By Susan Butz
For the second time an innocent child, Lacresha Murray, has been found
guilty of the death of two-year old Jayla Belton. With no physical evidence, no reasonable explanation of opportunity or motive, no witnesses, and no history of violence, Lacresha's trial should have resulted in a directed verdict, an acquittal or, at the very least, a hung jury. Since the only legitimate and reasonable evidence, presented by the defense in this case, implicated someone other than Lacresha or her family members, we can only surmise that this jury, like the last one, did not concern itself with the lack of evidence offered by the prosecution nor with the evidence presented by the defense.
Our justice system is specifically designed to protect citizens from arrest and conviction based on expedience, prejudice and political motivations by insisting upon the rights of the accused, fair and impartial investigation, and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt with clear and convincing factual evidence. Obviously, the goals of our justice system are not always met, but did you know that the legal safeguards we so highly value and trust are increasingly being violated in juvenile cases?
For those with children, the travesty of the case against Lacresha Murray literally means that the police can arrest and accuse your children of a horrendous crime, secret them away from you, deliberately and illegally deny them an attorney and/or parent during interrogation, subject them to lies, trickery, threats and bullying during an interrogation, deny them full notification of the charge against them and its consequences, completely slander their reputation, as well as that of the entire family,
and put them away for 25 to 40 years, or more -- without evidence. By any other name, this is child abuse by our justice system. Although this is not supposed to happen in America, it did and it could happen to your child.
On May 24, 1996, at approximately 8:30 a.m., Derrick Shaw, the boyfriend of Judy Belton, brought Judy's 2 1/2-year old daughter, Jayla, to the Murray home for daycare -- earlier than customary and despite being told not to bring her there that day as the primary caretaker, Mrs. Shirley Murray, would be out of town. According to the Murrays and other persons in the home that day, Jayla spent the entire day sleeping and lethargic, vomiting, and sweating profusely. Witnesses also testified that she was holding her left side as if in pain. At approximately 5:30 p.m., Lacresha noticed the baby "shaking," grabbed Jayla and rushed with her to her grandfather, R.L. Murray, who at the time had been speaking for at least 10 minutes to a woman who had come to pick up her child. They both examined Jayla, decided she was very sick and that she needed to go to the hospital. Lacresha and her grandfather took Jayla to Brackenridge Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after their arrival, at approximately 6:10 p.m.
From the hospital, Lacresha was taken to a child advocacy center where she was initially questioned by an officer on videotape. From there, she was taken to the Austin Police Department "APD" where she was again questioned, along with R.L. Murray and Shawntay Murray. Finally, she was delivered home at some time after midnight on May 24th, where there were approximately 20 police officers, including a full forensics team gathering the so-called "evidence."
The next day, Saturday, May 25th, the medical examiner, Dr. Roberto Bayardo, with an APD officer in the room, performed an autopsy, and opined that the baby died within minutes of a fatal blow to the liver. The APD contacted Child Protective Services "CPS" and had them remove Lacresha and all the other children from the Murray home. Lacresha was placed in a children's home in Round Rock under the care of CPS and denied any contact with her parents. Determined that Jayla Belton had been beaten in the Murray home, the APD continued interviewing members of the Murray family until they excluded everyone but Lacresha as a likely suspect. The APD went to the children's home with their computers, audio- and videotape equipment, and statement forms and after what was questionably a 2 3/4-hour interview, had Lacresha Murray sign a statement which implicated her in the homicide of Jayla Belton. The APD went from there to the District Attorney, Ronnie Earle, secured an indictment and charged her with Capital Murder.
With juvenile crime a hot political topic and re-election coming up,
Ronnie Earle conducted a press conference to announce the charge of capital murder against Lacresha Murray and opted against protecting a juvenile suspect's identity and the presumption of her innocence by giving her name and photo to the media and by asserting his belief that Lacresha Murray was guilty of this horrendous crime. The media joined in on the frenzy, plastered her name, photo and the charge against her across tv screens
and headlines nationwide. This all before the police had even finished their demonstrably hasty and inadequate investigation.
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