MBVD: A Call to Justice--Dedicated to the Mothers of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome

Sunday, May 13, 2007

A Call to Justice--Dedicated to the Mothers of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome

Once again, this article is from Spree at Wake Up America. She passed this along at the request of the Steve Gill Show, and I'm doing the same. The mothers of these victims shouldn't be forced to suffer this way. And where is Sharp-ima-ton with his blathering about a lack of justice? Nowhere--because the victims, Channon and Christopher, were white, not nappy headed hos.

And, by the way, does anyone know which Congressional District this happened in and why the Representatives haven't grown a spine to demand JUSTICE for these victims and their families?

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I'm going to tell you about something horrible. Something horrendous. Something so terrible that you may not want to do much more than glance over the details and go to the bare facts. Why am I going to tell you about this? Because it needs to be told, and JUSTICE needs to be done.

This is the story the Tennessean isn't covering. This is the story the National Media is paying no attention to. This is the story that has not gotten the coverage that is warranted considering the heinous nature of the crimes committed, the lives lost in such a brutal way. It's heartbreaking, it's tragic and, in my mind, there is a very, very large TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE being committed as the story unfolds.

Going outside the blog world, my hat tip for this one goes to the Steve Gill Show, for that is where I first heard about this story today, nearly six months later, during his commentary on how that this story isn't getting any media coverage.

I'll begin with what media coverage there has been, then make commentary.

UT student's body found
January 9, 2007
KNOXVILLE (WATE)

Police say the body of a UT student was found Tuesday in a Knoxville home is just down the street from where her boyfriend was found dead on Sunday.

The body of Channon Christian, 21, was found in a rental house on the 2300 block of Chipman Street in East Knoxville. It was taken to the UT Forensic Center where the positive identification was made.

The body of Christian's boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, was found Sunday afternoon along the railroad tracks near 9th Ave.

The couple disappeared Saturday night while they were on a date.

Police have not released the cause of their deaths, but they say Newsom was murdered.

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Search warrants reveal disturbing new details in Knoxville double murder investigation
January 16, 2007
By CATHARYN CAMPBELL
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE)

Search warrants in the double murder investigation of a young Knoxville couple reveal disturbing new details about what happened.

According to the affidavits for those search warrants, investigators found the body of Channon Christian, 21, stuffed in a trash can in the kitchen of Lemaricus Davidson's home at 2316 Chipman Street.

Investigators obtained the warrants after they found the body of her boyfriend, Christopher

Newsom, 23, near the railroad tracks behind 1701 Whittle Springs on January 7.Newsom had been shot at least three times. He was bound with rope or bootlaces and wrapped in a sheet. His shoes and socks were missing, along with his ID and iPOD. His body had been burned and physically assaulted.

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When officers went to Davidson's house on Chipman Street, they say the front door was ajar. As they looked for Davidson, they found Christian's body in the trash can.

In that house, investigators also seized evidence that includes: a .9mm magazine, two .22 rounds, a rifle, three black trash bags with more possible evidence, cell phones, iPODs, loose .38 ammunition, a .22 shell casing, a plastic bag with hair and socks and a gun cleaning kit.

Another affidavit says that two more of the suspects who are charged, Letalvis Cobbins and George Thomas, voluntarily told investigators they were at Davidson's house when he and a fourth suspect, Eric Boyd, came in with the couple bound and blindfolded.

Cobbins and Thomas also told investigators that Eric Boyd took Newsom from the house at gunpoint and later returned without him.

And Cobbins and Thomas said they were at the house when Boyd sexually assaulted Christian while she was still alive.

Officers have obtained DNA samples and fingernail scrapings from Boyd as part of their investigation.

All four suspects are facing a variety of felony charges. But so far, none of the men has been charged with murder.

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Four suspects charged with murder in Knoxville double slaying
February 1, 2007
KNOXVILLE (WATE)

Four suspects, including a woman arrested in Kentucky Wednesday night, are now facing murder, rape and kidnapping charges in the double slaying of a young Knoxville couple.

But the location of the carjacking that began the series of charges in the investigation and why it happened is still being kept quiet.

The suspects were indicted Thursday in Knox County, separate from the federal charges some of the men already face relating to the carjacking. The rape charges involve both murder victims, Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

Lemaricus Davidson faces 46 counts including felony murder, premeditated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape and theft.

Letalvis Cobbins faces 46 counts including 16 counts of felony murder, two counts of premeditated murder, two counts of especially aggravated robbery, four counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape and two counts of theft.

