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14.10.2014 United States

Mistrial Declared in Police Killing of Aiyana Stanley Jones

African American child shot to death four years ago by white officer who remains free
14.10.2014 LISTEN
By Abayomi Azikiwe Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley who killed seven-year-old Aiyana Jones during a raid at the wrong residence in a two-family house on Detroit's eastside during the early morning hours of May 16, 2010, remains unscathed after a second attempt to prosecute him ended in a mistrial.

Weekley was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm in 2011. A trial did not take place until 2013 which ended in deadlock among jury members.

The more serious charge of manslaughter was dismissed by presiding Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway during the second trial. She declared that there was not enough evidence to continue prosecuting Weekley for this charge. The firearms charge is a misdemeanor.

Weekley remains free while two members of the family of Aiyana Stanley Jones, one being her father Charles Jones, have been sentenced for murder in the death of seventeen-year-old youth Je'Rean Blake which happened just days before the killing of Aiyana Stanley Jones. Police say they were seeking to serve a warrant on the fiancé of Jones' aunt, Chauncey Owens, who lived on the second floor of the home and was later convicted in Blake's murder.

Charles Jones denied involvement in the murder of Blake and said that his conviction was designed to cover-up the killing of his daughter. Owens reached a plea deal in the Blake murder but questions remained over whether he was pressured by prosecutors and police to confess.

Police officers were accompanied by an A&E cable television crew filming for The First 48, a program that deals with homicide investigations. A flash grenade was thrown through the first floor window where Aiyana and her grandmother Mertilla Jones were sleeping.

Aiyana was hit by the grenade and burned then seconds later later shot in the head by Weekley using a MP5 submachine gun. The officer claimed that Mertilla Jones had grabbed his gun causing it to go off striking the child.

Jones, the grandmother, denied Weekley's story and told him directly on the stand during the second trial. Immediately the defense lawyer for Weekley filed a motion for a mistrial and Mertilla Jones was later admonished by Judge Hathaway for what she described as an outburst by the grandmother on the witness stand.

Efforts by the corporate media to put Mertilla Jones on trial were well underway. This played a role in precipitating the dismissal of the more serious felony charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Wayne County prosecutors having failed twice to win a conviction against Weekley, did not immediately say whether they would seek another trial. The mother of Aiyana spoke out in the aftermath of the trial saying that it has not been possible to win justice in the case.

Another family member of Aiyana Stanley Jones, Londell Fields said: “I don't understand how we can go through this again and have all this evidence brought forth and there not be a verdict either way. I don't think it's fair because he's a police officer that he gets to get away with this again. That's wrong to me.”

Pattern of Deadly Violence Targeting African Americans Continues

The killing of Aiyana Stanley Jones represented the apex of a series of police killings of civilians in Detroit during the 1990s through the current period. The city was placed under two federal consent decrees in 2003 after a three-year Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation determined that gross violations of civil rights had occurred in the use of deadly force and the deplorable conditions prevalent in the precinct lock-ups.

Despite the federal investigation and pledges by the City of Detroit to honor the commitments made to the DOJ, the police killings of civilians continued. During the current period of emergency management and forced bankruptcy, the occupation forces of the state have used this onslaught to discharge the two federal consent decrees, claiming Detroit police and the administration to be in compliance with the declared goals from 2003.

Nonetheless, Aiyana Stanley Jones was killed during the period of the federal monitoring imposed by the DOJ investigation. The degree to which any actual improvements were made in police-community relations remains subject to public opinion.

For political reasons the corporate media in Detroit has systematically downplayed the violent atmosphere still prevailing in the city. Unemployment and poverty rates remain high and emphasis has been placed by the business press on the wholesale expropriation of public assets, taxes and pensions in favor of the workers' subsidized construction of entertainment districts and retail outlets designed to displace hundreds of thousands of the majority African American population.

Even with the attempt by the ruling class to take the city out of the imposed bankruptcy, the residents will still be burdened with billions of dollars in debt to the banks and insurance firms. Within the so-called “plan of adjustment” there are no provisions for job-creation, neighborhood stabilization, access to water and utilities or safety from the repressive apparatus of the state.

Federal Charges Could Be Filed Against Weekley
The two failed attempts to prosecute Weekley does not mean that he cannot be charged with federal civil rights violations against Aiyana Stanley Jones and her family.

Police knew that there were children in the home due to the surveillance during the day prior to the raid. The fact that the raid was carried out in the wrong apartment points to negligence on the part of the police.

The DOJ must prove to the people within the African American communities from Ferguson, St. Louis, New York City and around the country that it is concerned about the lives of the people. As in Ferguson where police officer Darren Wilson remains free in the shooting death of Michael Brown, it strongly suggests that these incidents are by no means accidental or coincidental.

State-sanctioned violence against African Americans has been in existence since the founding of the Republic in 1776 when slavery was the law of the land. In order to end the blatant killings of African Americans, there must be fundamental changes in the law and the prosecution of those who wantonly attack people based upon their race and social status.

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