years throughout a criminal offense you have been harmless of. Would it not not be comprehensible if, throughout your subsequent main altercation with police, you weren’t as keen to easily do what a cop tells you to do with out a combat?
Physique-cam footage, which was first launched two days after the capturing, confirmed Aldridge ordering Remedy out of the automobile and informing him he was driving properly over 100 mph. It additionally confirmed him utilizing his stun gun on Remedy as quickly as his order for Remedy to place his palms behind his again was ignored, which prompted Remedy to show and flail his arms earlier than grabbing the deputy.
Extra from AP:
The video reveals each males grappling as Remedy will get a hand on the deputy’s decrease face and neck and begins forcing his head backward. The deputy strikes Remedy within the facet with a baton, however Remedy maintains his grip.
“Yeah, bitch!” Remedy says on the video. Then a single pop sounds and Aldridge might be seen holding his handgun as Remedy slumps to the bottom.
In truth, there are most likely only a few prosecutors who would have sought fees in opposition to Aldridge beneath these circumstances, however, once more, that doesn’t imply the system didn’t fail Remedy. Not solely was Remedy’s obvious perspective in the direction of legislation enforcement probably influenced by his unjust time in jail, however, as his household’s attorneys have argued, Aldridge was beforehand fired from the Kingsland Police Division in 2017 after being disciplined for a 3rd time for utilizing extreme drive. Personnel data present he was rehired by the Camden County Sheriff’s workplace, which neighbors Kingsland, simply 9 months after his firing.
Final 12 months, Leonard Remedy’s household filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to Aldridge and then-Sheriff Jim Proctor in U.S. District Courtroom, accusing Aldridge of utilizing extreme drive and Proctor of ignoring Aldidge’s historical past of violence. The swimsuit, which seeks $16 million in damages, remains to be pending.
The dialogue across the racist and unjust “justice” system, is a layered dialogue. It’s not nearly police brutality. It’s additionally about racial profiling, disproportionate sentencing, and, in fact, Black folks having their lives stolen from them over crimes they didn’t commit. Final 12 months, a report printed by The Nationwide Registry of Exonerations revealed that in 2023, Black inmates accounted for 61% of these exonerated after being discovered harmless.
Once more, there’s layers to this.
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Georgia Lady Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter After Black Boyfriend Discovered Shot Useless