George Thomas faces 46 counts including 16 counts of felony murder, two counts of premeditated murder, two counts of especially aggravated robbery, four counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape and two counts of theft.

Vanessa Lynn Coleman, 18, faces 40 counts including 12 counts of felony murder, one count of premeditated murder, one count of especially aggravated robbery, four counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape and two counts of theft.

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What they don't state on the news reports listed above, from what I've found so far, are the horrible details of what happened to this young couple. Both of them were raped, sodomized, he was castrated and her breasts where cut off before they were killed. Words cannot express my feelings about this. There are no words. The full count indictments against these animals--and I say animals because anyone who can do what was done here can't be classified as human--can be found here. And yes, I know that we proscribe to innocent until proven guilty. That being said, WHOEVER DID THIS to this young couple should be put down like rabid animals, in my opinion.

Insult to injury: the DA in this case is NOT, I repeat NOT seeking the death penalty according to the Gill Show.

I'm sure he'd love to explain to anyone who wishes to call him as to why?

Knox County District AttorneyAddress:

Randy Nichols
400 W Main St
Rm 168
Knoxville, TN37902
Phone: (865) 215-2515

Why is this not being shown nationally? Why does the Duke Lacrosse team make the headlines over false allegations and this horrible, horrible situation that really did happen go unnoticed?

A few thoughts on this can be found here:

The Truth About Who Suffers And About Who Inflicts the Suffering
By Jack Dunphy

It may seem like ancient history now, but it was only a year ago that we were first subjected to the media circus that was the so-called and now-dropped Duke Rape Case. For months thereafter, you couldn't pick up a newspaper or turn on the television or radio without learning some new tidbit about the accused lacrosse players, even as their accuser remained shrouded in mystery. Today we know there was no rape and now not even a case at all, but even in those early days it was apparent enough that there were glaring problems with the accuser’s story (or, as it happened, stories). But not even those problems prevented the case from consuming the attention of the sages in our national media, whose foot soldiers decamped from New York and Los Angeles and such places to descend on Durham, North Carolina, as quickly as they could find it on the map.

The case was simply irresistible to our sophisticated betters in Manhattan and the tonier zip codes of southern California. The “victim” was black and a single mother, each in itself a shield against criticism, but taken together an impregnable defense against any judgment of her own behavior and motives. Furthermore, she claimed to have been attacked by a group of southern white elites, thus justifying the low opinion of such elites held by those who live within sight of the Pacific Ocean or the Hudson River. (Never mind that none of the accused were actually from the south.) Only when the evidence of the defendants’ innocence and of the prosecutor’s misconduct accumulated to an undeniable critical mass did the media slink off to await the next Big Story.

Compare the attention given the Duke case with that accorded a far more heinous crime, one whose victims have thus far failed to arouse the sympathies or even the notice of those who found so much enjoyment in their condemnation of the lacrosse players. Chances are, unless you live in Tennessee, you will not recognize the names Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Christian, 21, and Newsome, 23, both of Knoxville, were driving through that city together on the night of January 6 when they were kidnapped and murdered. Newsome’s burned body was found along some railroad tracks on January 7. Christian remained missing for two more days until her body, stuffed in a trash can, was found in a home not far from where Newsome’s was found. Police and prosecutors allege both victims were raped before being killed. Yes, both. Three men and a woman have been charged with the crimes in a 46-count grand jury indictment handed down in Knoxville on January 31.

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Steve Gill has this to say on his Daily Notes page:

I guarantee that if the victims were a black college couple, and the murderers were a bunch of white guys you would have seen this story on television so much your eyes would be bleeding. As it is, the media has ignored it. Where is Jesse Jackson? Al Sharpton? Don't they think racially motivated crimes deserve attention? Or is only white on black crime worthy of our contempt and outrage? (Emphasis mine)

This is why I'm against hate crimes legislation. We don't need the thought police telling us "this crime was a HATE crime and they deserve more punishment for it." Bull. It's a crime. How much more dead would Phillip Workman be today if he had been charged with a hate crime when he was found guilty of killing a Memphis police officer instead of just being charged for the crime itself? He'd still be dead after his execution this week.

I don't know the Christian or Newsom families; they live at the other end of the state from me. My heart goes out to them, though, as a parent, as a human, as a man. I can't imagine the grief and the pain they must be suffering.

Again I want to pose the questions: Why is this not being tried as a capital crime? It makes no sense to me that it would be treated as anything but. Why the lack of media attention for this case? Does this story have less merit, less importance, than finding out who the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is? Is it more important that we know that Paris Hilton is going to have to pay the price for driving on a suspended license?

