This arrest of a white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., for the slaying of an African American should not be seen, in and of itself, as news. South Carolina policemen have faced murder raps before for killing blacks while on duty, but perfunctory trials ended with acquittals of the accused officers. Will the outcome be different this time, thanks to the cellphone video recording of the incident?
This arrest of a white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., for the slaying of an African American should not be seen, in and of itself, as news. South Carolina policemen have faced murder raps before for killing blacks while on duty, but perfunctory trials ended with acquittals of the accused officers. Will the outcome be different this time, thanks to the cellphone video recording of the incident?
The incident I am most familiar with occurred during the summer of 1975 in the hamlet of Hodges, a community of fewer than 200 people about nine miles north of the city of Greenwood. It happened a few weeks before I moved to Greenwood to begin working as a reporter for the local newspaper. It was one of four killings of blacks by police in South Carolina over a three-month period, and it sparked protests by the NAACP and counter-demonstrations by a pro-police organization of local whites and three Ku Klux Klan units.
According to accounts from the Greenwood Index-Journal, the newspaper I worked for, Officer F.O. Bryant, who was on duty Saturday, July 26, at a community event at Greenwood High School, spotted a 1971 Buick driving against traffic in a no-passing zone and gave chase. He caught up with the driver, Herbie Ron Morton, 24, at a traffic light, got out of his car, approached Morton and told him to step out of the vehicle.
Morton put his car in reverse and drove off in the opposite direction. He led police on a high-speed chase for almost 10 miles colliding along with way with Officer Bryant’s vehicle, and forcing another police car, driven by Officer A.L. Duncan, off the road. Just north of Hodges, Morton had a second collision with a police vehicle and crashed into a ditch.
Five officers were on the scene now: Bryant, Duncan, J.R. Stephenson, D.E. Hampton and C.R. Keasler. Accounts say Hampton, Stephenson and Duncan tried to restrain Morton while Keasler stood nearby with a shotgun. Morton managed to break free and grabbed the shogun from Keasler, sending all of the officers in retreat.
From behind one the police cars, Officer Stephenson fired three warning shots and ordered Morton to put down the shotgun. Morton reportedly shouted “I am going to kill every one of you goddam pigs” and pointed the weapon at Keasler. Stephenson stood up, repeated his order for Morton to drop the gun and then fired three more shots, one of which struck Morton in the forehead and killed him.
As the incident occurred in a remote area, there were no bystanders. The event occurred decades before the advent of smart phones and social media.
A coroner’s jury convened August 7 and recommended that the case against Officer Stephenson be presented to the grand jury. However, the commander of the state highway patrol, Col. P.F. Thompson refused to suspend Stephenson. Instead he was placed on administrative duty and continued to draw his salary, unlike the officer in North Charleston case, Michael T. Slager, who was fired after the murder charge was brought against him.
The decision not to suspend Stephenson led the NAACP to organize a protest march held Saturday, August 16, in downtown Greenwood. Approximately 1,000 people participated, far fewer than organizers planned for. At the rally, NAACP officials criticized the white community for its silence over the killings.
Meanwhile, a co-worker of Stephenson’s wife convened a meeting in the nearby village of Ninety Six to form a committee in support of the officer. Rejecting calls for it to be known as the National Association to Protect White People, he called it simply the Support Stephenson Committee and held a rally in downtown Greenwood the day after the NAACP march.
The following Saturday, August 23, a Ku Klux Klan motorcade and two rallies were held in Greenwood. I helped cover those events for the Index-Journal, and my photograph of the cross-burning appeared on the front page of the newspaper’s August 25 edition.
Fortunately, all protests were peaceful, but tensions mounted and community relations suffered.
On September 9, Officer Stephens was indicted for murder. The next day he was brought to trial. After less than three hours, the trial concluded and Judge Louis Rosen issued a directed verdict of “not guilty” from the bench. The all-white jury never even deliberated. Being that September 10, 1975, was a Wednesday, it was a quiet afternoon in Greenwood, as local shops were closed, in keeping with a long-standing community tradition that allowed the owners to get out on the golf course.
Both sides expected the outcome. The president of the local NAACP chapter said he would have preferred the verdict come from the jury. However, he said the NAACP was pleased that Officer Stephenson was indicted and the case went to trial.
Calm returned to Greenwood after the trial. I ran into Officer Stephenson once at a traffic stop a few months later, exchanged pleasantries and moved on.
Questions about police practices in the wake of Ferguson, Staten Island and North Charleston lead one to wonder about what really happened that fateful evening in Hodges. If Herbie Morton had indeed pointed a shotgun at an officer, as the testimony stated, Officer Stephenson was justified in shooting him. However, I have trouble believing that Morton could have escaped from the three cops who were trying to restrain him and grabbed a shotgun from a fourth. But there were no eyewitnesses besides the police.
The speed with which the case went to trial and the brevity of the proceedings raises eyebrows, as well. Given the weakness of the case against Officer Stephenson, Judge Rosen’s directed verdict is understandable. The trial was for show; to demonstrate that due process would not be denied.
This time, in North Charleston, the situation is different. The police officer who killed Walter Scott tried to plant a taser on him, but an eyewitness had the presence to record with his cell phone what he observed and then share it with the victim’s family. There can be no justification for the shooting of a man in the back.
It is premature to predict what will happen in the courtroom. However, with the eyes of the nation fixed on North Charleston, the county solicitor will have to present a more thorough case. No doubt, the officer who is accused in the killing will probably have access to the best legal counsel available. This matter cannot be disposed of over the course of an afternoon.