| | Protesters say racism is behind Texas dragging death
 A killing originally considered an accident and then prosecuted as murder is now being described as a hate crime by protesters, who rallied on Monday outside the Lamar County, Texas courthouse to demand justice.
In September, the mutilated and dismembered body of Brandon McClelland was found lying in the middle of a road near Paris, TX. His death was at first thought to be the result of a hit-and-run accident, but later two men who had been seen picking up McClelland in their pickup truck earlier that day were arrested for his murder, and it was revealed that McClelland had been dragged for seventy feet under the pickup.
Although McClelland was black and his killers white, the three men were known to be friends, and the Lamar County district attorney and police investigators insist that the murder simply grew out of an argument. District Attorney Gary Young stated in September, "There is no indication at this time that this is a racially motivated crime, but rest assured, it will be dealt with accordingly if that becomes an issue."
However, the town has an uneasy history of racial divisions and charges of unequal justice. Last year, a fourteen year old black girl in Paris was sentenced to up to seven years in a youth prison for shoving a hall monitor. As a result the victim's mother, Jacquiline McClelland, and members of the black community are suspicious that the killing was racially motivated and that there may have been a coverup by officials fearing more bad publicity.
The Paris chapter of the NAACP met on October 28 and issued a statement, saying, "Criminal behavior, particularly a violent murder that raises the suspicion of racial bigotry, calls for a united and passionate, no-tolerance, community response combined with dedicated efforts to seek evidence, to comfort the victim and to present facts as opposed to opinions, so that the appropriate verdict is sought."
Local civil rights leaders, together with the Nation of Islam and the Dallas chapter of the New Black Panther Party, organized Monday's protest outside the Lamar County Courthouse. They carried signs saying, "Friends do not drag their friends under a truck" and chanted, "Justice Now."
"This man was run over, possibly multiple times," explained Darren X of the New Black Panther Party. "And just because he knew his attackers doesn't mean it wasn't a hate crime."
One of the murderers, Shannon Finley, is alleged to have white supremacist ties, and the case has echoes of the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, TX. "That’s how they do black people around here," said a local activist working with the McClelland family. "To me, it smells like Jasper."
Adding to the complexity of the case, Lamar County's current district attorney served as the court-appointed defense attorney for Finley five years ago, when he was charged with manslaughter after shooting a friend in the head three times. Finley claimed he was attempting to fire at black robbers who had walked up alongside the truck where he and his friend were sitting.
McClelland attempted to provide Finley with an alibi in that incident, lying to a grand jury by saying Finley had been with him at the time, and wound up serving two years in prison for perjury. Members of McClelland's family now say that Finley fell in with white supremacists while in prison and that they had warned McClelland to stay away from him.
However, a spokesman for the district attorney's office stated in Octobber that there is no evidence Finley joined a white supremacist gang in prison and "there is nothing racially motivated in the state’s eyes about this murder."
The district attorney recused recused himself early in the case, and the county has now appointed a special prosecutor, who begins work on Tuesday.
Some white residents, however, saw Monday's protest as outside meddling. "I don't think that the New Black Panthers have any business being up here," one Paris resident told CBS 11 News. "The ADL has labeled them a racist and extremist group."
CBS 11 News reported on the protest.
This video is from CBS 11 News, broadcast Nov. 17, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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