Okay, this is sort of a hypothetical question, as McCall has been dead for 20 years now. But he served for almost 40 years after this case, committing who knows how many more civil rights violations towards black citizens, and the only times he was ever tried, it was against an all-white jury, and he was acquitted of all charges. Would his crimes (murder, assault with a deadly weapon, battery, civil rights violations) call for a Nuremberg trial of sorts where he gets tried years later? If you guys were in charge of this, and looked back on it fifty years later when McCall is an old man, would you still support a FAIR trial, or would you deem it too late? I feel as though some kind of demerit, be it sending him to jail in his eighties or even giving him some sort of posthumous dishonor would need to be done as a sort of justice to the families of those he abused, even though it is far too little far too late.
Of course one has to look at the setting under which he is tried. The courts that tried him back then were the same courts that condemned countless black men to death. They were courts that ruled in favor of white men regardless of the facts; regardless of how innocent the Groveland Boys were and how guilty McCall was. I feel that If tried today he would face a much less biased jury and would likely be convicted. My first reaction to your question was wondering what became of him in the years following, if he repented and stayed away from racial issues. I found a picture that might be noted here. It is attached. He wrote a book about his time serves as the Sheriff of lake county detailing his experiences all the way until his retirement in 1972, all the while Lake county remained a hotbed for racial tension. All I know is that with the information we were given in the book and his lack of repentance, if I found myself on that jury my vote would be to convict. The photo will be a post on the blog itself as I can't find a way to post it in this comment
ReplyDeleteI will repost the article I posted on a different post here, because the article provides renewed importance:
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-06-16/news/os-lk-lauren-ritchie-devil-in-the-grove-20130614_1_lake-schools-civil-rights-movement-gilbert-king
The journalist states that bringing up the Groveland Case is still a “raw spot” in the community. King told the New York Times that once, when he was inquiring around town about people who were directly involved in the case, two threats were submitted to the library against him. The Journalist says that the stories about Sherriff McCall were never taught to the students of Lake County because they are embarrassing to some of the members of the community. The grandchildren and great grandchildren of the Sheriff still live in the area and it is hard for them to deal with their family member being portrayed as a racist. In this light, it does not seem as though trying McCall again would be a wise thing to do at the current state of affairs. Maybe it would be a good idea a few more years down the road, once old wounds heal.
I'm sorry but he is a murderer. His family may feel uncomfortable with his history but that is not anyone else's problem. He killed, they feel uncomfortable, which is the real injustice?
ReplyDelete