Tuesday, April 24, 2012

WP: Looking Back on a 1984 Murder

The Post reports that parties from the 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller are back in court over the issue of whether a prosecutor's failure to turn over certain evidence constitutes a Brady violation. This could result in new trials/dismissals, even exonerations.

The Fuller case is still significant today for the profound impact it had on people's minds. The story is that of a large group of disaffected youth callously raping and  beating a woman to death in broad daylight. Understandably, it's sometimes compared to the original narrative of the Central Park jogger case.  It furthered the specter of the predatory urban youth, and became a symbol of how far H Street NE had fallen. The Post has re-run a story from 1986 about the lingering effects of the murder on the neighborhood. It makes for an interesting historical perspective.

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