It was the kind of crime that strikes terror into the hearts of parents everywhere.
A bright young couple were carjacked after a Saturday night date and murdered in the most brutal way imaginable.
Christopher Newsom, 23, was tied up and raped, shot in the back of the head and then dragged to a railway track and set on fire.
His girlfriend, 21-year-old University of Tennessee student Channon Christian’s fate was even more horrific.
Her death came only after hours of torture, during which time she was raped and savaged with a broken chair leg.
She was beaten in the head and a household bleach was poured down her throat and over her bleeding and battered genital area in an attempt by her attackers to cover any evidence of rape – all while she was still alive.
Torture: Channon Christian was forced to watch the attackers rape and kill her boyfriend Christopher Newsom before she was murdered
Then she was ‘hog-tied’ with curtains and a strip of bedding and a plastic bag was wrapped over her face.
Her body was stashed inside five bigger rubbish liners and dumped in a bin, where, according to the autopsy report, she slowly suffocated to death.
On Monday, the alleged ringleader of the gang accused of the killings goes on trial in Knoxville, Tennessee.
One of the gang has already been convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
But, even though the killings happened in January, 2007, they have attracted very little national and international coverage.
That’s because they do not fit into the conventional contours of an attack in America’s Deep South, where a shameful history of racial intolerance has meant assaults by whites on blacks have historically been regarded in the context of race.
In this case, the races were reversed: the victims were white and the four men and one woman charged in connection with the murders are black.
Ironically, the case has now generated more publicity surrounding the furore over whether or not political correctness was behind the US media’s decision to largely ignore the story than it did for the murders themselves.
Lemaricus Davidson, centre, goes on trial in Tennessee over the murders this week. Letalvis Cobbins, top right, has been jailed for life. Eric Boyd, Vanessa Coleman and George Thomas will be tried after Davidson
Life: Letalvis ‘Rome’ Cobbins was found guilty of multiple counts of first degree murder. He was also convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery
Defence lawyers were quick to say that some of the accused dated white women and even prosecutors denied any racial overtones.
‘There is absolutely no proof of a hate crime,’ said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Attorney Randy Nichols.
‘It was a terrible crime, a horrendous crime, but race was not a motive. We know from our investigation that the people charged in this case were friends with white people, socialised with white people, dated white people.
‘So not only is there no evidence of any racial animus, there’s evidence to the contrary,’ he added.
But that hasn’t stopped conservative critics from blaming liberal bias in the US mainstream media for failing to cover the attacks.
Columnist and right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin weighed in, saying: ‘This case – an attractive white couple murdered by five black thugs –doesn’t fit any political agenda.
‘It’s not a useful crime. Reverse the races and just imagine how the national media would cover the story of a young black couple murdered by five white assailants.’
Country music singer Charlie Daniels pointed out the media frenzy that came after a black woman accused three white members of the Duke University lacrosse team of raping her.
The players were later cleared after their accuser changed her story.
But Daniels said on his website: ‘If this had been white on black crime, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and their ilk would have descended on Knoxville like a swarm of angry bees.’
Victims: Channon christian, 21, and boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, were carjacked and murdered after a Saturday night date in Tennessee in 2007
Much of the criticism over the scant coverage of the murders has been on the internet through blogs and websites.
University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds said the American media has a ‘template’ for covering white-on-black crime but not the reverse.
‘I think it would have gotten a lot of national play faster if it had been a black couple kidnapped and killed by five white people,’ he told the local paper in Knoxville.
White supremacists have jumped onto the bandwagon, seeking to twist the facts for their own racist agenda.
They spread false details about the murders, claiming the victims were sexually dismembered and that Channon was sexually tortured for days, neither of which is true.
‘The DA’s office is outraged they have tried to abuse the victims by using the death of loved ones for racist purposes,’ John Gill said.
‘The things that have been seized on by these hate groups are things that never happened.’
‘There are people out there that just want to make something even worse than what it already is,’ Channon’s father, Gary Christian, said in a recent interview.
But Chris’s father, Hugh, told a local TV station: ‘Would they have done that to a black couple? I don’t think so.’
‘With all the things they did to them, what else could you call it but hate?’ his wife, Mary, said.
‘I think any kind of crime like that’s a hate crime. Was it racial? No, I don’t think so’, Mr Christian added.
Outrage: Campaigners believe the murders haven’t received extensive media coverage because of race issues
Knox County Sheriff Jimmy Jones said: ‘I don’t believe if they’d been Mexican, Chinese or Japanese it would have mattered. I believe these people were evil.
‘I believe it was a plan. These two kids just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
According to court testimony, Chris, a talented carpenter and former high school baseball player, and college senior Channon had gone to a friend’s home after a date at a local restaurant when they were held up at gunpoint and carjacked on January 6, 2007.
They were forced to drive to an old clapboard house in one of Knoxville’s toughest neighbourhoods, where their captors, some of them ex-convicts, subjected them to the nightmare ordeal.
Wearing glasses and dressed smartly in trousers, a collared shirt and jumper, Lemaricus Davidson, 28, looked more like a college student than an accused killer during pre-trial hearings.
