Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(WALTERBORO, S.C.) — A juror who convicted Alex Murdaugh on Thursday told ABC News in an exclusive interview that the piece of evidence that convinced of the disgraced lawyer’s guilt was the cellphone video placing him at the scene minutes before the murders of his wife and son.
“I was certain it was [Murdaugh’s] voice,” Craig Moyer, a carpenter, said as he recalled the background voice he heard during his first watch of the video captured by Murdaugh’s son. The video was taken at the family’s dog kennels by Paul Murdaugh, 22, who later that night was brutally murdered along with his mother Margaret, 52.
“Everybody else could hear [Murdaugh’s voice] too,” Moyer said, referring to the other jurors.
Moyer’s comments to ABC’s Eva Pilgrim came just hours after he voted to convict Murdaugh, concluding the small-town South Carolina saga which documented the downfall of a powerful attorney from a family which for generations exuded power over the state’s Lowcountry region.
In court, Moyer watched closely for Murdaugh’s reactions. He said he locked eyes with him as the prosecution played the cellphone video. His body language appeared to suggest “he knew what was coming,” Moyer said.
His tears, which have been poured over by Court TV watchers, looked to Moyer more like “blowing snot,” he said.
When Murdaugh took the stand, he came off as a “big liar,” Moyer added. He said the former trial attorney’s answers seemed too quick and clearly rehearsed.
“He knew what he wanted to say. I mean he is a lawyer,” he said. “I didn’t see any true remorse or any compassion or anything.”
But Moyer took Murdaugh at his word when he surprised the courtroom and admitted, after months of denials, that it was his voice on the video. It was then, that Moyer knew how he would vote.
When he and his colleagues arrived at the deliberation room late on Thursday, they passed over the small talk they had entertained during their six weeks of sworn silence and took a poll on Murdaugh’s guilt.
Nine, including Moyer, believed the defendant was guilty, two thought he was innocent, and one was unsure, according to Moyer.
The jury then watched a responding officer’s body camera video taken at the crime scene. The heart of their brief debate surrounded shotgun shells, which he said the not guilty voters put forward as evidence of Murdaugh’s innocence. During trial, the defense suggested there were two triggermen but the prosecution maintained the only man who was in the position to commit the crime was Murdaugh.
It only took Moyer and the majority 45 minutes to turn the holdouts, he said.
“The evidence was clear,” he added.
The court proceedings will likely conclude Friday morning as Murdaugh is set to receive his sentence. He is facing a minimum of 30 years behind bars for each murder conviction. Prosecutors have indicated they will ask for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Moyer said he is tired of being in court, but on Friday, he will once again make the 30-minute drive from his home in Colleton County.
“I want to see it,” he said. “It’s a decision I have to live with.”
ABC News’ Toria Tolley contributed to this report.
(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) — An appellate court in Riverside, California, overturned the murder conviction of a man who was sentenced to 129 years to life in prison, ruling in part that the use of a rap video as evidence in this case violates the state’s new “Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act” – a landmark law, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 31, 2022.
Travon Rashan Venable, Sr., was convicted of first degree murder and attempted murder in connection to a 2014 drive-by shooting. He pleaded not guilty.
According to court documents obtained by ABC News, prosecutors alleged that Venable and a fellow gang member were involved in a drive-by shooting. Venable was accused of driving the car while his co-defendant fired shots.
The appellate court judge ruled in a Feb. 17 opinion obtained by ABC News that the “admission of the rap video without the new safeguards was prejudicial to Venable” and the prosecution’s emphasis on the rap video during the trial “likely had an effect on the outcome.”
The court ruled that although the law wasn’t in effect during Venable’s trial, it applies retroactively to cases that are not final and under appeal.
The court reversed the conviction and remanded Venable’s case for a new trial.
The ruling came after the California Supreme Court transferred the case back to the appellate court to reconsider the case in light of the new law.
Jacquelyn Rodriguez, the public affairs officer for the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office, which prosecuted this case, told ABC News on Wednesday that Venable’s case is “the first case in the state that has been reversed due to the new law.”
“Right now we’re in a waiting phase to see if the appellate court will give jurisdiction back to us,” she added.
The video
According to court documents obtained by ABC News, prosecutors introduced a YouTube video found by police where Venable and other members of the California Gardens gang are seen “flashing gang signs” and displaying “guns, drugs, and money.”
Prosecutors alleged that a rap in the video, “Got word from a bird[] that they did that [racial slur] dead wrong/Slid up Medical and left that [racial slur] head gone,” was boasting about the drive-by shooting, but according to court documents, Venable didn’t say anything in the video.
“Nothing in the song indicates the rapper or others in the video had personal knowledge or involvement in the shooting, only that they had heard about it,” the court’s opinion said.
In the ruling the court pointed to testimony from a gang expert who testified that the gang as a whole took credit for the shooting.
“There is substantial doubt whether the trial judge would have admitted the video evidence under the new standard, and it’s clear the prosecution used that evidence to tie Venable to the specific crime. The remaining evidence of Venable’s involvement was not strong,” the court wrote in the opinion, pointing to testimony from Venable’s aunt who provided him with an alibi and testimony from “a police informant who gave a series of conflicting accounts of the incident and had testified Venable was being framed.”
Venable’s attorney Jim Gass, who objected to the inclusion of the rap video as evidence, told ABC News in a statement on Wednesday “this is the type of case that created the need for the new evidence code regarding rap lyrics.”
“The conviction was overturned because the appellate court could see that there was very little evidence against Venable other than the video,” he added.
The new law
The California law, which was dubbed the “rap lyrics bill,” became the state’s Evidence Code section 352.2 and seeks to ensure that “creative expression will not be used to introduce stereotypes or activate bias against the defendant, nor as character or propensity evidence,” according to the text of the law.
