Gov. Kay Ivey offers $5,000 rewards in 2 unsolved Selma homicides
Updated Feb 27, 2021;
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Gov. Kay Ivey has issued $5,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction in two unsolved Selma killings.
Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson announced the rewards Friday in the 2015 slaying 37-year-old Taffine Smith Berry and the 2020 slaying of 48-year-old Christopher Murphy.
“Law enforcement and the families are very thankful for the governor taking this action,’ Jackson said. “Hopefully it will help brig forth witnesses or evidence to help solve these cases.’
Berry and her husband, Tra Berry, were wounded by gunfire on March 15, 2015. Authorities said the victims were at a social gathering at a business at the intersection of Marie Foster Street and L.L. Anderson Avenue and were leaving when the shooting happened.
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Benjamine Spencer was 22 years old in 1987 when he was arrested for murder. He was newly married, and expecting his first child.
A Dallas man who maintains he was wrongfully convicted in a deadly robbery decades ago may soon be freed.
Witnesses said they saw Benjamine Spencer on the 1987 night Jeffrey Young was robbed and beaten, his body dumped on a street in West Dallas. Attorney Cheryl Wattley says these eyewitness accounts were shoddy.
“One witness claimed, at a distance of 297 feet that’s a football field at 10 o’clock at night, on a night with no moon, he saw Ben Spencer and recognized him by his face, Wattley said. That’s physically impossible.”
Introduction
Greetings, Longhorn Nation! I’m Jay Hartzell, and since last September, I’ve had the incredible honor of serving as the 30
th president of The University of Texas at Austin. Each year, the president reports to the faculty on the state of the university. For me, in my first year in the role, it’s a chance to talk about my vision for UT and what it means to be a Longhorn. In a normal year, I would give this message in person. But as you know, this past year has been anything but normal. So, we’re doing this a different way just as we’ve been adapting and adjusting for several months now.
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Roy Oliver’s conviction was a landmark ruling, as police officers are rarely indicted and almost never convicted of murder in on-duty shootings.
As law enforcement’s disparate use force against Black people continues to stoke division in a troubled nation, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals plans to review the high-profile murder conviction of former North Texas police officer Roy Oliver, who fatally shot an unarmed Black teenager.
In 2018, Oliver, who is white, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2017 Balch Springs police shooting death of Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old passenger in a car moving away from officers. The jury’s decision was a landmark ruling, as police officers are rarely indicted and almost never convicted of murder in on-duty shootings.