Killing of Amy Joyner-Francis

Last updated
Killing of Amy Joyner-Francis
Amy Joyner-Francis.jpeg
Instagram photo of victim Amy Joyner-Francis
Location Howard High School of Technology, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Coordinates 39°44′47.6″N75°32′29.6″W / 39.746556°N 75.541556°W / 39.746556; -75.541556
DateApril 21, 2016;8 years ago (2016-04-21)
c. 8:18 am EST [1]
TargetAmy Inita Joyner-Francis
Attack type
 Homicide by blunt trauma, assault, school violence
VictimAmy Inita Joyner-Francis, aged 16
PerpetratorsTrinity Carr
Zion Snow
MotivePersonal dispute
AccusedTrinity Carr
Zion Snow
Chakeira Wright
VerdictCarr
Guilty of criminally negligent homicide (overturned)
Carr, Snow
Guilty of third-degree criminal conspiracy
Wright
Not guilty of third-degree criminal conspiracy
ConvictionsCarr and Snow:
Third-degree criminal conspiracy
ChargesCarr
Criminally negligent homicide [2] [3]
Carr, Snow, Wright
Third-degree criminal conspiracy
SentenceCarr
6 months in rehabilitation service, 500 hours of community service, probation until age 21
Snow
18 months of community supervision, 300 hours of community service [4]
LitigationLawsuit by Joyner-Francis's parents settled with NCCVT school district for negligence and deprivation of constitutional rights

On April 21, 2016, Amy Inita Joyner-Francis, a female 16-year-old student at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Delaware, was assaulted and killed by another student, Trinity Carr in a school bathroom while two other students allegedly assisted. The incident was widely publicized and started controversy about the appropriate charges of teenagers involved in situations of school violence and assault. [5] Two of the students were convicted of conspiracy and one of the two was also convicted of negligent homicide. The latter conviction was later overturned in a ruling that has faced some criticism. A third student was acquitted of a conspiracy charge.

Contents

Killing

On the morning of April 21, 2016 in Howard High School of Technology, Amy Joyner-Francis, a female 16-year old student, was confronted by three female students: Trinity Carr, Zion Snow, and Chakeira Wright, on the second-floor female restroom of the school. It is unknown what precisely happened between the confrontation and the attack, but the motive was allegedly a personal dispute "over a boy". Joyner-Francis was soon assaulted by Carr. Carr hit and kicked Joyner-Francis, landing punches to Joyner-Francis's head and torso while Joyner-Francis clutched for her purse. Carr dragged Joyner-Francis by her hair and repeatedly smashed her head into the sink inside a handicap-accessible stall in the restroom. At some point during the attack, Carr ripped Joyner-Francis's fingernails out. [6] Dozens of other female students watched the killing unfold, and the incident was recorded on the cell phones of at least two students, which would later be used as crucial evidence against the three accused girls in their later trial. Joyner-Francis fell to the floor as Snow began to kick her. Onlookers, including Wright, attempted to pull Carr off of Joyner-Francis, as Joyner-Francis appeared to attempt to cling onto Carr's shirt. [7] Joyner-Francis laid on the floor of the bathroom as her breathing labored and eventually lost consciousness. She died shortly after the attack was over. Joyner-Francis was flown by a state police helicopter to Nemours A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in critical condition and was pronounced dead. [8] [9]

Autopsy

An autopsy by the Delaware medical examiner determined that Joyner-Francis's death was a homicide. It was concluded that she died from cardiac arrest, caused by blunt force trauma and complications from a previous heart condition that Joyner-Francis had before her assault. It was confirmed, however, that Joyner-Francis would not have died if she had not been assaulted. [10]

State v. Carr, Snow, and Wright

State v. Carr, Snow, and Wright
Seal of Delaware.svg
Court Delaware Family Court
Full case name The State of Delaware v. Trinity Carr, Zion Snow, and Chakeira Wright
SubmittedMay 9, 2016
DecidedApril 13, 2017;7 years ago (2017-04-13)
ProsecutionSean Lugg
DefenseJohn Deckers [11]
Case opinions
Decision byRobert Coonin

Following the killing of Joyner-Francis, some characterized the attack as a murder, and advocated for murder charges to be brought against Carr. [12] [13] [14] The state declined to charge Carr with first or second-degree murder, instead perusing a charge of criminally negligent homicide.

