Article: Strangled his Uncle

[Shelby]

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http://www.counterpunch.org/stark03212005.html

From the tragic to the absurd, a week prior to the indictment of the 18-year-old Kennedy, Baltimore County prosecutors showed their sense of humor. During a marathon prison bus ride, there was a murder. The prisoners were being transported from a maximum-security prison in Hagerstown to Baltimore for their court hearings. One prisoner, Kevin G. Johns Jr., was a deeply disturbed, possibly schizophrenic, individual convicted of strangling his uncle and had also recently been convicted of killing a 16 year-old cellmate. During his last court hearing, the Johns begged the judge for help, claiming that he was sure that he would kill again without treatment. The man Johns is accused of killing, Phillip Parker Jr., was being transported in order to testify on Johns' behalf. As a result of the killing, 5 corrections officers were severely punished: three fired, two disciplined. It's a full-blown scandal in the Department of Corrections. But now, enter Baltimore County. Somehow, county prosecutors have ascertained that during the hours long bus ride, the killing occurred in their jurisdiction. And someone's gotta die. That's justice, Baltimore County style. By the way, Johns is a black man.