I'm going to ask my fellow Tennesseans especially to feel free to cross post this one, in it's entirety, in part, trackback to it, link to it, whatever. Get the word out. Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom deserve it, and so do their families. They deserve justice. And they deserve, and need, our prayers and support. Any of you with more information on this story, feel free to pass it along to us.This needs to be told, and it needs to be told now.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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For myself, I'll add--below are the names of the Tennessee Representatives in Washington, D.C. Maybe, if enough people raise hell, there might be a chance for TRUE JUSTICE for these victims and their families, even if they AREN'T BLACK.

The following information was copied from Complete Email Addresses for Congress, Senate, Governors and State Legislators here. Burn up their phone, fax and email boxes with DEMANDS FOR JUSTICE for this couple and their families!

Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) 615-741-2001
State Legislature Links
Sen. Bob Corker (R) Fax: 202-228-1264
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R) Fax: 202-228-3398
Rep. William Jenkins (R-1) Fax: 202-225-5714
Rep. John Duncan, Jr. (R-2) Fax: 202-225-6440
Rep. Zach Wamp (R-3) Fax: 202-225-3494
Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-4) Fax: 202-226-5172
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-5) Fax: 202-226-1035
Rep. Bart Gordon (D-6) Fax: 202-225-6887
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-7) Fax: 202-223004
Rep. John Tanner (D-8) Fax: 202-225-1765
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-9) Fax: 202-225-5663

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SOLDIER"S ANGELS NEEDS YOUR HELP!

The Veterans Hospital in Tucson needs our help!!! They have contacted Soldiers' Angels with a list of needs for their patients. Soldiers Angels needs your help in making some of these come true.

Below you will find just a small portion of needs that are immediate. You can also find this list posted on the Soldiers Angels Forum at www.soldiersangelsforum.com you will be able to find lots of great information there for our deployed and vets.

If you are sending a monetary donation please follow the link and indicate the State you are in.

Donate here;
Ttp://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=veterans-support

COMFORT ITEMS- $350/MO
Dry Skin Cream
Slipper Socks-No skid
Catheter bag covers
Shaving Cream
Hand Lotion
Baby Shampoo
Hand Soap
Roll on/Spray Deodorant
Denture Cleaner
Underwear (men and women (all sizes)
Toothbrushes
Denture Grip
Socks (white)
Talcum Powder
Nail Clippers
Toothpaste
Ladies hand and body lotion
Backpacks
Disposable Razors
Comb/Brushes
Shawls
Shaving Cream/small
Knitted Caps
Travel Alarm Clocks
Ball Caps
Tote Bags
Shower Shoes
Pocket Size Needle and Thread Kit
Heart pillows for cardiac patients
Lap Robes (3x5 or 5x7)

GUEST SERVICES
30 cup coffee makers
Coffee supplies (reg. & decaf)
Music CDs
Stamps
Writing Paper and Envelopes
Prepaid Phone Cards for patients’

RECREATION
Puzzle books
Crossword Puzzles
Pencils
Video tapes & DVDs (movies, educational)
DVD Player

Sports equipment (basketball, tennis rackets &
Tickets for entertainment & sporting events
Balls, badminton set, Frisbees, football)

If you can send just one item that would be great!!! If each person sends one thing we will make a difference! They are also needing those who can volunteer time at the hospital just contact the Voluntary Services Dept. For information.

Mail Items to:

Department of Veterans Affairs Southern Arizona VA Health Care System – Voluntary Services 9-135, 3601 S. Sixth Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85723

PLEASE HELP US HELP THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM!

My Favorite Speeches and Other Items of Interest

George Bush's March 28, 2007 Discusses Economy, War on Terror During Remarks to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association;http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070328-2.html
Mitch McConnell's March 15, 2007 Funding For Troops, Not Timelines for Retreat; http://mcconnell.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=270747&start=1
Ronald Reagan's June 12, 1987 Tear Down This Wall Speech; http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp
Vice President Cheney's March 12, 2007 Remarks at the AIPAC 2007 Policy Conference; http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070312.html

Winston Churchill Quotes

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
I like a man who grins when he fights.
I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Never, never, never give up.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.
They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Ronald Reagan Quotes

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.
Facts are stupid things.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
How can a president not be an actor?
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.
In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith. Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tryanny and unrest.
Let us ask ourselves; "What kind of people do we think we are?".
Man is not free unless government is limited.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.
The United Sates has much to offer the third world war.
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.