Julie Carr Smyth, correspondent, Columbus, Ohio; Angie Wang, video journalist; John Minchillo, photographer, Cincinnati; and Tony Dejak, photographer, Cleveland, produced a package that demonstrated how the vast majority of violent crime laws named for victims carry the names of white victims. With no databases available, Smyth did painstaking research with the help of other statehouse reporters, and the team reported a powerful story about one black middle-school student who was murdered, but for whom no law is named.
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Named violent crime laws underrepresent black victims
Donnesha Cooper touches a photo of her daughter, Alianna DeFreeze, in Cleveland, Oct. 29, 2019. Her daughter’s murder and the murder of Reagan Tokes had a lot in common, but only one victim got a law with her name on it: Tokes, who was white. An Associated Press analysis found that more than eight in 10 stand-alone laws named for victims of violent crime identified since 1990 honored white victims or groups of victims that included at least one white person. That has left black victims such as DeFreeze underrepresented by such laws.
AP Photo / Tony Dejak