OMG, no, that is a bald-faced lie. That blog you found doesn't EVEN come CLOSE to describing the judicial atrocity that occurred in that case.
The REAL story is that the jury was made of 8 white people and 4 black people, and the 4 black people held out for 2nd degree for the simple reason that "white people don't understand black rage."
I am not making this up. I was working at IBM at the time, and one of the black jurors worked in the same test lab where I worked and was interviewed in the local paper, as well as one of the white jurors who spelled it out.
Basically, the white jurors were led to believe by the judge that there was a chance that the guy could actually be set free if they didn't convict of something, and the 8 white people eventually caved into the "black rage justifies this sort of thing" being held out for by the black members.
The blog you cite has completely glossed over the real story there.
I don’t doubt your story at all.
Some of our cities are like third world countries.
It is difficult finding anything on the internet about that case. Thanks for giving a more personal account.