Flashback Legal: Ray Lewis Involvement In a Murder Trail

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...baltimore-ravens-atlanta-murder-2000/1566198/

Slayings not forgotten, Ray Lewis not forgiven
Brent Schrotenboer, USA TODAY SportsPublished 6:38 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2013 | Updated 2:39 p.m. ET June 18, 2013
It has been 13 years since two friends were murdered in Atlanta after the Super Bowl, and their families still question the involvement of the Ravens linebacker.
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Priscilla Lollar still doesn't believe her son is dead.

Any day now, she hopes he might finally return from Atlanta, walking through the door of her home in Akron, Ohio, as if nothing happened on the morning of Jan. 31, 2000.

"If I truly accept that he's not coming back ... " says Lollar, her voice trailing off. "I don't discuss him in the past. I don't really acknowledge anything."

Deep down, she knows he's gone. She knows it every time she turns on the television and sees Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis — a reminder that her son, Richard, has been dead for 13 years, stabbed to death outside a nightclub in Atlanta, along with his friend from Akron, Jacinth Baker.

RETIREMENT: Commissioner has a job for Lewis

Their murders remain unsolved. But as the anniversary of their deaths approaches — and as Lewis dances into the sunset of his NFL career — the victims' relatives are still seething at him. While Priscilla Lollar says she's "numb" to Lewis, others want answers. And justice.

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"My nephew was brutally beaten and murdered and nobody is paying for it," Baker's uncle, Greg Wilson, told USA TODAY Sports. "Everything is so fresh in our mind, it's just like it happened yesterday. We'll never forget this."

Only Lewis pleaded guilty in relation to the case: for obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor. He originally was charged with two counts of murder but struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony against two of his companions that night, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting.

Lewis never directly linked his two friends to the killings, and they were acquitted. Lewis had testified that Oakley, Sweeting and another man had gone to a sporting goods store the previous day to buy knives. Baker's blood later was found in Lewis' limo. Having fled the crime scene, Lewis told the limo's passengers to "keep their mouths shut." The white suit Lewis was wearing that night — on Super Bowl Sunday — never was found.


"I'm not trying to end my career like this," Lewis said in his hotel that night, according to the testimony of a female passenger in the limo.

He didn't. For his punishment, Lewis received one year of probation and a $250,000 fine by the NFL.

Lewis declined to comment when asked about the subject Thursday by USA TODAY Sports. Messages left for agents and attorneys representing him were not returned. Oakley, recently living in Atlanta, didn't return messages seeking comment. A relative of Sweeting, living in Miami, hung up when reached by USA TODAY Sports. And the prosecutor, Paul Howard, declined a request to be interviewed.

Said Lewis: "You want to talk to me about something that happened 13 years ago right now?"

Lewis was more circumspect about the incident in a 2010 interview with The Baltimore Sun. "I'm telling you, no day leaves this Earth without me asking God to ease the pain of anybody who was affected by that whole ordeal." he said. "He's a God who tests people — not that he put me in that situation, because he didn't make me go nowhere. I put myself in that situation."

In those 13 years, Lewis has not only rehabilitated his image but become an iconic figure for his dominating play and leadership. His 17-year career is likely to be immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, about 20 miles south of Akron, where Lollar and Baker are buried near their families.

Lewis, 37, will be eligible for induction five years after his retirement this season, which could come as soon as Saturday if the Ravens lose their playoff game at Denver. After announcing his retirement, Lewis has basked in the praise of adoring NFL fans. The crowd roared as he took a victory lap — and dance — around the stadium Sunday after beating the Indianapolis Colts. Commissioner Roger Goodell even said he wants to employ Lewis as a special adviser to himself because he's a "tremendous voice of reason."

Cindy Lollar-Owens, Richard Lollar's aunt, says Lewis' pending retirement prompted her Thursday to visit the funeral home, "because that's where my nephew retired."

