MARCUS on 5.11.04 Oprah (NEW ONE)

[abaici]

As a woman, I am very sensitive to sexual assault cases. Please note, he was acquitted of rape. The aggravated molestation and statutory rape charges are ridiculous. It was a witch hunt. They were classmates! I'm just upset that R.Kelly is walking around and this boy is in jail. Statutory rape should not have been applied in this instance.

[Phasad1913]

I'm sorry, but I am watching Oprah right now and I am INFURIATED! I really believe this girl is not telling the truth. My money is on the dad. Somehow pops found out and threatened her or something and this was the story she came up with in the heat of the moment. This smacks of the white women who claimed the black man raped her a few years ago and it utlimately came out the she lied, oh heck this has happened so many times its rediculous!

I am so mad right now.

[AKA2D '91]

With this case, I think that "our" youth have to reconnect themselves with the times of the 50s and 60s. Just recently as the late 90s that young man in Mississippi was found hanging from a tree IN FRONT of his yard. It was supposedly a suicide....YEAH RIGHT! He had ties to a nonAA female. Then he comes up DEAD.

Man, these kids need to wake up and realize that history repeats itself and crying RAPE after you have had concentual sex isn't new and part of that history. When will WE learn?

Watch where you put it!

WAKE UP YOUNG PEOPLE!

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by AKA2D '91
With this case, I think that "our" youth have to reconnect themselves with the times of the 50s and 60s. Just recently as the late 90s that young man in Mississippi was found hanging from a tree IN FRONT of his yard. It was supposedly a suicide....YEAH RIGHT! He had ties to a nonAA female. Then he comes up DEAD.

Man, these kids need to wake up and realize that history repeats itself and crying RAPE after you have had concentual sex isn't new and part of that history. When will WE learn?

Watch where you put it!

WAKE UP YOUNG PEOPLE!

my sentiments exactly!!!! Be cordial to nonAAs but be careful!!!! ALWAYS!!!

[RBL]

Originally posted by AKA2D '91
With this case, I think that "our" youth have to reconnect themselves with the times of the 50s and 60s. Just recently as the late 90s that young man in Mississippi was found hanging from a tree IN FRONT of his yard. It was supposedly a suicide....YEAH RIGHT! He had ties to a nonAA female. Then he comes up DEAD.

Man, these kids need to wake up and realize that history repeats itself and crying RAPE after you have had concentual sex isn't new and part of that history. When will WE learn?

Watch where you put it!

WAKE UP YOUNG PEOPLE!

I'll cosign on that

[Steeltrap]

One suspects that Kobe Bryant should also have taken this advice.

[RBL]

NAACP RALLIES FOR JUSTICE AND MERCY IN MARCUS DIXON CASE
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL AT STATE CAPITOL SEEKS SENTENCE
REDUCTION, AND REPEAL BY GEORGIA SUPREME COURT
TEENAGER SERVING A MANDATORY 10-YEAR SENTENCE

NAACP, President & CEO, Kweisi Mfume will lead the Georgia State Conference of NAACP, branches and student leaders in a rally and candlelight vigil for teenager Marcus Dixon, who is currently serving a 10-year sentence and who's case is before the Georgia Supreme Court on appeal. The vigil will be held at 6 p.m. at the Georgia State Capital in downtown Atlanta.

Last February, Dixon who was 18 at the time was accused of having of sex with a 15-year, 9-month-old female schoolmate. Dixon says the relations were consensual, but through what has been termed as a misapplication of Georgia law was convicted of misdemeanor statutory rape and aggravated child molestation, which carry a mandatory 10-year sentence with no hope of parole. Dixon is black and his female schoolmate is white.

Mfume said: "The conviction of young Marcus Dixon is an extremely unfortunate example of what can happen to young blacks, Latinos and poor whites when punishments for offenses are unfairly and unevenly applied. Some of the jurors in the original trial believe Marcus did nothing more than have consensual sex with a classmate. These jurors said the prosecution's presentation caused them to convict Marcus of what they thought were much lesser crimes that would result in Marcus going home rather than to jail. We recognize that this could be anybody's son or daughter and that teenagers don't always make the right decisions when it comes to sex, but we appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court Justices to show mercy in this case and order Marcus's release from prison."

Dixon has been locked up since last year. His lawyers argue the conviction is indeed a misapplication of the Georgia aggravated child molestation law. Currently, the case is before the Georgia Supreme Court, which is due to render a decision this spring. The Court has the power to overturn the mandatory sentence and send the case back for further review.


The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are front line advocates for civil rights, social justice and equal opportunity under law.

[carnation]

Dixon case distortions color justice

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/16/2004

Dixon case distortions color justice
Jim Wooten










A few words about the Deep South, race, Marcus Dixon -- and public relations justice.

The Dixon case -- he being the promising Rome athlete serving 10 years in prison for sexually violating a 15-year-old -- is an example. But it's not, as Dixon supporters portray it, an example of "Deep South justice," a prejudicial characterization framed to elicit images of night riders, lynch mobs and institutional racism because he is black and the victim is white.

It is, rather, an example of the distortion that triumphs when justice is defined after the fact by sports and entertainment figures, stereotypers and a public relations machine determined to undo a verdict and sentence.

