Johnnie Mae Chappell was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday in an episode commemorating Martin Luther King Day.
Chappell, a 35-year-old housekeeper and mother of 10, was shot and killed in 1964 as she walked home along New Kings Road in Jacksonville, FL.As race riots were going on near downtown, a witness told police that four young white men set out in a car looking for a black person. They just happened to stumble across Chappell.
A grand jury indicted the four men on charges of first-degree murder -- J.W. Rich, Elmer Kato, Wayne Chessman and James Davis -- but only one of them was tried or served any prison time.
Lee Cody Jr., one of detectives who investigated the case at the time, claims he was fired after he questioned his superiors why the murder weapon disappeared from the police property room and more wasn't done to pursue convictions against the defendants.
He said racism was the only conclusion to why murder charges against three of the four men were dropped despite obtaining full confessions.
In 2006, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a new investigation into the case. However, after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated, special prosecutor Bill Cervone issued an opinion "that no additional investigation is warranted and that no prosecution is legally possible."
Cody and attorney Bill Sporer, working with Chappell's son Shelton, continue to pursue the case, hoping the federal prosecutors might come to a different conclusion.
Cody hopes that national exposure on the Oprah show will re-energize the case.
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