GUILTY PA - Destiny Wright, 6, raped & murdered, Philadelphia, 8 Aug 2002

Casshew

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man accused of raping and murdering a young girl punched his defense attorney in the face Monday, bringing his jury trial to a halt.

Court officers tackled the defendant, Malik El-Shabazz, 20, then led him quickly from the courtroom at Philadelphia's Criminal Justice Center. The attorney, public defender Fred Goodman, was not seriously hurt, officials said.

Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan immediately declared a recess and sent jurors home. It was unclear whether the attack, which was unprovoked and came without warning, would result in a mistrial.

Prosecutors planned to argue Tuesday that the trial should continue as planned.

"It's our opinion that he was trying to obtain a mistrial," Cathie Abookire, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, said of El-Shabazz. "I'm sure it will be the first order of business when the court reconvenes on Tuesday."

It was unclear whether the defense team would ask the judge to restart the trial with a new jury. Goodman and his co-counsel, Andrea Konow, did not immediately return phone messages Monday.

El-Shabazz is accused of murdering 6-year-old Destiny Wright during a girls slumber party at his sister's Philadelphia home in 2002.

During the trial, jurors were shown a police videotape in which El-Shabazz described in great detail how he smothered the girl and then lugged her body more than a mile to a vacant lot. Jurors on Monday also saw gruesome autopsy photographs of the girl's body.

Story from PennLive.com
 
A man who smothered and raped a 6-year-old girl at a slumber party was spared the death penalty Tuesday and sentenced to life in prison, but faces new charges that he smuggled a homemade knife into the courthouse.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/04/07/slain.girl.ap/index.html

Testimony is now underway in the trial of a man who is accused of raping and killing a 6-year old girl. Her name was Destiny Wright and she disappeared from a sleepover party and was later found dead in an overgrown lot.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/03102004_nw_wrightmurdertrial.html

The man convicted of raping and murdering 6-year-old Destiny Wright of Kensington is "a very disturbed young man," a psychologist testified yesterday in support of attempts by defense lawyers to keep Abdul Malik El-Shabazz off death row.
Although the city's schools, juvenile courts and the Department of Human Services had had repeated contact with El-Shabazz and his family since the 20-year-old Kensington man was born addicted to heroin, New Jersey psychologist Edward J. Dougherty told jurors he never got the help he desperately needed
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/...ies_neighborhoods/philadelphia/8334438.htm?1c
 
I know many won't agree with me; however, this is exactly the type of case that the DP is made for. This guy will never be rehabilitated and he will probably kill again.
So sad. Such a waste of a young child, and sad for the perp too. What a shame.
JMHO
fran
 
From June 2004:

http://articles.philly.com/2004-06-17/news/25369312_1_life-sentence-sad-story-death-penalty

The man who raped and murdered a 6-year-old Kensington girl - and later threw his trial into disarray by punching his lawyer and trying to smuggle a homemade knife into the courtroom - sat quietly yesterday as he was given a sentence that will keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan sentenced 20-year-old Abdul Malik El-Shabazz to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 11 to 22 years, for the 2002 suffocation slaying of 6-year-old Destiny Wright.
 

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