Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for April 19, 1998

Transcript:

Man: This is a police sketch of teh man Effross will be tried as. Man: And fortunately, the law doesn't require us to prosecute defendatns as teh people they actually are. White Woman to be Tried as Black Man. Georgia prosecutors have decided to charge 33-year old white female Wilma Effross, accused of murder, as a 42-year-old black male from Atlanta. Effross allegedly bludgeoned her sister to death with a box end wrench, but prosecutors feel it would be difficult to get the death penalty without this strategy. Prosecutors cite the fact that black defendants have the greatest statistical likelihood of being sentenced to death. This type of "fictional prosecution" is common, expecially in juvenile crimes. For example, a nine-year-old who activated a live missile launcher he found in his uncle's toolshed, destroying a nearby 7-11, was tried and convicted as an adult. Or, when a tornady whipped through an Illinois town in 1992 killing two and injuring fifty, prosecutors, recognizing the need for closure in the face of senselessness and random, evil, charged the wind storm as a San Diego members of the "Crips" gang. And an Oklahoma man accused of renting a v