Lollar-Owens says she doesn't know if Lewis did or didn't stab anybody — just that Lewis was there and that evidence suggests he was involved. For his part, Lewis denied guilt in the stabbing and said that he was unfairly targeted by Howard. Lewis said he didn't know who did the stabbings amid the push and pull of a crowded fight around 4 a.m.

It's not enough for some family members.

"Every time I see him, I think of my nephew," Lollar-Owens says.

The victims

Baker and Lollar were 21 and 24 at the times of their deaths, both having been stabbed several times in the heart and upper body.

Both had overcome personal struggles before that night. Lollar's mother had been in and out of prison, leaving Lollar-Owens and her mother to raise Richard. Both Lollar and Baker had criminal records with minor drug-related offenses.

But they moved from Akron to Atlanta in search of a better life. Lollar was trying to make it there as a barber, Baker as an artist. Lollar also was ready to have a family. His fiancé, Kellye Smith, was pregnant with his daughter, born about a month after his murder.

The daughter is now 12 and attends a private school near Atlanta. The family says it tries to shield her from the details of her father's death.

"She just knows her father is not here," says Katheryn Smith, mother of Kellye Smith. "She doesn't really know what happened. So far, we've kept most of it from her."

Katheryn Smith says she harbors no grudge against Lewis, though the circumstances are different from those of other relatives.

(Photo: KIMBERLY SMITH, AFP/Getty Images)


Smith's family sued Lewis for $13 million and reached an undisclosed settlement on behalf of Richard Lollar's daughter in 2004.

In the suit, Lewis answered questions under oath in a deposition.

"His attitude during the deposition and everything wasn't that great," Katheryn Smith says of Lewis. "He disappointed me in the things he said. But I decided I wasn't the one (to judge). You have to leave that up to God, you know? He was there when it happened. I think they all got off fairly easy, but I don't have any hard feelings. I think he had a bad choice of friends."

She declined to elaborate on Lewis' deposition testimony, which has not been disclosed. Kellye Smith didn't return a message seeking comment. The settlement includes a confidentiality clause.

In another suit, Gladys Robinson, Baker's grandmother, also reached an undisclosed settlement with Lewis in 2003 after suing him for $10 million. She is now deceased.

Time with family

The way Priscilla Lollar remembers it, her son was supposed to come back to Akron soon after Jan. 31, 2000. He was supposed to pick her up and bring her down to Atlanta, where he could help keep her out of trouble. She says she was at a friend's house when her phone rang that day. It was her stepfather, who told her to come home.

When she learned from him what happened, "I didn't believe it," she says. She still doesn't. "I'm numb to the fact, even after all this time."

(Photo: Eric P. Mull, USA TODAY Sports)


Her sister, Lollar-Owens, still wants to believe that Lewis feels their loss. Explaining why he was retiring now, Lewis recently said he wanted to spend more time with his children.

"I've seen where he was speaking about family and stuff, and I'm quite sure that every time he sees his son, he thinks about the son, grandson and father that we lost," Lollar-Owens says. "It would be impossible not to. Never a day goes by that we don't think about him."

For "closure," she wants to talk to Lewis. If she gets the chance, Lollar-Owens says she would ask him for money, not for herself, but to build a beauty salon in the name of her nephew, the barber.

"That would be my kind of closure, because I would have his memory," she says.

She also wants the truth. "I would like for him to tell one day exactly what happened," Lollar-Owens says.

It might help relieve the pain and anger for her mother, Joyce Lollar, who fell sick with heart trouble last month.

Joyce Lollar has bristled at the sight of Lewis on TV, a feeling shared by Greg Wilson, the uncle who helped raise Baker.

"I cringe. I just cringe," Wilson says of seeing Lewis on television. He's upset at how the case was handled by Howard. He also blames the NFL and Ravens. Prior to the next Super Bowl in 2001, then-Ravens coach Brian Billick criticized the news media for continuing to ask questions about the murders.

"The problem to me is America was more interested in him playing football instead of him paying the price for what he was involved in," Wilson says. "That's how we feel. They wanted nothing to happen to him. (Team owner) Art Modell didn't want his golden boy to suffer, so he could make money for him. So they did all they could to get him out of trouble."

