Prosecutor James Konat's "Black Folk Don't Testify Against Black Folk" Comment Gets Murder Conviction Overturned

• A possible murdered is now free thanks to the incredibly poor judgment of James J Konat, a "senior" deputy prosecutor.   What risk has he caused for Seattle?  Why is he still on the county payroll?

• Why does an arrogant racist like Konat still work for King County?

• There is no way can you be serious "Hterr"... it was on tape. Regardless of what an accomplished attorney said during the case, this man is guilty! I'm black and I don't want this man on the streets because some white attorney (who was trying to make the community safer, by the way) said some generalized comment. It's people like you that are making this society absolutely ridiculous... I'm against racism, like you, but you honestly have to be either very slow in the head or very uneducated to pissed off that this attorney will still have a job instead of being pissed off that a murder conviction was overturned.  By the way, nobody said ANYTHING about a lack of "accomplished, hardworking people of every race" so why don't keep the argument relevant please and not bring in some emotionally driven statement that has nothing to do with the case in the original statement or the assertion made by the commenter. 

• No, we don't know that it's true.  There are plenty of accomplished, hardworking people in Seattle and every other city - of every race - who don't abide by the "code" that Konat referred to. There may be a widely held code of silence or "don't snitch" rule, but it is not exclusive to African-Americans, and it absolutely does not apply to all "black folk." Nice to see that you are just as racist as your uncle.  The clown should be fired.  But he won't.  In fact - and this we all DO KNOW - nothing at all will happen to him.  Nothing.

• What a db.  The murder was on video.  This little exercise in racism wasn't even necessary.  If a Senior Deputy Prosecutor can't find a more articulate way to explain reluctant witnesses to a jury, then he has no business trying such important cases.  This guy is a disaster.

• This is ridiculous, we all know his so called "racist" comment is true, but because Konat is white it is taken as a racial slur. Even though the race of the murder (who admitted to conviction and was caught on tape) is very relevant to the case. And this small comment made 4 years ago was a big enough controversy to put a criminal back on the streets? I think this was a wrong decision made by the jury. This James Konat is my uncle.  

• "Monday appealed the conviction on a number of grounds, claiming that Konat "made a blatant and inappropriate appeal to racial prejudice and undermined the credibility of African-American witnesses based on their race," according to the Supreme Court." ================================================ Following not limited to McCall’s gang, nor to McCall’s city, nor to the 1970s. MAKES ME WANNA HOLLER Autobiography  by  Nathan McCall [prof of  Afro Am studies @ Emory] Pub 1994]     page 231 “When he saw Scobe return with the piece in his hand, Frank made a break for the fence, which was more than seventy five yards away. But he wasn't fast enough. Scobe cocked the trigger, took aim, and fired,  striking Frank in the back in full view of everybody on the basketball court. Frank was taken to the hospital. He lived and, to everybody's surprise, pressed charges against Scobe. Frank lost the case. Although there had been hundreds of dudes at the basketball court that day, nobody dared go to the trial to back up his story. So Scobe walked, and added another notch on his rep.  ….... End quote MAKES ME WANNA HOLLER  by  Nathan McCall [born 1955] Prof Afro Am studies-Emory U.   Published 1994   page  44 “Different groups of guys set up their own trains. Although everybody knew it could lead to trouble with the law, I think few guys thought of it as rape. It was viewed as a social thing among hanging partners, like passing a joint. The dude who set up the train got pats on the back. He was considered a real player whose rap game was strong. I think most girls gave in when trains were sprung on them because they went into shock. They were so utterly unprepared for anything that wild that it freaked them out. By the time they realized that they'd been set up, they were stripped naked, lying on a bed or in the backseat of a car, with a crowd of crazed‑looking dudes hovering overhead. I always wondered what went on inside girls' heads when that was happening to them.  Afterward, most girls were too ashamed and freaked‑out to tell. They knew that if they snitched to the cops, the thing would become public news and their name would be mud.   But every now and then, some chick squealed, and somebody caught a charge. Then guys got their buddies to go to court and testify that the girl was a footloose ‘ho’ whom they each had boned. Most girls seemed to lose something vital inside after they'd been trained.  Their self‑esteem dropped and they didn't care about themselves anymore. That happened to a girl named Shirley, who was once trained by Scobe and so many other guys that she was hospitalized.   After that, I guess she figured nobody wanted her as a straight‑up girl.    So Shirley let guys run trains on her all the time. ….  end quote http://www.amazon.com/Makes-Me-Wanna-Holler-America/dp/0679740708 http://www.nathanmccall.net/ Must read for anyone interested in how USA got into its present precarious race relations condition.   SOUL ON ICE by [the late]  Eldridge Cleaver also sheds light on how current American racial relations came to be.

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