Trinity Carr, the student who assaulted and killed Joyner-Francis, was charged with both criminally negligent homicide and third-degree criminal conspiracy, while Zion Snow and Chakeira Wright were only charged with the latter. [15] All three girls were released on bail in May 2016. [16]

Trinity Carr, Zion Snow, and Chakeira Wright were tried by Delaware Family Court Judge Robert Coonin. Coonin decided to try the three defendants as juveniles rather than adults. Carr faced up to 8 years in prison if she were to be charged as an adult for criminally negligent homicide.

The video of the killing and social media comments were used as crucial evidence, including a comment that one of the girls made on social media about Joyner-Francis's death, saying, "Fuck This Retarted [sic] Nose Having Ass Bitch, She Ugly. We Made Sure We Killed That Bitch! #ripamy Bitches." [17]

On April 13, 2017, Carr was found guilty of both counts of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree criminal conspiracy and Snow was found guilty on the count of third-degree criminal conspiracy. Judge Coonin commented that, "beyond a reasonable doubt, the death of Amy Joyner-Francis was caused by the action of Trinity Carr." It was determined that Carr and Snow had planned the attack 20 hours prior to it occurring. Wright was found not guilty of third-degree criminal conspiracy, with Judge Coonin saying that the evidence that Wright took part in planning the attack was "insufficient". Coonin also noted that Wright had attempted to pull Carr off of Joyner-Francis after the attack ensued. [18] [19] [20] [21]

Carr was sentenced to 6 months in rehabilitation service, 500 hours of community service, and probation until age 21. She did not face jail time as the prosecution had sought. Snow was sentenced to 18 months of community supervision and 300 hours of community service. [22]

Overturning of homicide conviction and further lawsuits

On March 1, 2018, the Supreme Court of Delaware overturned Carr's negligent homicide conviction, ruling that Carr could not have known that Joyner-Francis would die when she assaulted her. Her conspiracy conviction, however, was upheld. [23] The decision was criticized by some, pointing out that criminally negligent homicide, defined in Delaware as "when, with criminal negligence, the person causes the death of another person," does not require that a perpetrator is aware their victim will die. A spokeswoman for the Joyner-Francis family said of the overturning of Carr's conviction, "The most dangerous city in the nation for children between 12 and 17 is Wilmington, Delaware. The overturned ruling by the Delaware Supreme Court regarding the murder of Amy Joyner-Francis supports this fact." [24]

Joyner-Francis's parents settled a lawsuit with the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District for negligence and deprivation of constitutional rights in April 2018. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

Vehicular homicide is a crime that involves the death of a person other than the driver as a result of either criminally negligent or murderous operation of a motor vehicle.

Articles related to criminology and law enforcement.

In the English law of homicide, manslaughter is a less serious offence than murder, the differential being between levels of fault based on the mens rea or by reason of a partial defence. In England and Wales, a common practice is to prefer a charge of murder, with the judge or defence able to introduce manslaughter as an option. The jury then decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty of either murder or manslaughter. On conviction for manslaughter, sentencing is at the judge's discretion, whereas a sentence of life imprisonment is mandatory on conviction for murder. Manslaughter may be either voluntary or involuntary, depending on whether the accused has the required mens rea for murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard High School of Technology</span> Vo-tech public high school in Wilmington, Delaware, United States

Howard High School of Technology is a vocational-technical high school in Wilmington, Delaware and is the oldest of four high schools within the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District, which includes Delcastle Technical High School in Newport, Hodgson Vo-Tech High School in Glasgow, and St. Georges Technical High School in St. Georges.

The Wichita Massacre, also known as the Wichita Horror, was a week-long violent crime spree perpetrated by brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr, in the city of Wichita, Kansas, between December 8 and 15, 2000. Five people were killed, and two people, a man and a woman, were severely wounded. The brothers were arrested and convicted of multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, robbery, and rape. They were both sentenced to death in October 2002. Their vicious crimes created panic in the Wichita area resulting in an increase in the sales of guns, locks, and home security systems.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.

