At 8:56 pm on October 11th, 2019, Shawna Bruce was caught on surveillance video buying food at a convenience store. At 9:03, another camera recorded Bruce going behind a van in a wooded area with a Black male wearing a baseball cap.
At 9:36 pm, the male suspect emerges from behind the van without his baseball cap. His every move is captured on multiple different surveillance cameras for the next twenty-five minutes.
Later, Bruce is found dead with her clothes ripped up and her body covered in shoeprints. She died from having her head and face stomped on. A baseball cap belonging to Jamel Alexander is found next to the body.
When Alexander was arrested, he claimed that Bruce was a drug addict who had sex with him for $100. He said that when he left the scene, she was alive and well. Alexander also has a long list of past criminal convictions. He was living with a girlfriend two and miles from the crime scene. His girlfriend refused to cooperate with the police.
A trial for first-degree murder has begun. Prosecutors have a confession, video evidence, and DNA evidence. The defense has the race card.
During jury selection, the defense worked to exclude as many potential White jurors as possible. They grilled potential White jurors about whether or not they could remember any time they had a bad experience with a Black person. How many adult Americans, with tens of thousands of human interactions throughout their life, have not had bad experiences with a diverse range of different people?
The defense attorneys also questioned potential White jurors about their view of Derek Chauvin and the trial over the death of George Floyd.
On April 30th, defense attorney Kenneth Dameon Williams gave his opening statement to the jury. He told the jury that his client was the victim of a racial conspiracy and that police solely targeted him because of his skin color. He said it was up to them to save Williams from the police. “They have tunnel vision on this Black man, and they are going to put him away. The police wouldn’t listen to him, but hopefully, you will listen to me.”
