Cruel Irony in the Persecution of Crystal Gail Mangum

[Music] justice give me justice please have some justice down to me if there's one thing this world needs it's [Music] justice please make it swift make it rain on my enemies [Music] on monday november 23 2020 the news and observer ran a front page story titled verdict still out on changes to reduce jail populations the article featured the district attorneys of durham wake and orange counties respectively satana debary lauren freeman and jim woodle on wednesday november 25th 2020 mike nyfong supporter and crystal mandela advocate dr sydney har wrote the three district attorneys each a three-page letter in which he suggested an obvious and not so novel solution to jail and prison overcrowding release the innocence a response from them is not expected as they have all ignored dr har for years prompting dr har on april 25 2016 to file a lawsuit against wake district attorney freeman with a complaint of discrimination and dereliction of duty by wake county officer of the court the u.s district court for the eastern district of north carolina granted defendant freeman's motion to dismiss harr's complaint reinforcing a principle that it is legally appropriate and acceptable practice for district attorneys to ignore their constituents the news and observers sunday november 29 2020 issue contains an opinion piece by its editorial board titled changes may improve nc justice system at its crux is the premise that the 2020s covet 19 pandemic and the emergent of the black lives matter movement sparked by the minneapolis police murder of african-american george floyd could serve to lessen the gratuitous arrest and incarceration of black people on bogus or minor charges such as probation violations or misdemeanors the aim being to reduce jail and prison populations with their inherent close confinements that breed that spread of the deadly virus due to lack of social distancing the editorial mentions how in july 2020 following black lives matter protests governor roy cooper commissioned north carolina task force for racial equity in criminal justice consisting of police justice advocates and elected officials the group is co-chaired by north carolina attorney general josh stein and north carolina supreme court associate justice anita earls a report on its recommendations is due on the governor's desk december 15th the op-ed piece also mentions task force member durham representative marcia mori a retired durham district court judge and former durham assistant district attorney she serves as chair of the working group on court procedures all of the task force members and the three district attorneys are aware of crystal magnum's innocence in the april 13 2011 death of her boyfriend reginald day they all know that duke university hospital staff is liable for mr day's death because of an errant intubation in treating his delirium tremens they all knew that medical examiner dr clay nichols autopsy report of april 14 2011 was fraudulent with fabricated findings and a false and unsubstantiated conclusion that they died secondary to complications of a stab wound by manny all with a possible exception of representative mori and justice earls were aware of the october 25th 2019 report by world and revered forensic pathologist dr cyril h wett that stated the manner of dave's death was an accident by duke university hospital and not a homicide from the stab wound inflicted by mangan the ramification of dr weck's report is that crystal mangum has already spent nearly nine years in prison for a crime she not only did not commit but for a crime that was never committed on may 26th 2020 armed with dr weck's report har wrote the secretary of the north carolina department of health and human services dr mandy cohen requesting that she ordered a review of dr nichols autopsy report she ignored him as was standard operating procedure for government officials regarding haar's inquiries into mangum's case at the behest of dr har etcom county representative mr shelly willingham wrote a two-page letter to dr cohen on september 9 2020 seeking a review of the nichols autopsy days later on september 14 2020 dr corn replied by email stating that a review had been done in 2012 and another review was inappropriate specifically she wrote quote in 2014 then chief medical examiner deb radich did a complete and thorough review of the autopsy and found the decedent was stabbed and died of his injury unquote this statement by dr cohen is an impossibility as mr dave was recovering from his stab wound and died only after he was electively removed from life support due to his brain death comatose state caused by duke hospital staff dr cohen further misleads by writing quote ocme office of the chief medical examiner has sent formal correspondence to dr har unquote this is incorrect as har received absolutely no correspondence formal or informal from chief medical examiner dr michelle aurelius dr aurelius like other government officials has refused to communicate with dr horror dr mandy cohen governor cooper his racial equity task force members and the trio of district attorneys were and are fully aware of the following one crystal mangano is innocent in her boyfriend reginald day's death two medical malpractice with an errant esophageal intubation of day by health care staff at duke university hospital was responsible for day's death three the district attorney's office and four of the