UGAalum94 |
07-13-2008 04:51 PM |
I do think that it's a shame that we're not equally as interested in the fates of all murder victims and instead seem a whole lot more interested in young, white, female victims. But it's apparently what people watch and read in terms of news stories, so it's not surprising that these are the stories that reporters bring back.
There was recently a decision by the Georgia Supreme Court that any murder investigation labeled as an open case was not subject to the Open Records Act. The Athens paper brought the suit because they wanted access to the police records of a murder of a student that took place when I was in school there. On some level, it's good that the paper would keep pressure on solving the case; on a different level, there are many other unsolved murders in Athens, and yet, not all get this kind of attention or apparently any attention at all.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/...80701041.shtml
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/...30209090.shtml
ETA: the article only list 6 unsolved murders since 2001. But I doubt that all murders before 2001 were solved, and I know of at least one other case (from the 1990s) for which no one was ever prosecuted for the murder. I think the Athens police rates for solving crimes are generally pretty good. I'm just pointing on the difference in attention to cases depended on who the victims are.
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