The victim, who was a virgin prior to the encounter, still denies she consented to sex with Dixon, a fellow student whom she barely knew. At the time of the offense she was working an after-school job as a custodian, cleaning a classroom trailer. The victim, according to Floyd County District Attorney Leigh E. Patterson, "sustained physical injuries which included bruising on her arms where she testified the defendant grabbed her" as well as vaginal injuries, and "her lip was bleeding from where she bit it during the attack."

The jury found Dixon guilty of statutory rape and aggravated child molestation. It found him not guilty of rape, sexual battery, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. "The jury's verdict of not guilty on those charges does not include any affirmative finding that the victim consented to the defendant," says Patterson. Whether any of them thought the mandatory 10-year sentence inappropriate is, she argues, beside the point. The jury's job is to decide guilt or innocence.

While some actual jurors have expressed reservations to sports and entertainment jurists, Bobby Bolinger, the foreman of the jury that consisted of five white males, four white females, one black female and two black males, told the Rome News-Tribune after the verdict: "I wouldn't change it [the decision] at all. We didn't ruin that man's life; he ruined his own life."

Some jurors did have misgivings -- especially after discovering that Dixon would be required by Georgia law to serve 10 years in prison. Nobody was present when the crime occurred except Dixon and the victim.

Dixon did not testify. As is often the case with post-conviction publicity campaigns, the victim ceases to be real. It is routinely recounted as gospel that she consented. She vehemently denies that.

Largely ignored, too, are previous examples of Dixon's inappropriate sexual behavior.

At trial, one female student, a classroom acquaintance who had no outside friendship with Dixon, testified that without warning he exposed himself to her in the classroom three years ago.

A second female, a 14-year-old sports acquaintance who had no outside friendship with Dixon, testified that after practice in April 2002, he put his hand down the front of her cheerleader shorts, inside her underwear, and attempted to "finger me against my will." She did not scream, but pushed him away. "He got mad and ran off, calling me a chicken," she testified. In neither case did the girl report the offense to teachers. In both, though, teachers subsequently found out. Dixon was suspended, but was not required to undergo therapy.

When asked by Detective Gary Conway about the two episodes, Dixon acknowledged that in his sophomore year he had been suspended for exposing himself. "Uh, just stupid, . . . girl ask me to just, you know." In his junior year, he acknowledged, a girl "said that I touched her." Where? he was asked. "Chest, I think, or something like that."

In that interview, he first denied knowing the third victim. Then he admitted he did, but only by her first name. He eventually admitted having sex with her, but insisted that it was voluntary and in his bedroom.He never acknowledged being in the trailer.

In that encounter, there was but one victim. It was not Marcus Dixon.

[deuika]

Hello Ladies of Delta Sigma Theta,

Pardon me, but I just had to add in on this thread. There has been a vast amount of incorrect assumptions in this case. In reference to the article placed above my post, the "incidents" cited have been disputed by numerous members of Marcus's school. The young lady who said Marcus "fingered" her did not report this "molestation" until after the case became public. Also, it hasn't been metioned that after the charges were brought several detectives went to the high school and basically "coached" girls into giving statements against Marcus. I'm not saying he's innocent, I don't know and that really doesn't matter because the jury said he wasn't. All states have the ability to enforce "harsh" punishments for those who have sex with a minor, but TEN YEARS? Seeing as GA is the SAME state that a few months prior to this gave a White male 18 months for molesting a 4 yr old child, something seems fishy. Also, the detective who many of you saw on Orpah has been cited as a "racialist" and was dropped from a case several years ago due to his "choice of words."
This is a very sad, sad, case. As someone stated previously, when will people learn? Just because it's 2004 doesn't mean people have changed, they've only gotten older.

[CrimsonTide4]

Ga. Court Overturns Black Teen's Sentence
55 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By MARK NIESSE, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA - A black teenager's 10-year prison sentence for having sex with a younger, white schoolmate was thrown out Monday by the Georgia Supreme Court.



The state's highest court ruled 18-year-old Marcus Dixon should have been prosecuted just on the lesser charge of misdemeanor statutory rape rather than aggravated child molestation for having sex with a 15-year-old in February 2003.


Dixon has claimed he was targeted because he is black and had sex with a white girl. His case drew protests from the NAACP.



http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...n_sex_charge_1

[AKA2D '91]

LTWMFAAFOYDL!

Interesting....

[Phasad1913]

I was wondering what had happened to this case. I am glad to hear this. Unfortunatley, I think his life is still ruined.

[stardusttwin]

Does anyone know if he has served a year already? Will he be released immeadiately for time served?

I think if he goes out of state he may be able to get away from the stigma (unless the media follows him as he applies to school etc or if he has to register as a sex offender). I hope he learned his lesson about dealing with the others...otherwise he'll end up right back in this with Kobe and won't be given the benefit of the doubt since they'll claim he has a "pattern" of this behavior.

[abaici]

Originally posted by Phasad1913
I was wondering what had happened to this case. I am glad to hear this. Unfortunatley, I think his life is still ruined.

True. He will have to deal with people who feel his was guilty for the rest of his life. However, he has the support of a lot of people. So, he may not confront the same hardships that other people who were accused of rape face due to the notoriety of his case.

[Attractive#7]

has anyone gotten any updates? i signed the petition.