L
EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
WEDNESDAYS • March 7, 2018
‘
INSIDE
He went undercover in the alt-right - 2 Churches must follow students’ lead- 8 Inspired by a show, she made it happen - 10 Black Wealth 2020 celebrates 2nd year - 15 More heartbreak for the Cosby family... 11
Richmond & Hampton Roads
LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE
Nooses are for intimidation Va. successfully argues before SCOVA that its statute bans displays of nooses in a public place even on private property
In his appeal, the accused’s lawyer argued that the law only bars displays of nooses on public land, not on private property. But the state Supreme Court found in a ruling last week that the noose display was considered to be on a public place because it was clearly visible from a public road.
AYA DRIOUCHE CNS – The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the display of a noose on private property violates the state law that bans displaying a noose in a public place with an intent to intimidate. The high court handed down the decision in upholding the conviction of Jack Eugene Turner, who displayed a noose in a tree, from which he hung a black, lifesize mannequin, in the front yard of his home in Franklin County in southwest Virginia. Turner was convicted of a Class 6 felony under existing law. “Turner argues the display was not proscribed under the statute because, although visible from a public road, it was located on his own property,” the Supreme Court’s ruling stated. However, it added, “Concluding that the noose display was on a public place under our construction of the
statute, we affirm the conviction.” Turner had been convicted of a law that says, “Any person who, with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons, displays a noose on a highway or other public place. in a manner having a direct tendency to place another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of death or bodily injury is guilty of a Class 6 felony.” In its eight-page ruling, the Supreme Court said the law’s intent is “to criminalize and deter what amounts to a true threat communicated by the display of a noose, i.e., the intention to intimidate another by such display and thereby reasonably place another in fear of death or bodily injury.” In that context, the court said, the term “public place” would include “private property generally visible by the public from some other location, which was undisputedly the case with the site of Turner’s noose
display in his front yard.” Attorney General Mark Herring, whose office successfully defended Turner’s conviction, hailed the ruling. Herring said Turner’s display conveyed a racist message and was used “with the intent of intimidating his African-American neighbors.” “We cannot be complacent about the rise in white supremacist extremism and violence, and we cannot allow hateful displays like this one to go unchallenged,” Herring said. “The display of a noose is an unmistakable message designed to intimidate and invoke the horrors and disgraceful legacy of lynching. We must make it clear that all Virginians have the right to live, work, and raise their families free of fear and intimidation.” Turner lived in a neighborhood with two black families, including one next door. While he was awaiting his sentencing, Turner placed a
handmade cardboard sign against his house that read, “black n***er lives don’t matter, got rope,” Herring said. Turner was tried and convicted in 2015. Afterward, he challenged the constitutionality of Virginia’s statute and whether the display was in a “public place.” In 2016, the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld his conviction. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, Herring’s office said acts like hanging nooses and burning crosses evoke “a long and pernicious history as a signal of impending violence.” “Lynching had a powerful terroristic effect on the target population, which extended far beyond those who witnessed the violence firsthand,” the brief said. “The use of violence was aimed not just at the individual victim but at the black community generally … As a result, southern blacks lived with the knowledge that any one of them could be a victim at any time.”