The seven women and five man jury includes just one black juror. If convicted, Davidson could face the death penalty.
In a separate trial last month, Davidson’s brother, Letalvis Cobbins, 27, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of multiple counts of first degree murder. He was also convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery.
George Thomas, 27, and Cobbins’ former girlfriend, Vannessa Coleman, 21, will be tried after Davidson.
A fifth defendant, Eric Boyd, 37, is serving an 18-year prison sentence after being convicted of being an accessory to a fatal carjacking.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220695/Is-political-correctness-blame-lack-coverage-horrific-black-white-killings-Americas-Deep-South-Tennessee-Channon-Christian-Christopher-Newsom-carjack.html#ixzz1qKYKvvzB
Knoxville-area television stations and newspapers have covered the story heavily since the bodies were found. On the national media level, The Associated Press and MSNBC reported on the murders shortly after they occurred. But starting in April, a loud and growing throng of white supremacists began protesting what they call a conspiratorial media blackout, owing, they claim, to the fact that Newsom and Christian were white and their alleged killers black.
Randy Gray.
White supremacists like Randy Gray rallied in Knoxville, Tenn., over the murder of Channon Christian.
“We as White Nationalists cannot allow the Jewish media bosses to simply slip this story down the media hole,” read one April 27 post on the racist online forum Stormfront. “Individuals of the White Race are being sacrificed on the altar of Political Correctness,” added “Pastor Eli James” on another racist website.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/fall/the-big-lie
The parents of the victims wanted nothing to do with the rally and expressed anger at the out-of-town protesters for using the case to stoke racial tensions. “I think any kind of crime like that’s a hate crime,” said Gary Christian, Channon’s father. But he added: “Was it racial? No, I don’t think so.”
…As Gary Christian said to those who are twisting his daughter’s death to fit their own ends: “It ain’t about you.”
Lest you think I’m being malicious by bringing up the white supremacists, note the govnn.com URL displayed prominently on the poster in chessNwine’s post.
It directs you to Vanguard News Network, which features the tagline
No Jews. Just Right.
Enough said.
Uhh. Part of the article discussed how white nationalist groups have distorted some details about the crime. The poster is one example of this. Did you fail to read the article? That is why it was included in the article (by the author, not chess).
The article still raises a good point, even if white nationalists make a similar (although distorted) complaint.
The caption under the No Jews. Just Right. poster reads:
Outrage: Campaigners believe the murders haven’t received extensive media coverage because of race issues
There were 50 homicides per day in the U.S. in 2007.
The article asserts, with no evidence, that these 2 homicides (less than an hour’s worth of the US homicide toll) attracted very little national and international coverage and further asserts, with no evidence, that the relative lack of coverage was because they do not fit into the conventional contours of an attack in America’s Deep South.
The article included the poster where the No Jews. Just Right. white supremacists asserted, without evidence that the mass media refuse to report the 2 homicides.
Much assertion, no evidence.
These homicides did get some national coverage, which is far more attention than most homicides receive.
Only a very small percentage of homicides attract a lot of national attention. If the media made a big deal out of a homicide every other day, they would be ignoring 99% of homicides.
That’s too high an ignore rate to explain with political correctness. Maybe you could blame Agenda 21 (or Area 51, or District 9, or Love Potion Number 9, or Plan 9 From Outer Space).
“The article included the poster where the No Jews. Just Right. white supremacists asserted, without evidence that the mass media refuse to report the 2 homicides.”
Again, the article commented on the fact that white nationalists have been distorting the particulars of this crime and waging a media campaign of their own. Now excuse me while I slam my head against the wall.
You don’t comprehend very well, do you?
i’m waiting on a very mean reversion.
Holy shit. I think I went to elementary school with that girl.
Well, yes, thousands of murders don’t garner the media spotlight, white on white, black on white, black on black and white on black. Some do? For some reason, Martin’s death went viral.
So what do you make of it? Does it disqualify it as emblematic of a problem in our culture? Yes, the murder you describe above could easily be racist, and I would condemn it. But it seems like the legal process is working itself out here and convictions have already been handed down, arrests made, etc.
The difference is that Zimmerman is still free and accused of nothing. Plus, there are a number of things going on: there’s the calling into question of the stand-your-ground-laws, and there’s the question of Zimmerman’s motives for following Martin. He’s neighborhood watch, a semiofficial person in contact with the police.
Doesn’t that make the comparison apples to oranges?
Emblematic of problem in our culture? Yes. The Trayvon Martin murder case and the hoopla which followed, are emblematic of the liberal media’s ability and constant goal to manufacture “causes” for the masses to rally around, and its quite often a race-baiting cause. They utilize animals like sharpton (whom some of the media criminals now hired!)and jackson to promote their goals of racial strife and societal discord which ultimately will produce newer and newer legislation by the federal father-figure to further regulate our lives and determine for us what is right (as the media is so skilled at telling us what is right and wrong).
Yes this was soooooooo bad but they had this story on the ID channel a few times… its sad and im not sure if it was race related.. but yes if it was a blk couple that was killed jessie jackson would have been on the next plane.. thats here nor there but at least they are being charged with the murder!!!