Sept. 6, 2011
Family members of the late James Anderson decided not to speak this morning as previously planned at a press conference to announce a wrongful death lawsuit they have filed against Rankin County teens for the beating and murder of Anderson because he was black.
Jackson Attorney Winston Thompson III of Cochran Law Firm and the Southern Poverty Law Center based in Montgomery, Ala., filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of the family, against Deryl Dedmon, 18, John Aaron Rice, 19, and five others. The lawsuit states that on June 26 the group of teens took turns beating Anderson at the parking lot of the Metro Inn motel in Jackson. The teens over the age 18 in the suit are Sarah Graves, Shelbie Richards, William Kirk Montomery, and Dylan Butler.
Thompson said the family is still grieving and decided that they were not ready for public interviews this morning.
The lawsuit accuses the white teenagers of intentionally setting out in two vehicles June 26 to "go f--k with some n----rs" in Jackson. Anderson was in a the Metro Inn motel parking lot in Jackson when he was first beaten. During the attack, one of his attackers shouted, "White power!" according to the lawsuit.
The family is seeking to recover "all damages arising of out the personal injuries sustained by Anderson," including but not limited to funeral costs, loss of career, future earnings, cash value for the life of the decedent and pain and suffering.
The lawsuit is separate from the Hinds County District Attorney's criminal prosecution. A pre-trial hearing for Deryl Dedmon is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today at the Hinds County Courthouse. Anderson's family will be present at the hearing, Thompson said. Only two of the teens face charges in the county's prosecution.
"On the civil side, all we can get is money damages. On the criminal side, we are looking at potential incarceration," Thompson said.
Thompson added that the investigation is still ongoing and could not answer questions about why Anderson was the parking lot of the Metro Inn at 5 a.m. June 26. He also could not say if the teens had a prior history of violence against blacks.
The lawsuit filed today charges all teens with battery. Five of the teens are charged with negligence by failing to intervene, alert law enforcement, provide medical aid or transport Anderson after the beating.
"In this complaint, it's important to note that the legal liability and responsibility of those involved in this doesn't mean that they even had to have gotten out of their vehicle," Southern Poverty Law Center Chief Trial Counsel Morris Dees said today. "They had the duty once they saw what was taking place to call the police, to get out and aid Mr. Anderson, or prevent him from staggering around helplessly after he had been beaten."
Dees cited other cases outside Mississippi that his organization has represented. In 2008, a group of teenagers in Long Island, N.Y., beat Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero, and one teen, Jeffery Convoy, stabbed him to death. A judge sentenced Convoy to 25 years in prison for manslaughter, but acquitted him of the hate crime charge for murder.
This lawsuit only represents one side of this legal argument.
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