The other men moved on after their acquittals. Oakley published an unedited book on the murders titled Murder After Super Bowl XXXIV, copyrighted in 2010.

(Photo: Eric P. Mull, USA TODAY Sports)


In the book's opening, Oakley describes a chaotic scene with several fights breaking out. He describes Lewis imploring his friends to get into his limo. He describes a man staggering in the street holding his side before "falling backward onto the street." He later describes three other men getting into the limo saying, "We kicked they ass."

The rest of the book is unavailable and out of print.

Wilson says there was supposed to be a meeting with Lewis and the families after the trial. It never happened.

"We wouldn't have went to the meeting anyway," Wilson says. "It would not have been a peaceful meeting. … I'll be very upset if they induct (Lewis) into the Hall of Fame. There's other people out there that committed a lesser crime and they're sitting in jail."

Baker, his nephew, "was raised in our home," Wilson says. "We have no compassion for Ray Lewis, for Art Modell, for any of them. We don't want to see him."

Contributing: Robert Klemko in Owings Mills, Md.

 

[playahaitian]

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Ray Lewis is one of the more divisive figures in modern NFL history. Recently, he sat down with our colleague David Greene.

DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: Lewis spent 17 years as a linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens. He won two Super Bowl titles, and he was known as one of the best defensive players the game has ever known. Yesterday, we spoke to Lewis about football. Today, we talk about life - a life that was nearly derailed. He writes about this in his new book, "I Feel Like Going On." It was the year 2000. Lewis left a Super Bowl party in Atlanta. He was heading for his limo. A ruckus broke out. Two men were stabbed dead. Ray Lewis was charged with double murder. Those charges were soon dropped. Lewis, after spending two weeks in jail, plead guilty to obstruction of justice.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Lewis, is this plea being entered into freely by you?

RAY LEWIS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: It is of your own free will.

LEWIS: Yes.

GREENE: After that, Ray Lewis kept playing football for more than a decade, but he has never escaped the shadow of Atlanta. And it's not the only shadow he's run from. Ray Lewis was raised by single mom in Lakeland, Fl. His dad was mostly absent and known as a man who misbehaved - treated women badly. In his 30s, Lewis reconnected with his dad. They didn't share much, except for the love of a certain song.

LEWIS: I asked him one day - I was like, dude, you remember "The Five Heartbeats?" He was like - yeah, yeah, of course. I was like, you remember that song at the end where Eddie King was singing, (singing) I feel like going. So when he was singing, I was like, Dad, can you do me a favor? Can you sing that song to me? Every time I call you, every time I - you see my number, just sing that song. And honestly, it was the way that I was able to really let go all of the things that I wanted to say or wanted to get mad, like, every time he called me, and it just made open up to being more of a son.

GREENE: Father and son took a six-hour long car drive together that day.

LEWIS: The entire car ride, I never said a word. Like, I had nothing to say, and he started talking from the moment we got in the car. And I remember sitting there, man. I don't think I took a sip of water. I don't think I did anything. I just sat there and listened to everything he had to say.

GREENE: Is he proud of you?

LEWIS: Yeah, yeah. And I think, honestly - I think my father's proud of me because, you know - we talk about this all the time - that I was strong-minded enough to overcome some of the things that were his downfall. A lot of things Dad got caught up in so early, man - it destroyed my dad. And so when he sees me now, you know, he always says, you know, if I could've just thought about doing it right or thought about doing it differently, then my life would've somewhat been like yours, you know?

GREENE: I have to ask you about Atlanta, which is a chapter in the book. It's Super Bowl weekend in 2000. You and a group had just left a Super Bowl party, and were at a club and leaving there. There was an altercation outside the club. You jumped into your limo with a group of people and drove away. And two guys were found stabbed and killed, and you were charged with double murder.

