[Posted Dec. 12, 2007]

West Va. Attorney
Gen.Wants To Try
Rape-Torture Case

By Cash Michaels
Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal

     What started out as one of the most horrendous racial rape/torture cases in recent memory, has now devolved into a legal circus, as the prosecutor in charge of the Megan Williams case, and the West Virginia State Attorney General, are engaged in a very public power struggle not only over the issue of whether hate crime charges should be leveled, but which office will actually try the case if it ever goes to trial.
    The state AG has made it clear that he doesn’t think Logan County prosecutor Brian Abraham can handle the racially explosive case.
    In return, Abraham has called state Attn. Gen. Darrell McGraw’s position on the matter “half-assed.”
    Megan Williams, the alleged victim, and her mother are scheduled to meet with Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee [D-Texas] and members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. to tell her story, gain support, and push for a strengthening of federal hate crime laws.
That scheduled meeting will take place one week before Megan Williams’ attorney, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, hold a rally and fundraiser for Williams’ on Dec. 18 in Charleston in a continued effort to garner more support for her cause. The prosecutor says he’s now worried about the impact of that event on a possible and probable predominately white Logan County jury.
But in an exclusive interview, attorney Shabazz expressed strong concerns about the political and legal tug-of-war between West Virginia State Attorney General McGraw and Logan County prosecutor Abraham.
“It is a shame that at this stage of the prosecution, that there’s this much back and forth around the issue of hate crime charges,” Shabazz said by phone Tuesday evening from Washington, D.C.
    “What must be done, according to objective standards of pursuing justice, is to charge the defendants with the maximum charges, which include hate crimes. That’s what any good prosecutor would do.”

  
        Williams, a 20-year-old Black woman, was allegedly kidnapped by six white career criminals last August, held captive in a desolate mobile home trailer for several days, during which she was beaten, raped, fed animal feces, stabbed, strangled and threatened with death if she tried to escape.
    The alleged victim was rescued by Logan County Sheriff’s deputies Sept. 8 after someone called in a tip that she was being held against her will.
At least two of the suspects have confessed that Williams was told, “ This is what we do to niggers around here.”
    The alleged crime outraged the African-American community across the nation. Williams’ attorney, Malik Shabazz of Black Lawyers for Justice and the New Black Panther Party led a mass rally and march on Nov. 3 demanding that prosecutor Abraham level hate crime charges, in addition to the felony kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault charges the six suspects already face.
Those felony charges are expected to be put before a Logan County grand jury in January. A conviction on kidnapping alone could net up to life in prison.
     However the Logan County prosecutor has been noncommittal on the hate crimes issue, particularly after federal authorities refused to be involved.
The burgeoning legal controversy and uncertainty about what will happen next in the Megan Williams case have served to “heighten our efforts” for justice, attorney Shabazz said.
    “On Dec. 18, Rev. Sharpton and I will be in Charleston, and we’ll be co-keynoting a rally at First Baptist Church for Megan Williams,” Shabazz said, assuring that unlike the Nov. 3rd march and rally at the State Capitol when Sharpton, who was billed to speak but did not show, will appear this time.
    Prosecutor Abraham, however, doesn’t want Megan and her family appearing at the rally. He says while many Logan County residents sympathize with Williams’ ordeal, they object to “social issues” being injected into the case, and don’t like how White West Virginians were portrayed after the Nov. 3rd march and rally.
  

To read other stories, subscribe to the New Journal and Guide.