Saturday, November 13, 2010

Lauren Burk Murder Trial Begins

By David in TN

The trial of the suspect in the murder of Lauren Burk has finally begun. She was found shot on March 4, 2008 and died later that night. It was about the same time as the murder of UNC student body president, Eve Carson.

The suspect, Courtney Lockhart, confessed. The defense is post-traumatic stress, from the horrors Lockhart supposedly suffered as a soldier in Iraq.

In my experience, this is rare. Someone with actual battle trauma is irritable and hard to get along with, but they don't go out and hunt down women and kill them.

Lockhart abducted Lauren Burk in a parking lot and forced her into her own car (sound familiar?). He then forced Miss Burk to strip naked. She tried to escape by jumping from the car, but Lockhart shot her.

Opelika, Alabama is around 42% black. Lee County as a whole is about 23% black. None of the accounts I have seen give the racial makeup of the jury. The main question is whether Lockhart will receive the death penalty.

NS: I think David answered his own question.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got the demographic figures for Opelika, Alabama and Lee County from Wikipedia. The death of Lauren Burk got a lot of national attention initially. Nancy Grace mentioned it on her HLN show, for example.

After the suspect was identified, national coverage ceased. As far as I can tell, it is only being covered locally and by Atlanta news outlets. Lauren Burk was from Georgia.

David In TN

Nicholas said...

"After the suspect was identified, national coverage ceased."

Hmm. I can't imagine why.

Thanks so much for your grim, dutiful work in following up on these horrible crimes, David.

Anonymous said...

I have severe PTSD,I was in the military for a long time and had the onset after the murder of a close friend approximately four years ago.PTSD generally makes women leave two steps at a time.This is a typical nigger copout.