GUEST ENTRY by DAVID in TENNESSEE!
Parents of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom Speak Before Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee by David In TN
On Tuesday, February 11, the
parents of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom traveled to
Nashville and appeared before the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee.
The committee unanimously approved two bills they said can ease some of the heartbreak they suffered in the Tennessee judicial system.
On Saturday night, January 6, 2007, Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, were carjacked, tortured, and murdered.
Four
suspects, Letalvis Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson, George Thomas, and
Vanessa Coleman, were convicted during 2009-10. Cobbins received a
sentence of life without parole. Davidson was sentenced to death. Thomas
received life without parole and Coleman was convicted of facilitation
of the crimes against Channon Christian for a sentence of 53 years.
George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman each received a
second trial. Thomas was convicted again, but his sentence was life with
the possibility of parole after 50 years. Coleman was convicted on 13
counts, down from 17 in her first trial, resulting in a sentence of 35
years, down from 53.
I attended three of the seven trials in the
Christian-Newsom case, two sentencing hearings, and one motions hearing.
I spoke several times to Hugh Newsom, father of Chris, and heard Gary
Christian make several comments during breaks in trial.
The parents were unhappy with some of the sentences,
in particular the life sentence for Letalvis Cobbins, brother of
ringleader Lemaricus Davidson, and the sentence for the lone female
defendant, Vanessa Coleman.
When I met Hugh Newsom before Coleman's second trial
in November 2012, he told me it was because of "the idiot judge" that
the case was being retried. (The retrials were caused by the drug conviction of Judge Richard Baumgartner.) Of Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood, who replaced
Baumgartner, Mr. Newsom said "I don't like this judge either."
During the retrial last May of George Thomas, Gary Christian said he would "never, ever let anybody forget."
The first bill
was the Chris Newsom Act, which would modify Tennessee's "13th Juror"
rule. Former judge Baumgartner went through four verdicts and four
sentencing hearings without bothering to affirm the verdicts as 13th
Juror as required by Tennessee law.
Judge Blackwood overturned all four verdicts, saying
he could not act as 13th Juror without seeing testimony. After
presiding over the Coleman retrial, Blackwood affirmed the verdict as
13th Juror.
Under the new law, a judge is required to act as
13th Juror immediately after a jury's unanimous verdict. Since
Baumgartner left the bench, Knox County judges have been doing exactly
that.
Judge Walter Kurtz, who replaced Blackwood for the George
Thomas retrial, quickly acted as 13th Juror when Thomas was again
convicted. Judge Kurtz previously overturned Blackwood's ruling for
retrials and upheld the guilty verdicts for Cobbins and Davidson because
of overwhelming DNA evidence against both.
The second bill passed by the Senate committee was
the Channon Christian Act and is supposed to prevent defense attorneys
from making up stories out of whole cloth about a deceased victim. Deena
Christian, Channon's mother, said attorneys for defendant Lemaricus
Davidson "lied to everybody about our daughter," falsely claiming
Channon "had associated with Davidson and used drugs."
Her autopsy revealed Channon Christian had no drugs
in her system and she had to pass a drug test to have her job. There was
no evidence such as cell phone records that the murdered couple knew
their killers.
Both bills passed 9-0 without debate beyond sponsor
Sen. Randy McNally explaining them and senators expressing sympathy for
the families and appreciation for their testimony.
Mary Newsom testified for the first bill and Deena Christian for the second.
The parents will return to testify before a House committee in two weeks.
My
sources for this story were the Knoxville News Sentinel and WBIR,
Knoxville's NBC station. I also used my own observations at the trials I
attended or watched by live stream.
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5 comments:
Anon in Texas here. I've been following and commenting on the Jahi posts. I also followed this story and am still heartbroken for the parents of these kids. I am so glad the fight for change is getting somewhere.
Now, if we can pass a law everywhere for all defense attorneys forbidding them from making up cr@p out of "whole cloth"- you know, like shotguns in Florida, for instance- now, that would be getting somewheres...
Thanks for the article, David. Those families suffered unbelievable excess pain due to the years-long machinations of the Court.
I am pleased to hear they are on their way to helping to rectify the situation so no other families have to suffer as much as they did.
Please keep us updated on the progress of the legislation!
I think of these families often and my heart breaks for them and their children. The absolute horror of the deaths of these two beautiful and contributing people is certainly worthy of the death sentence for all involved, I am sorry it was not to be. I hope they can find some measure of comfort with this legislation.
If the victims were black and the murders white, this would be front page news all over the country.
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