LEWIS: Yeah, it's funny because when everybody reads that story, when everybody know about it, it's always interesting that the first thing people go to is they always say, you was charged with double murder. But nobody ever want to say that from day one, there was not one inch of evidence on me. You know, I hear people bring up Atlanta like, oh, Atlanta's supposed to scare me. Atlanta doesn't scare me. Atlanta wakes me up, only to realize that, first of all, put your trust in no man, and second of all, man, you don't ever have to live like you're guilty when you know you're innocent.

GREENE: You did seem in this chapter in this book like you wanted to put the truth out there. But, you know, I feel compelled to point out for people, I mean, there's some facts missing. I mean, there was - there are things like blood found in your limo. There's the sports store where you're signing autographs with...

LEWIS: Yeah, but you're talking about - but...

GREENE: ...you know, with two guys who - you know, who...

LEWIS: See, but you're only talking about - you're only talking about facts that was already throughout the case - 100 percent.

GREENE: Right.

LEWIS: There was not one ounce of blood that was not found on the same people that was in the fight - no different. None. So you talk about blood, but we're not talking about the facts because you're only coming from the perspective because you don't have a clue what happened that night.

GREENE: Sure, no.

LEWIS: So when you ask someone...

GREENE: But I guess I just want - like, so many of your fans - you know, they had read some of that stuff back during a time. You know, blood found in Ray Lewis' limousine. You know, at a sports when some guys were buying knives. I mean, do you feel like you offered enough in this book? You know, could you have brought up some of those details and really explained in your mind why...

LEWIS: You don't have to bring up - you have to bring up those details when you already lived it. The part that I brought up was the part that was left out. All the stuff you're talk about - it was all through the case. So if you really want to know about all that, go through the case, and you will find out all of that. And this is kind of how I leave Atlanta. Nobody ever has to convince me or ask me to prove myself to people. I don't prove myself to people. I don't live to prove myself to people. And I never will - never.

GREENE: But there are these two really powerful images of you out there. I mean, one is this devoutly religious man and proud father and a person who Michael Phelps, the Olympic gold-medal swimmer - I mean, he described you as the most inspirational person he has ever met in his life. And then there's the Ray Lewis who still people today, you know, will freely suggest is a murderer from what happened in Atlanta. I mean, is it hard to live with those two personas out there.

LEWIS: No. No. No, absolutely not. That's why I wrote the book - because who Michael Phelps knows, that's who Ray Lewis is. Everything else that you just said - no. Only thing I heard (laughter), honestly, that you said - out of the whole thing - was murder.

GREENE: You heard that one word because it bothers you.

LEWIS: Yeah, well, it bothers me because people - when they use it, they basically say to hell with the families. You know. but it shows you the insensitive side of people who, you know - and you can't please everybody, man. I don't ever try to please everybody in life, but I'll tell you this. There's enough people in this world that if you're living right and you're doing - I don't try to live perfect. I try to live right. And if you're living right, I guarantee you God will win every one of those battles for you. Yeah?

GREENE: Was this a hard book to write?

LEWIS: No. Hard was living it (laughter). Telling it now? No. I'm rejoicing from telling it. I adored writing this book because there was chapters in my life that - everybody seen my story, but nobody's ever heard my story told from my words.

GREENE: Well, Ray Lewis, I'm - it's really been nice talking to you. Thank you so much.

LEWIS: Absolutely, man. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate you.

MONTAGNE: And that was David Greene with former NFL star Ray Lewis, whose book "I Feel Like Going On" is out now.

 

[playahaitian]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/new...them-protest-trump/148rhxzzk88uw104y3sreinfuv

Ray Lewis joined more than a dozen members of his former Ravens team (and Jaguars players across the field) by kneeling during the national anthem before their game in London on Sunday. With arms linked with players on either side, he first dropped to one knee, then to both.

That’s understandable. The weight of the irony would be a lot for anybody to support, even a future Hall of Famer.


PHOTOS: Anthem protests around the NFL

Lewis, an honorary captain for the game against the Jaguars, brought a ton of history to his action on the Wembley Stadium sideline. A better term might be "baggage," to borrow an overused term that dominated the offseason debate over barring players for their social activism.

He brought so much of both, in fact, that he likely was the last person expected to join the NFL players’ protests this weekend, with the possible exception of President Donald Trump himself.

