Jan 10, 2008 5:30 pm US/Eastern
Did Racism Play A Role In Worthington Murder Case?
BARNSTABLE, Mass. (AP) ―
Jurors who convicted a black garbage man in the murder of a white fashion writer traded allegations of racism Thursday in an unusual public hearing called by the judge to determine whether their verdict was tainted by racial bias.
Lawyers for Christopher McCowan sought the hearing after three jurors accused three others of making racially derogatory remarks while deliberating whether McCowan raped and fatally stabbed Christa Worthington in her Cape Cod home in January 2002. If the judge finds bias affected their November 2006 verdict, he could order a new trial.
"In my opinion it's enough to establish that bias statements were made and now it's up to a judge to determine if there's going to be another trial," said McCowen's attorney Bob George.
Judge Gary Nickerson acknowledged it was "an extraordinarily unusual" hearing then started to question the jurors individually in open court, but out of earshot of the other panelists. Each of the first four questioned by midday described racially charged deliberations.
Roshena Bohanna, who is black, told him two women on the panel referred to the defendant as a "big black guy" and said they were afraid of him.
Bohanna said Marlo George, who is white, in trying to convince fellow jurors that McCowan had caused the bruises on Worthington's body, said, "If a big black man hits a woman, then she gets those bruises."
Bohanna said she and George became confrontational when she asked what McCowan's race had to do with the bruises and accused her of racism. The jury foreman had to call for a break.
Marlo George denied referring to McCowan's race during that discussion but acknowledged she described McCowan as a "200-pound black man" while arguing that McCowan went to Worthington's house looking for sex the night she was killed. She said she used the term black "merely as a descriptive element," and said after Bohanna took offense, she told her she didn't mean anything derogatory by it.
Bohanna was the final juror to make the decision to convict McCowen.
"She caved in, which now she realizes she shouldn't have done," said Bohanna's attorney James Dilday. "She felt that not only was she a victim but that if she didn't go forward with it she would be continue to be ostracized and victimized within that jury room."
Bohanna also told the judge she overheard juror Eric Gomes, a dark-skinned man Cape Verdean descent, tell a white female juror that he does not consider himself black. When Bohanna later had the confrontation with the white juror, she said she heard Gomes say, "That's the reason why I don't like black people. Look at the way they act."
On Thursday, Gomes denied ever saying he did not like black people. "Absolutely not," he said.
Carol Cahill, who is white, said Bohanna accused all the jurors of being racist during deliberations and herself used a slur toward a white female juror.
"She said, 'You're just a 'cracker from the South' or 'a southern cracker,"' Cahill said.
When the judge asked Cahill if she ever said she was afraid of "a big black guy," she said: "I did say that I felt 'intimidated' ... the fact that I was making a decision for his life," Cahill said. She denied ever referring to his race.
McCowen, who was Worthington's trash collector, claimed he had consensual sex with her but that his friend killed her. His defense maintains authorities wrongly focused on him as a suspect because they did not believe Worthington, a 46-year-old writer who had covered fashion in New York and Paris before moving to the small town of Truro, would have a consensual relationship with a black garbage man.
The judge interviewed seven jurors Thursday and ordered all 14 back to court Friday. He told them not to talk about the case with anyone.
McCowan's attorney, Bob George, said the hearing so far proved McCowan did not get a fair trial.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the jury deliberations in this case have been tainted by racial bias," he said.
District Attorney Michael O'Keefe left court without commenting.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
