embedded in the floating world
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nmazca.blog embedded in the floating world |
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Twenty minutes ago, I received an email alerting me to the news of a suspect linked to the murder by way of a DNA database for which the State of Ohio requires convicted felons to submit samples. A man who was convicted in a child-support case had to submit a sample in 2003/4, but it wasn't tested until this week. Soon afterward, detectives called him for questioning in regard to Hummer's murder, and it was reported that he confessed to the crime. My mind and mood went here and there as I read the text of the Washington Post story that was sent to me: tears welled up, the scene in that field the overcast day I visited, the depression in the ground where her body was found; the phone call to her parents, my own struggle with how the story was presented (and how people reacted to what was printed)... Also, I felt discouraged to see that the man who's been brought in is African-American, because that will reinforce some people's fear and prejudice. And then there's the program of compulsory DNA submissions: it obviously brought a resolution to this case, and can potentially set free or exonerate people in other cases, but I still regard it as Orwellian (a way to put or keep people in The System). And the billion-dollar bond... that not only seems unnecessary, but melodramatic (return to my concern about perceptions about ethnicity and crime). In the end, though, I just think about the time that has passed between then and now. I was not yet 22. Hummer died at 18. I saw a photo of her father on a TV station's website and it seems he's aged so much. I looked at the face of the suspect and I wondered if perhaps I'd seen him before... But that's neither here nor there. These are the facts: "Jonathan J. Gravely, 35, was brought to Franklin County Municipal Court this morning to face a charge of murder in the March 1994 death of 18-year-old Stephanie Hummer... [He pleaded not guilty, in spite of a reported confession, which I don't understand. -- Ed.] Some of Gravely's relatives cried in court as Judge Scott VanDerKarr set the bond at $1 billion, an extremely high level last used in the case of a prostitution ring when there was a fear the people charged could leave the country... "Gravely, who had never been idenfitied as a suspect in the case, was arrested Wednesday after his DNA was linked to evidence in the case. Ohio last year became the 37th state to require anyone convicted of a felony to submit a DNA sample to be kept in a state database... "Police yesterday said they went to Gravely's workplace at a Columbus warehouse where he was working for a temporary agency and asked him to come to police headquarters to answer questions about the Hummer case. He came in willingly, they said. "During questioning, Gravely confessed to killing Hummer, said Columbus police homicide detective Russell Redman. Gravely didnt know Hummer, and the crime appears to have been random, Redman said." News from half a world away |
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