Plenty of onlookers remembered and noticed.

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Lewis' actions amidst Colin Kaepernick’s anti-police brutality protests date much further back than his role in the Ravens' decision not to sign the still-free agent quarterback in training camp. It goes even beyond the president's public embrace of Lewis along with other black celebrities in the months before his inauguration.

It goes at least as far back to Lewis' complete, direct and painfully misinformed denunciation of the Black Lives Matter movement in the spring of 2016. Around the one-year anniversary of the 2015 civic unrest in Baltimore following Freddie Gray’s death in police custody, the Ravens icon posted a video from his home. At its core was his insistence that Black Lives Matter was fraudulent because it ignored crime in the city in favor of issues he deemed far less important.

That declaration by Lewis laid the groundwork for all the comments and statements he made right up through the week before the season opener. Lewis used his role as co-host of Showtime's "Inside The NFL" to pin the Ravens' refusal to sign Kaepernick on a derogatory tweet about Lewis and owner Steve Bisciotti by radio and TV personality Nessa Diab, Kaepernick’s girlfriend. Bisciotti had very publicly turned to Lewis for advice about signing Kaepernick, explicitly with the potential backlash from fans and advertisers in mind.

MORE: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers send message of unity on social media

On "Inside The NFL," Lewis was less detailed about his own posting that motivated Diab to post hers: another video in which Lewis referred to Kaepernick’s activism as “nonsense” and advised him — while he was still very notably unsigned by any team — to “get back on the football field and let your play speak for itself."

Even that had not been the only time Lewis had taken to the air to criticize Kaepernick's stance. None was more memorable than when he joined Shannon Sharpe, his former Ravens teammate (and his most vocal defender at Super Bowl XXXV after Lewis’ entanglement in the infamous double-murder in Atlanta the year before), to debate Kaepernick. By all accounts, it was lopsided in Sharpe’s favor.

All told, Lewis had planted his feet as firmly as anyone connected to the NFL, in rejecting the very idea of protesting, much less protesting against systematic racism, and in favor of forcing players to choose between their careers and their beliefs.

To anybody engaged in that movement, Lewis had been crystal-clear about which side he had taken.

How he traveled from there to kneeling during the anthem remained a mystery after the game.

MORE: Trump responds to Sunday's protests

The president with whom he shared such mutual admiration had called any NFL protestor a "son of a bitch," and has demanded that players be fired for their activism. As it turned out, Lewis' very first reaction to the president's Friday speech, and his two days of subsequent tweeted threats, was his kneel-down on Sunday.

He was joining players who had followed the example of the player Lewis had scolded, lectured and, at the very least, failed to end his exile.

Of all the images from early on a momentous NFL Sunday, none was more baffling than Lewis taking a knee in a protest he’d shown no sign he believed in.

If one can pivot from both knees, Ray Lewis did it.

 

[playahaitian]

Ray Lewis opens up about Atlanta killings in new book, 'I Feel Like Going On'
NFL

Rana L. Cash @ranacashSN[/paste:font]


Published on Oct. 20, 2015 | Updated on Oct. 21, 2015

In his new memoir released Tuesday, Ray Lewis describes in great detail his account of the events that occurred in Atlanta in 2000 that led to him being charged with two counts of murder. Those charges were dropped and he pleaded to obstruction of justice.

The book, "I Feel Like Going On: Life, Game and Glory," was written with Daniel Paisner and published by Simon & Schuster. The 266-page autobiography tells the story of Lewis' 17-year NFL career, including two Super Bowl championships with the Ravens. It also chronicles his childhood, the estranged relationship with his father and the single mother who raised him and his siblings and to whom the book is dedicated.


Interwoven in all of his successes are the still-mysterious stabbing deaths of two men outside the Cobalt nightclub in Atlanta — an incident to which Lewis will be forever linked. In the ninth chapter, succinctly titled "Atlanta," Lewis doesn't just proclaim his innocence, but offers, in his words, previously untold pieces of the story, beyond what was previously uncovered in police and court documents.

