State senator asks Gov. Bush to reopen probe of 1964 race killing

A state senator is asking Gov. Jeb Bush to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the 1964 slaying of a black woman during a race riot, citing recent prosecutions across the South for crimes committed during the civil rights era. Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, said he wrote to the governor after State Attorney Harry Shorstein denied a request by Johnnie Mae Chappell's children to reopen her case. Chappell was shot during the March 1964 riots as black protesters demonstrated at hotels and restaurants demanding equal rights. She wasn't involved in the demonstrations or riots. She was walking home from working as a maid for a white family when she was struck by shots fired from a passing car loaded with four white men. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Chappell as a civil rights-era martyr. "The excuses given about the time frame that has lapsed and the rights of those accused of murdering Mrs. Chappell should not outweigh justice being rendered to Mrs. Chappell and her family," Hill wrote in a Nov. 24 letter. "If time frames or the rights of those accused were legitimate excuses, cases like the 1963 Birmingham, Ala., church bombings would not have been reopened." Hill was referring to a bombing that killed four black girls. One bomber wasn't convicted until 1977, another in 2001 and a third in 2002. Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for Gov. Bush, said Wednesday the governor's general counsel is reviewing Hill's request and no decision has been made. [more]