The Jena Six were six black teenagers in Jena, Louisiana, convicted in the 2006 beating of Justin Barker, a white student at the local Jena High School, which they also attended. Barker was injured on December 4, 2006, by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment at an emergency room. While the case was pending, it was often cited by some media commentators as an example of racial injustice in the United States. Some commentators believed that the defendants had been charged initially with too-serious offenses and had been treated unfairly.

Christa Gail Pike is an American convicted murderer, and the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. She was 20 when convicted of the torture murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, which she committed at age 18.

Crime in California refers to crime occurring within the U.S. state of California. The principal source of law for California criminal procedure is the California Penal Code.

In the United States, the law for murder varies by jurisdiction. In many US jurisdictions there is a hierarchy of acts, known collectively as homicide, of which first-degree murder and felony murder are the most serious, followed by second-degree murder and, in a few states, third-degree murder, which in other states is divided into voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter such as reckless homicide and negligent homicide, which are the least serious, and ending finally in justifiable homicide, which is not a crime. However, because there are at least 52 relevant jurisdictions, each with its own criminal code, this is a considerable simplification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal law of the United States</span>

The criminal law of the United States is a manifold system of laws and practices that connects crimes and consequences. In comparison, civil law addresses non-criminal disputes. The system varies considerably by jurisdiction, but conforms to the US Constitution. Generally there are two systems of criminal law to which a person maybe subject; the most frequent is state criminal law, and the other is federal law.

Foeticide, or feticide, is the act of killing a fetus, or causing a miscarriage. Definitions differ between legal and medical applications, whereas in law, feticide frequently refers to a criminal offense, in medicine the term generally refers to a part of an abortion procedure in which a provider intentionally induces fetal demise to avoid the chance of an unintended live birth, or as a standalone procedure in the case of selective reduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine</span>

The Tandragee killings took place in the early hours of Saturday 19 February 2000 on an isolated country road outside Tandragee, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two young Protestant men, Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, were beaten and repeatedly stabbed to death in what was part of a Loyalist feud between the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and their rivals, the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The men were not members of any loyalist paramilitary organisation. It later emerged in court hearings that Robb had made disparaging remarks about the killing of UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade leader Richard Jameson by an LVF gunman the previous month. This had angered the killers, themselves members of the Mid-Ulster UVF, and in retaliation they had lured the two men to the remote lane on the outskirts of town, where they killed and mutilated them.

Manslaughter is a crime in the United States. Definitions can vary among jurisdictions, but manslaughter is invariably the act of causing the death of another person in a manner less culpable than murder. Three types of unlawful killings constitute manslaughter. First, there is voluntary manslaughter which is an intentional homicide committed in "sudden heat of passion" as the result of adequate provocation. Second, there is the form of involuntary manslaughter which is an unintentional homicide that was committed in a criminally negligent manner. Finally, there is the form of involuntary manslaughter which is an unintentional homicide that occurred during the commission or attempted commission of an unlawful act which does not amount to a felony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Kendrick Johnson</span> 2013 controversial death in Georgia, United States

On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson was discovered inside a vertical rolled-up gym mat in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, United States, where he was a student. After a preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that Johnson's death was accidental, his family had a private pathologist conduct a second autopsy which concluded that he died from blunt force trauma. On October 31, 2013, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. On June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that it would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Jeremy McDole</span> 2015 police shooting of paraplegic

Jeremy "Bam Bam" McDole was a 28-year-old African American paraplegic who was shot and killed by police in Wilmington, Delaware on September 23, 2015, at 3:00 pm. McDole was in a wheelchair at the time of the shooting. Police responded to a call about a man with a gun. The 911 caller later recanted her statements and has, to date, faced no penalties for the false statements made, which resulted in McDole's death. Camera footage from a bystander showed officers ordering McDole to drop his weapon and raise his hands, with McDole being shot after shuffling his hands near his waist area, but with a gun never being seen and evidence photos of the reported weapon only appearing 6 years after his murder. The Delaware state department cleared the officers of wrongdoing, but concluded that one of the involved officers had shown "extraordinarily poor" police work. A 2020 review by the Delaware Attorney General's Office came to the same conclusion. Both decided against filing any charges. The McDole family sued the city of Wilmington, and in January 2017, a settlement of $1.5 million was reached by the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Brian Murphy</span> 2000 killing in Dublin, Ireland

In the early hours of 31 August 2000, Brian Murphy, an 18-year-old student, was attacked by a large group of young men outside the Club Anabel nightclub at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland. He died shortly after the attack. The subsequent investigations drew great media interest, with the incident commonly referred to as the Club Anabel case.