For example, Lewis talks at length about his fashion habits, such as changing outfits multiple times a day for every event. He'd been asked to come to Atlanta as part of Super Bowl-related activities and rode down with his driver rather than fly because of bad weather conditions. He had a different set of clothes for every occasion. That included one for a Super Bowl after party at the Cobalt.

He wore a Piaget watch, a mink coat, a bold lock chain and earrings.

"All that jewelry, plus my mink coat, I must have been wearing about a quarter-million dollars, but those were heady times, man," he writes.

As he left the party, he says he and his "loose entourage," which now included two more women he'd picked up, went to their limousine. As they loaded into the the car, Lewis says they were approached by men who began "making noise, making trouble." But he wasn't dressed or ready for a fight.

"Remember, I was dressed out, had my jewelry on, my fine mink coat. I wasn't about to start mixing it up looking like that. That's the general rule of thumb when you're doing the town and looking good. The nicer you're dressed, the less inclined you are to get in a fight — that is, if you're even inclined in that way to begin with."
Lewis says he got everyone into the car — even people he didn't know, people who'd gravitated to their group throughout the night — with plans to head back to the hotel for more partying. But before they took off, he says, his friend Reginald Oakley was hit in the head with a bottle of champagne and was bleeding profusely. Oakley was charged in the homicides, but was acquitted.

"But I didn't engage with these dudes. No, sir. I tried to disengage , pushing the girls back in the car, and we all piled inside," he writes.

He recalls shots being fired at their vehicle, one blowing out a tire. He says they had the car towed and returned to the hotel where, restless and agitated, he turned on the television and first learned that two men had been stabbed and that police were looking for the vehicle in which he was riding.

He says he never thought to call police after the shots because no one in his group had been hurt. As he walked through the lobby and back to his hotel room, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

"There I was, all dressed out in my mink coat, my fine suit. Dude dresses like that, he's not looking for a fight. How I was dressed, it made no sense with what went down, those shots being fired, all of that. Forget what kind of statement my clothes might have made. Forget that I might have been a little loud, over the top. Point is, when you're dressed like that, you're off to the sidelines, and here were these gangbangers stepping out to us from the shadows, looking to make trouble — but it was trouble we drove right past."
Of course, police saw Lewis' involvement quite differently. He'd gone to his girlfriend's aunt's house, where he was first confronted by "racist" police. He said that on the day of his arrest, nine officers surrounded him. It was the day he was scheduled to go to Hawaii with his mother, who was on the plane and speaking to him on the phone as police descended on him, his girlfriend and two of his sons. They'd already missed a flight the previous day because they'd been followed and slowed by police on the highway, he says, the morning after the incident.

He spent the next few weeks in jail. He describes the way he was handled by police while in custody as "demonic . . . it was pure evil." Lewis writes that before he was ever questioned, a police said to him: "I guarantee you'll fall for this one." It's just one of a number of explosive interractions with authorities he discusses, and writes he intentionally left out some of the encounters because they are too painful to discuss. It was in that jail cell that he says he heard the voice of God.

"I didn't need faith to tell me that I was innocent, only that justice would be served," he says.

He says he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice because he had to, and that he settled with the victims' families in a civil suit because he "answered the way God laid it on my heart."

"I could not bring those two young men back. I had no hand in their deaths, I could not ease the suffering of those families. But I had so many blessings in my life, I told myself I could use some of those blessings for those good people. They were hurting. I was hurting. It was not an admission of guilt — it was an expression of love, of sympathy. I gave because I had it to give. I knew that money would never bring back what the families wanted most. But they asked for it so I gave."
Lewis was in the process of writing the book when riots erupted in Baltimore last summer following the death of Freddie Gray, who died while in police custody. Lewis connects his experience with authorities the day of and weeks after his arrest to that of Gray. The chapter is called "Postgame: My City is Burning."

"Back then, I was blamed for a crime I didn't commit, while today these police officers are lashing out at these kids before a crime is even committed," Lewis writes.