state's star witnesses committed material perjury in securing a wrongful second-degree murder conviction against mangum and four they could allow the manifest injustice against the single black mother of three to proceed because the entire media spectrum was complicit in keeping the truths of mangan's innocence hidden from the general public [Music] barry saunders is a popular columnist who wrote for the news and observer for many years his satirical takes on social issues local and regional with an acerbic bite in a column titled how do you sleep at night published days following mangum's second degree murder conviction in november 2013. mr saunders opening paragraph reads quote you all can exhale now the crystal menace has been removed and the streets of durham are once again safe unquote without doubt mr saunders is convinced of mangum's guilt in her boyfriend's death for example one paragraph reads quote she is being deservedly punished for killing reginald day reggie is what his family called him and not no matter how much her internet antagonist wish otherwise for her despicable part in the duke debacle clearly mr saunders aim is to both lay blame for mr dave's death squarely on crystal mangum while at the same time reinforcing the narrative that she lied about being sexually assaulted at the 2006 beer guzzling stripper oogling duke lacrosse spring break bash whereas mr saunders claims mangan is deservedly being punished dr weck's assessment reads otherwise as the manner of death was accidental therefore no crime was even committed bottom line is that the purpose of mr saunders column was to persuade his audience that the mangan second-degree murder conviction was just and not retaliation as payback for her role as accuser in the duke lakos case facts of the case and in court demonstrate that the murder case was about the duke lacrosse defendants and not reginald day although on its editorial board mr saunders is loafed to submit a column for publication that espouses the truths of crystal magnus innocence such an admission put before the general public would be an extreme embarrassment to the state the courts and media convicting and incarcerating a single black mother of three for nearly nine years of a minimum 14 years sentence for a crime that never happened with responsibility for mr day's demise being properly attributed to duke university hospital media types are well aware that the truth would carry too great a downside in crystal manga's case the most recent example of enabling by the media is its more than a year-long silence on dr weck's report of which dr har began notifying media types on october 31st 2019 on november 25th 2019 cbs 17 news anchor bill young conducted a 20-minute skype interview with dr west an interview which the famed physician attorney indicated he hoped would be shown in its entirety the interview was never aired or released there would be no media coverage for a full year after the exonerative reports release to date only one media outlet covered crystal magnum and the report by dr webb a little more than three months after notification by har of dr rex report a podcast was published on november 3rd 2020 on women and crime titled episode 30 interview with crystal gail mandem the hour-long presentation consisted of 30 minutes of an interview of nandumbai criminologist and assistant professor of criminology dr megan sacks the remainder of the interview was a discussion of mangan's case by dr sachs and her podcast partner dr amy schlossberg also an associate professor in criminology and criminologist next issue the medical examiner was fired four days before crystal's trial for mishandling evidence in other cases they let him stay on crystal set if you heard that to testify in her trial but he was dismissed after that and there was actually talk about criminal charges as well so they let him testify knowing that this would be his last trial before he's out the door yes and even though they did the judge know about this yeah he said it was admissible there was this issue too he he said it was invisible there was an issue they had flagged like what he did wrong his personnel files and they the judge sealed it made it available i guess the crystal's lawyer and the prosecutor but then sealed it and wouldn't make it available to anyone else so crystal doesn't even know what the issues were she tried to get her hands on that report for a while saying if he you know would have been really important to our defense and definitely to our appeal to know how he missed he just handled evidence and that was the accusation and then he was testifying at trial so i think at the very least we have to be skeptical of his findings i absolutely agree she was also able to get zero elect to review the case and prepare his findings or a report with his findings did he do a pro bono do you know because i can't imagine he has a small price tag because he is the expert i think stuff he did not do a pro bono around and he doesn't have a small price tag at all no for those of you who don't know him dr wecht is considered one of the nations and maybe even beyond that leading forensic pathologist in fact he was he served as the president of the academy of forensic sciences um he's written numerous books and he's really just top of the field he also opines on like the jfk assassination findings for people who might know him from that okay so what did we find i was really curious i