On the Renisha McBride Case

[Content Note: Murder; guns; racism.]

The trial of Theodore Wafer, the white man who shot and killed Renisha McBride, a 19-year-old black woman who sought help at his front door following a car accident, is now underway.

Over at the Black Youth Project, former prosecutor and founder of LegalSpeaks.com Debbie Hines writes about the steep uphill battle to secure justice (and I encourage you to read the whole thing, because I'm excerpting just a small bit of a great piece here):

As a former prosecutor, I'd like to think that justice will prevail for Renisha McBride who was seeking help following a car accident when she was shot and killed. As a woman of color, I have my lingering doubts. The trial began for the man accused of murdering Renisha McBride, who knocked on his door in the early morning hours of November 2, 2013. Instead of helping her, Theodore Wafer came to his locked door and shot her in the face. The undisputed facts are really quite simple. But in the criminal justice system, a case involving a black woman victim and a white male defendant will be anything but simple.

...What really bothers me is the fact that Renisha McBride will be on trial along with Wafer.

...Defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter argued before Judge Dana Hathaway, "our defense is blown to pieces if you don't allow me to argue to the jury that she could have been up to no good."

Got that? The defense doesn't have a way to defend their client's actions because Judge Hathaway "denied the defense attorneys' request to present social media photos of McBride posing with an apparent gun and marijuana."

Does this sound familiar? It should. Because that was the exact same shit that George Zimmerman's defense pulled at his trial for murdering Trayvon Martin.

Even though Judge Hathaway denied Wafer's defense team these particular ways of putting McBride on trial, they are still endeavoring to put her on trial all the same. McBride was intoxicated at the time of the accident and at the time she came to Wafer's door.

Clearly, this is not a justification for being murdered by a fearful man who literally shot first and called police afterwards.

Let us hope the jury doesn't buy this reprehensible victim-blaming that the defense is presenting as justification for their client's murderous instincts.