Kathleen Kramedas McGuiness is an American politician who was the Delaware state auditor, from January 2019 until October 2022. In July 2022, she was found guilty on multiple corruption charges.

Sharon Louise Carr, also known as "The Devil's Daughter", is a British woman who, in June 1992, aged 12, murdered 18-year-old Katie Rackliff at random as the latter walked home from a nightclub in Camberley, Surrey, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Devonshire</span> American serial killer (1969–2022)

William Jeffrey Devonshire was an American serial killer. A habitual criminal with a murder conviction in his native state of Delaware, he became known for murdering two homeless women in Florida in 2022. Devonshire died from medical complications while awaiting trial, but was posthumously linked to both crimes via DNA.

References

  1. ↑ Lehman, Tom (21 Apr 2016). "Classmates hold vigil for student fatally wounded in attack at Howard High School". WDEL. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  2. ↑ Horn, Brittany (9 May 2016). "3 teens charged in death of Howard High School student". Delaware Online. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  3. ↑ Wilson, Xerxes (1 March 2018). "Delaware Supreme Court overturns conviction in fatal Howard High School bathroom attack". Delaware Online. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  4. ↑ "The tragic death of Wilmington's 16-year-old Amy Joyner Francis". WDEL 101.7FM. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  5. ↑ Lehman, Tom (21 Apr 2016). "Classmates hold vigil for student fatally wounded in attack at Howard High School". WDEL. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  6. ↑ "Judge weighing whether to try girl as adult in death of Amy Joyner-Francis".
  7. ↑ "Joyner verdict shows 'consequences' of actions".
  8. ↑ Baker, Karl (13 April 2017). "Teen found guilty in fatal Delaware school bathroom fight". USA Today . Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Herman, Lily. "A Teen Involved in a Fatal Bathroom Attack of Amy Joyner-Francis Has Been Sentenced" . Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  10. ↑ Wilson, Xerxes (2 Mar 2018). "Joyner-Francis family 'cannot find peace or justice' in Delaware, spokeswoman says". Delaware Online. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  11. ↑ "Joyner verdict shows 'consequences' of actions".
  12. ↑ "The Horrific Moment Amy Joyner Was Murdered Has Been Released".
  13. ↑ "Joyner-Francis family 'cannot find peace or justice' in Delaware, spokeswoman says".
  14. ↑ "Amy Joyner-Francis, 16, dies after girl fight in H.S. bathroom".
  15. ↑ Horn, Brittany (9 May 2016). "3 teens charged in death of Howard High School student". Delaware Online. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  16. ↑ Cherry, Amy (10 May 2016). "Girls charged in Joyner-Francis death free on bail". WDEL. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  17. ↑ "The Horrific Moment Amy Joyner Was Murdered Has Been Released".
  18. ↑ Reyes, Jessica Masulli (5 June 2017). "Six-month sentence defendant in Joyner-Francis' death". The News Journal. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  19. ↑ Baker, Karl (13 April 2017). "Teen found guilty in fatal Delaware school bathroom fight". USA Today . Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  20. ↑ "Verdict in Howard High death". Delaware Online. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  21. ↑ Wilson, Xerxes (8 May 2018). "Trinity Carr resentenced after negligent homicide conviction overturned". Delaware Online. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  22. ↑ "The tragic death of Wilmington's 16-year-old Amy Joyner Francis". WDEL 101.7FM. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  23. ↑ Wilson, Xerxes (1 Mar 2018). "Delaware Supreme Court overturns conviction in fatal Howard High School bathroom attack". Delaware Online. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  24. ↑ "Joyner-Francis family 'cannot find peace or justice' in Delaware, spokeswoman says".
  25. ↑ "Family of Delaware Girl Who Died in School Beating Settles with School District". Murphy & Landon. 10 Dec 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.