Courtland Milloy: Hard to Believe That Va. Justice Is Colorblind

At a news conference Monday, Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert announced the indictment of Carlos Diangilo Williams, a black, 26-year-old college-educated man, in the murder of his pregnant former girlfriend, Cheri Washington, a black 17-year-old high school student. Williams allegedly used a baseball bat to beat the girl into having a miscarriage and ended up killing her and the fetus. But while calling the crime "horrendous," Ebert -- who has placed more convicts on Virginia's death row than any other prosecutor in the state -- announced that Williams, if convicted, would face life in prison plus 50 years, not death. "His intention was only to kill the fetus," Ebert said. "Otherwise, it would have been capital." In a telephone conversation with Ebert yesterday, I mentioned that his decision was yet another reminder that the death penalty as practiced in the United States is riddled with racial disparities. For it sure seems as if black-on-black murders are not taken as seriously as black-on-white killings -- which are frequently prosecuted as capital crimes. [more]