"Atlanta" is the beeline chapter, but the autobiography traces a life of hardship and glamour, one shaped by his talent, opportunities, mother's discipline and his own mistakes. Quick-paced and colorful, "I Feel Like Going On" is written with the same fire and passion we've come to expect from Lewis.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/new...tails-plea-wardrobe/gr0c5718cko51p1v9mip2v8fg

 

[playahaitian]

The facts: Lewis and about 10 friends, including Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley, exited a Super Bowl party at a crowded Atlanta club and were en route to a parked limo Lewis had rented for the night. While walking towards the limo, the Lewis group was involved in an altercation with another group that included the two men who eventually died, Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker. There was apparently some pushing and shoving and angry words exchanged, but not a full-blown fight. The Lewis group got into the limo and slowly started to roll away from the crowded scene.

At some point moments thereafter, the limo encountered the Lollar and Baker group again, and the hostilities resumed. Oakley got out of the limo, and was hit on the head with a champagne bottle, triggering a massive fight involving a number of men on both sides. During the fight, Sweeting and Oakley used knives they had purchased earlier in the week to stab Lollar and Baker, both of whom died before reaching the hospital. There was contradictory testimony as to whether Lewis was involved in the fight (a member of the Lollar/Baker group originally testified that Lewis threw a punch, but later recanted), but no one testified that he was involved in the stabbings. The Lewis group jumped back into the limo and sped off, with at least one member of the Lollar/Baker group firing a gun at the limo.

The charges: What happened after the fact was bad for Lewis--there was testimony about bloodstained clothing being put into a bag and thrown in a dumpster, and the suit/coat Lewis was wearing on the night of the murders were never recovered. When first questioned by police, Lewis also lied about several facts, and there was testimony at trial that he told others to keep quiet and not cooperate with the investigation. No one, however, believed that Lewis stabbed anyone. Lewis was charged with murder because under Georgia law, “any party who did not directly commit the crime may be convicted for the commission of the crime upon proof that the crime was committed and that he was a party thereto, despite the outcome of the one who directly committed the crime," O.C.G.A. 16-2-21.0a. In other words, the prosecution sought to convict Lewis for being a party to the murders, even though he did not personally kill anyone.

This was a clear example of prosecutorial overcharging: the State hoped that by threatening a star athlete with a murder charge that had the potential to ruin his life, he would turn on his friends and talk. And in fact, that's exactly what happened. In exchange for a guilty plea to lesser charges, Lewis took the stand and testified against his two friends. But in a twist, both Sweeting and Oakley were acquitted of murder, because a jury accepted that the killings had been in self-defense. So, ironically, the only person who did any jail time in connection with the murders was Lewis, in spite of the fact that he was not responsible for the murders themselves. The case is officially "unsolved," because no one was convicted of the murders, but everyone knows more or less what happened, and who is responsible for the killings.

Ray Lewis is no angel. But he also didn't kill anyone. For additional information, two excellent summaries are here: 5 Common Misconceptions About Ray Lewis’ Murder Trial - CBS Baltimore; Remembering the Ray Lewis Controversy.

 

[playahaitian]

Clay Travis of Fox Sports continues to accuse Ray Lewis of murder
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by Wola Odeniran@WolaWriteMore Feb 17, 2016, 7:00am EST TWEET

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https://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2...ports-continues-to-accuse-ray-lewis-of-murder

Clay Travis, an analyst for Fox Sports 1's college football pregame show, continues to call former Baltimore Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis a murderer. Clay Travis has accused Ray Lewis of murder on multiple occasions to the point where it is fair to ask if Travis has any information to make such a claim. It's really time for Clay Travis to show some facts since all he does is bark on Twitter about how Ray Lewis killed two men.

You know, it is one thing for a random person on Twitter to make such a claim without any factual evidence to back it up regardless of how ignorant that person may be on the subject. But for someone in the position that Travis is in, for him to be a high profile individual in the media working at Fox Sports making those claims frequently, it is irresponsible of him to do so.

