A Mother's Love

Remember Kyser Miree? A recent graduate of Vanderbilt with his entire life ahead of him; murdered in 2010 after just moving to Mobile to start his first job. Predictably, as in most "senseless" murders, those participating in the brutal homicide - and torture - of Miree were all black males.

And, of course, the reason for the invasion of Miree's home and initial plan of mere robbery: "they were just bored."

“I’m going to kill you” -- Felicia Lee to a "snitch" in the Kyser Miree murder case

Which brings us to today and the sentencing of one Felicia Lee, the mother of one of the black males who participated in the murder of Miree [Mother of Kyser Miree's killer takes plea bargain in witness threat case; gets time served, Al.com, 12-13-12]:

The mother of the man who murdered Midtown resident Christopher Kyser Miree pleaded guilty today to a pair of misdemeanor witness tampering charges related to her conduct during her son’s case.

Prosecutors had charged Felicia Lee with two felony counts of intimidating a witness, alleging that she hadthreatened to kill a key witness in the case. But Mobile County prosecutors struck a deal for her to plead guilty to the lesser offenses, and Circuit Judge Robert Smith sentenced her to the time she already spent in jail before making bail.

“It’s been a long, hard road, and she’s glad to get it behind her,” defense attorney Sid Harrell said.

Lee spent 16 months in jail -- with judges refusing to grant her bail – until the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that she had constitutional right to bail. She got out Nov. 9 of last year and spent nine months under house arrest.

Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Jill Phillips said Lee did not cause any additional problems after her arrest or release from jail. She said she believes the arrest was sufficient to deter others from trying to illegally influence the case.
“Our concern all along was witness protection,” she said. “We wanted to protect our witnesses and that was done.” defense attorney Sid Harrell said.

Miree’s murder at his Macy Place home during a robbery on April 16, 2010, shocked the city. A jury in September convicted Michael Lee of capital murder, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to law enforcement authorities, hours before Michel Lee’s arrest on July 25 of last year, his mother drove by a witness’s house, pointed a gun and threatened to kill her.

Authorities alleged that Felicia Lee approached the witness after a court hearing at Mobile Government Plaza the following month and told her, “I’m going to kill you” and, “if he don’t get bond, I’m coming to shoot your house up.”

Miree, a Vanderbilt University graduate and Birmingham native, worked as an engineer at the Chevron Corp. refinery in Pascagoula. He lived on Macy Place with a roommate, who had left the house shortly before the murder.

Tell me more about Emmett Till; tell me more about James Byrd. 

Go ahead. Tell me.  

And when you're done, if you'll listen-- I'll tell you the tale of Kyser Miree. Will those who murdered him, and his mother who dared threaten with death anyone who "snitched" on her beloved son, see their actions as representative of the entire black race -- just as the deaths of Till and Byrd have been morphed into representing the nefarious nature of all white people?

Or, should I tell you story of a true tale of a mother's love: that of Miriam Shehane, whose daughter was brutally raped and then murdered by black males in Birmingham. Quenette Shehane was a white female student at Birmingham Southern College; she is no martyr in a white civil rights cause, though a fence was erected around the school to protect the primarily white students from the overwhelmingly poor black underclass that surrounds the institution.
Go ahead. Tell me again.