was provided with the reports and i read everything he analyzed the injuries he he had the reports from the duke hospital which is where mr day was being treated and where he passed away he analyzed findings from the medical examiner was he asked to just speak on the cause of death not necessarily on self-defense correct correct yes just literally looking at the cause of death at trial she was convicted of second-degree murder because the medical examiner the one who was fired from his handling evidence said the cause of death was complications due to established which means the stab wound is what triggered the death okay well here's what yeah here's what sarah west said i i was like i'm reserving opinion until i read what someone who's reviewed everything in someone's opinion you know we can rely on lex said that mr day underwent surgical repair for a small splenic and colon injury and a few days after the surgery he experienced delirium tremens which is alcohol withdrawal delirium it was well documented that he was um an alcoholic who she was going through with surah he was going through severe withdrawal he further went on west further went on that um in an episode of aspiration that he was having required that he be intubated but when the hospital staff at duke hospital intubated him they intimated when they put the tube in the esophagus rather than the trachea and as a result mr day suffered irreversible brain damage he lost oxygen for a certain amount of time and even though they corrected it it was a huge mistake it was too late when they corrected it the oxygen had been lost he had brain damage he went on to i guess a coma or you know when you you know he he was still living but he was no longer able to function despite changing the intubation to the trachea mr day did not recover and he died again 13 days later after his injuries dr wecht his final conclusion he took the official position that the cause of death was complications related to delirium tremens including aspiration due to alcohol withdrawal related to chronic alcoholism and that the manner of death was accident and not homicide which was vastly different than what the better just to play devil's advocate i'm at this point i do believe that crystal should not have been charged in mr dave's death but to play devil's advocate had it not been for the stab wounds he would have never been away from the alcohol and never suffered the tremors hence never needed the intubation i think that's a very fair style this is where things get a little tricky that's also an issue when you so when i'm teaching forensics that comes up with cause of death and um cause of death is the what with the event that precipitated it it was there usually was there an unbroken chain of events or was it broken so in this case he actually explained wecht explains in his report this was a broken chain of events because he was recuperating and he was recuperating nicely and he would have but he could have been home drinking had it not been down her stabbing yeah so i know it seems like i could have been hit by a bus he could have but you're absolutely right he would not have been in the hospital to have been intubated likely had he not been stabbed by her however officially if you're relying on cause of death and manner of death and he's declaring it an accident he's also saying that the hospital is negligent here yeah that's just that's his opinion that if you had to blame someone you'd blame the hospital that's what wax was saying it should come as no surprise that neither of them believed following the interview and review of dr weck's report that crystal mangum should have been found guilty of murder or manslaughter the news and observer editorial board is now and has frequently in the past opined on problems of racial injustice in the state's justice system the aspirational conclusion of this editorial reads quote once the pandemic passes we hope the criminal justice system can stick with and build on changes that have fostered fairness in the treatment of all who pass through the state's courts jail and prisons unquote in truth it should append quote all that is except crystal mannequin the duke lacrosse accuser unquote the fact is that the news and observer has never published an opinion piece about the cruel injustice mangum has suffered in retaliation by the state and the courts three editorial page editors explicitly refusing to broach the controversial subject and don't expect the december 15th task force report to recommend the immediate release of crystal magnum as that would not align with its sinister and perverted state-sponsored plot to execute ms magnum by lethal infection a contagion that has already been responsible for at least six inmate hospitalizations and multiple outbreaks and lockdowns at the anson correctional institution where the duqlikos accuser remains wrongly confined [Music] [Music] it's a brand new day and you say [Music] justice give me justice please pass some justice down to me if there's one thing this world needs its justice yes it's just this [Music] justice give me justice please make it swift make it rain on my enemies [Music] please [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] sometimes you get to the top and you fall to your knees and you scream lately [Music] justice give me justice please have some justice down to me if there's one thing this world needs it justice [Music] justice dear [Music] you