About 300 marchers in Powhatan protest Taliaferro verdict
MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH
A march to protest the verdict in killing of Tahliek Taliaferro heads down Old Buckingham Rd. towards the Powhatan Courthouse Sun. March 29, 2009.
Hundreds of placard-carrying protesters circled the Powhatan County Courthouse lawn yesterday, decrying as unjust a trial this month that failed to produce murder verdicts in the shooting death of popular high school athlete Tahliek Taliaferro.
About 300 people -- from 84-year-old Margaret Harris-Manning, to 12-year-old Justin Daniels -- marched peacefully a half-mile along Old Buckingham Road before circling a lawn bearing a statue that honors Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart.
"This was off-limits for us growing up," said Harris-Manning, the first and only black person elected to the county Board of Supervisors. "Nothing good was going to come from coming up here," her parents told her as a child.
Voted out of office in 2004 after her district was reconfigured, she said, Harris-Manning yesterday protested a court verdict that she said was reminiscent of a time she hoped had disappeared.
"Years ago, we were taught to be silent," said her sister, Gladys Morris, who lives in Chesterfield County. "Not after this."
A 12-person jury with one black member last week found Ethan Parrish, 25, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Taliaferro's shooting death and guilty of assault and battery in the wounding of another youth. A second defendant, Parrish's cousin, Joseph "Joey" Parrish, 18, was found guilty of the same two charges and an additional charge of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Ethan Parrish fired six shots June 24 from a semiautomatic rifle toward a car carrying Taliaferro as the vehicle slowly passed the stopped car occupied by Parrish and his cousin. Ethan Parrish testified that he was frightened after seeing a gun and only wanted to scare Taliaferro and others as he held the weapon outside the car from where he was sitting.
After an earlier encounter with Taliaferro and his friends, Ethan Parrish said he knew there would be trouble. He readied the assault rifle and attached an 83-round drum clip. Parrish said that as he fired the gun, the weapon "rose up on me" and he lost control of it, sending rounds into Taliaferro and a friend instead of toward the ground as he intended.
But Stephanie Reynolds, who was driving the vehicle the Parrishes were in, testified that Ethan Parrish had said he was going to "smoke" Taliaferro.
The jury recommended an 11-year sentence for Ethan Parrish; his cousin will be sentenced by a judge.
"What you are seeing here is something that has never happened in Powhatan," said King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia Conference NAACP. "There are people here from across Virginia."
Khalfani said his organization and others are planning discussions with the FBI about the jury selection process, what may have influenced the jury, and facts of the case that may not have come to light.
"It will be a slow, incremental process," said Rovenia Vaughan of the Powhatan NAACP.
The march was attended by Taliaferro's mother and father and other family members, including grandfather James Taliaferro, 68, who said his grandson's death is painful but familiar. He said two cousins of his died decades ago under circumstances that have never been explained. One was found in the James River, the other, on a roadside.
About 50 white people joined the march.
"There should be more. Where are they?" asked one, Kathy Eheart, an amputee who attended in her wheelchair. "What happened at this courthouse is not right."
Gail Hairston, 54, one of three blacks on a jury pool of more than 40 people, who was not chosen as a juror, said she felt compelled to attend yesterday's march. "It's real sad to me because that jury didn't represent the people. Suppose the shoe had been on the other foot," she said of the racial imbalance.
But Richard S. Johnson Jr., a deacon at Solid Rock Baptist Church in Richmond, stressed that the racial overtones of the case will not resolve deeper injustices.
"We want to send a message that injustice affects all people," said Johnson, who in his prayer to the assembled marchers blessed the Parrishes. "We want to send a message that all people can be better."
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or
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Reader Reactions
First of all, I agree with the verdict. The jury did the best they could with the evidence in this case, outside of being right inside Ethan Parrish’s head when he was doing the shooting. Only Ethan Parrish REALLY knows what was going through his head… and he has Tahliek’s and Courtney’s blood on his hands forever.
Tahliek and Courtney’s families—along with their supporters—are not out-of-bounds at all, though, to express they feel Ethan’s thoughts were much more sinister. If Ethan… the only grown adult in this whole situation… stays in the SUV or chooses to direct it elsewhere, this circumstance never happens.
The objection I have is those who choose to malign the jury and the process. If I’d seen anything wrong with the proceedings of this case, I would be among the first to blow the whistle.
A major objection is the makeup of the jury. There was a single black person on that jury because the jury pool was tremendously lacking African-Americans. The jury pool is selected from a random notification of registered voters.
The thing I pray for our African-American brethren that comes out of this Sunday protest is that the numbers show they might have found their voice. They obviously feel disenfranchised in Powhatan County, a situation that can only be improved if they indeed do speak out. And it starts with registering the vote, and getting involved in the political process.
One thing’s for sure, you can never get in the game unless you first get your name on the roster. Please take that first step and build.
While I myself wonder what the motives of the NAACP are who really cares? Does the fact that the NAACP is involved does that really take away from the tragedy of this case. The loss of Tahlieks life. The loss of the Parrish boys’ innocence. The loss for all of the families. Taliaferro, Parrish, and Reynolds. They were all so young. One is gone forever. And the rest are going to spend the rest of their youths in jail with hardened criminals.
Mr. Subjective… prosecutors are taught to charge a defendant with the violation they know they can prove. That’s why you see prosecutors with 95 and 97 percent conviction records. The prosecutor here had to know first-degree murder was a stretch.
Thank you Randy. I didnt know that I had to be more clearer about what a harsher sentence meant so allow me to. I dont think that eleven years is nearly enough time for a crime like this. Nor do I think that they should spend the rest of their lives in jail either if the shooting was accidential like they claim. I feel that they should have gotten at least twenty years. Eleven years is nothing. Maybe they will do seven, less than that with good behavior. They will get out still young enough to get married, have children, and live their lives. Tahliek’s life is gone. I dont care about self-defense, race, NAACP, or any of the other factors that everyone else is hung up on. I would feel that way about ANYBODY that took another life. And to the poster that said that black people were the only ones upset about the verdict I guess you didnt see the many people of different races that were marching Sunday. And to the other poster that said that they were just doing it for attention… I’m sure that his mom was thinking about media exposure while she was burying her child.
Dear Protesters,
It’s Monday. Please go to work now and/or babysit your grandchildren and raise them with a sense of decency. Thank you…
Turn off the news cameras and send the members of the print media away. The protesters will go home.
The comment James made is interesting. I know hindsight is 20/20, but I have wondered myself whether it was wise for the case to have been charged as first degree.
I feel that after reading about the protesters that it is not so much about the verdict as it is about having an excuse to rehash the past ,carry signs and get noticed. Get over it,and find something else to do.
What does circling Gen. J.E.B. Stuarts statue and reminising about the area being off limits, well it’s not now and it’s not about the protestors or their problems, give it a rest.
I work in a law firm. A 19 year old white man was hit and killed on his bicycle. A dump truck crushed him. The driver of the truck did not have his CDL and he was drunk. The driver happended to be on the fire department. You know what the judge gave him? A $700 fine. The judge did not want to ruin the fire fighters life.
This young person wasn’t in a feud.
Girldvl, and james..Thank you!! I have been reading this, and watching this on TV for a week now..and I agree with both of you. Not all the marches, or NAACP does will change the verdict. So stop..go home..and let it do…
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