Just because you are on Twitter, it doesn't give you the license to run your mouth in any way, shape, or form. Words can be costly. Especially in the case of high profile people. Let's look at Clay Travis and his tweets about Ray Lewis:

In October of 2015, Clay Travis decided to write an article about Ray Lewis, once again accusing him of being a murderer via FoxSports.com.

Yet, the Ray Lewis criticism from the worldwide leader in sports is nonexistent. ESPN is doing the exact same thing the Dallas Cowboys did, only worse. See, at least Greg Hardy is really good at football; Ray Lewis isn't even very good on television. There are hundreds of non-double murderers who could do his job just as well. Unlike Greg Hardy, Lewis's problems far exceed his talents. And he's been involved in a far worse incident than Hardy. (I know domestic violence is the new "worst thing in the world" in social media and Greg Hardy is the new "worst person in the NFL", but the reality is there are many crimes worse than domestic violence. Double murder, for instance.)Yet, all of these voices of moral outrage are silent about Ray Lewis and dripping with sanctimony about Greg Hardy.

One of the questions that I have about this situation is, isn't part of journalism supposed to be about writing and reporting stories with facts backing them up? Am I missing something? And the fact that FoxSports allows Clay Travis to make these accusations without any proof speaks volumes.

Even if you despise Ray Lewis like Clay Travis clearly does, a responsible person would at least put,"Allegedly" before making such damning statements. But no, Clay Travis goes straight to calling Ray Lewis a murderer.

What is a little interesting to me with the tweets by Clay Travis in particular, is that he doesn't even send those tweets directly to Ray Lewis. Ray does have a Twitter handle it's @RayLewis. Try it sometime Clay since you are so convinced in your opinion about him.

This past Sunday, I tweeted at Clay Travis wondering why he doesn't voice his opinions directly to Ray Lewis. I didn't get an answer.



Who am I kidding? He isn't going to say anything to Ray Lewis directly. At the very least, I doubt it. If Clay Travis doesn't even have the courage to directly tweet at Ray Lewis with these accusations, what makes you think he is going to say it directly in person?

It's an interesting world we live in. A world where people these days are guilty until proven innocent in the court of public opinion. Here is Ray explaining the situation in Atlanta back in 2000 via ESPN:




The two associates (Men) who were with Ray Lewis during that night as they went to the club with a couple of women, were involved in the fatal stabbing that unfortunately took the lives Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. And we need to remember that two men died that night and it should be taken seriously, not selecting who is perfect to accuse because it fits a perfect narrative for certain people.

There's no evidence that ties Ray Lewis directly murdering of those two men. Just because Ray Lewis is a high profile person does not mean he committed a deadly crime. So no matter how many times people like Clay Travis claim that to be the case, they have no proof which is what it ultimately comes down to.

So again I ask, where are we in journalism? Because if Clay Travis can accuse of Ray Lewis of a very serious crime and he's allowed to get away with it while not having any proof, where does it end? Can everyone else in the media write up make believe trades in sports that will never happen and report them as a fact? Can people start misquoting others with no repercussions?

I'm serious. Why is FoxSports and everyone else in the media allowing Clay Travis to get away with what he is saying? Because believe or not, this is bigger than whatever issue Clay has with Ray. This is about integrity in journalism. If you let Clay get away with this and he continues to make those accusations, what is stopping anyone else in the media from making claims about anything while not having the sources to back it up?

Mind you, this is the same Clay Travis who wrote a 1,500 article defending Denver Broncosquarterback Peyton Manning and a situation that involves Manning allegedly (See how I used allegedly Clay? Try it) sexually assaulting a female trainer in his college days with the Tennessee Volunteers in 1996. Read Clay's article here:



I have to say Michael Hurley of CBS Boston had a nice write up in response to Clay's defense of Peyton Manning.

But back to the Ray Lewis situation. Clay Travis, from the looks of his tweets and articles, calls Ray Lewis a murderer with such conviction to the point where it is reasonable to ask if Clay has any information on the incident that he has been withholding from the police in Atlanta for so many years. And if Clay does have information, he knows that it is against the law to hide something of that magnitude.