In reversing and remanding Venable’s conviction, the court wrote, “It’s uncontested the trial judge did not consider those additional factors before admitting a rap video in Venable’s trial and that the trial, as a result, didn’t comply with the new requirements for admission.”
Rap lyrics have been used by prosecutors in the U.S. for decades as evidence in criminal cases, helping put rappers behind bars. But it wasn’t until lyrics were used in the May 2022 indictment of Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug on gang-related charges that the controversial practice sparked a movement in the music industry to “Protect Black Art,” and fueled a wave of support for legislation seeking to limit the practice.
The California bill is the first legislation that explicitly sets guidelines for the the use of rap lyrics in court to be signed into law in the U.S.
Similar bills that seek to set guidelines that could limit the use of rap lyrics in court have been introduced in states like Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Missouri, and a federal bill, known as the “Rap Act,” was introduced in Congress last year.
Some outline more restrictive guidelines than others, but the bills essentially limit the use of rap lyrics in court by requiring a judge to consider whether there’s a factual link between the lyrics and the alleged crime and whether introducing the song or video could inject racial bias into the case.
Rodriguez said that if Venable’s case comes back to the Superior Court, the DA’s office “would review it,” and consider the new law.
(NEW YORK) — Gabby Petito’s family revealed more details in the police encounter over a domestic violence incident, two weeks before he strangled her to death.
Laundrie “seemed like a mental and emotional bully” to a Utah police officer who responded to a domestic call on Aug. 12, 2021, according to an amended lawsuit filed Wednesday night by Petito’s parents.
Moab Officer Eric Pratt responded to a call from a witness who reported seeing Laundrie hitting Petito.
The officers separated the couple for the night but, according to the lawsuit, treated Laundrie like the victim instead of the aggressor.
“Officer Pratt has also admitted, ‘I thought he was an emotional threat to her. I thought he was a mental threat to her.’ Similarly, he says he concluded during the traffic stop that Brian ‘seemed like a mental and emotional bully,'” the amended complaint said.
“Officer Pratt has also colorfully admitted, ‘I know these kind of guys. Brian didn’t get away with anything for being cute. Brian showed more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.'”
Laundrie wasn’t charged and he and Petito kept traveling west on a road trip where police say she was killed.
The family’s amended lawsuit accused Pratt and other officers of failing to properly investigate the incident that preceded Petito’s death and said “Gabby’s murder might have been prevented if the officers had acted properly.”
Between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30, Petito went missing in Wyoming and Laundrie returned to his family’s Florida home on Sept. 1. Petito’s family would report her disappearance on Sept. 11.
Two days after police named Laundrie as a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance, he went missing on Sept 17.
Petito’s body was found on Sept. 19, and an autopsy revealed she died by strangulation.
Police found the Laundrie’s remains inside Carlton Reserve in Florida on Oct. 20 and determined he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The FBI revealed that Laundrie admitted to killing his fiancé.
Petito’s parents filed a lawsuit against Laundrie’s family and a lawsuit against the Moab police department in connection with their daughter’s death.
Attorneys for Christopher and Roberta Laundrie denied the allegations and unsuccessfully sought to dismiss the lawsuit. A jury trial in the case is scheduled to begin in August.
The city of Moab didn’t immediately have a comment about the amended lawsuit.
In November, after the suit was initially filed, the city released a statement saying it was going to defend itself in court and contended “Moab City Police Department officers are not responsible for Gabrielle Petito’s eventual murder.”
The department released a report in January 2022 following an investigation into the officers’ encounter with the couple that found that police made “several unintentional mistakes” responding to the incident, including not issuing a domestic violence citation to Petito after she claimed she hit her boyfriend first, and not taking a statement from a 911 caller who had reported seeing a man slapping a girl.”
In November, Petito’s parents were awarded $3 million in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Laundrie’s estate.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As investigators in the U.S. Virgin Islands await results of an autopsy on former American championship swimmer Jamie Cail, who died after being found unresponsive at her home last month, friends and loved ones are paying tribute to her online, describing her as a “beautiful” person and a “sweet soul.”
In a post on his Facebook page, the 42-year-old Cail’s father, Gary Cail of Maine, issued a two-word statement, writing, “So devastating.”
The U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Bureau has opened an investigation into Cail’s death, but have released little information on the progress of the probe.
“The VIPD Criminal Investigations Bureau, Major Crimes Unit, is awaiting the autopsy report to determine the cause of death,” Glen Dratte, a spokesman for the department, said in a statement.
Cail’s boyfriend, whose name was not released by authorities, told detectives he found her just after midnight on Feb. 21 unresponsive on the floor of a residence they shared in St. Johns, according to police. He said he found her after leaving a local bar to go back to the residence to check on her, police said.
The boyfriend said he and a friend took Cail in a private car to the Myrah Keating-Smith Clinic, where efforts to save her life failed, according to police.
Police were notified of the death about 2:39 a.m. on the day she was brought to the hospital, authorities said.
“We are all devastated as a family,” Jessica DeVries, who identified herself as Cail’s cousin, said on a Facebook tribute page for Cail.
DeVries wrote that Cail’s parents “are absolutely shook to the core.”
“We are all mourning together and are unbelievably grateful and blessed by the outpouring of love and uplifting experiences you are sharing with us,” DeVries wrote on the tribute page.
Nicole Thibodeau, who also described herself as Cail’s cousin, added in a Facebook post, “Our hearts are broken. Hard to imagine it’s real.”
Cail was originally from Claremont, New Hampshire, and was a star swimmer for much of her youth, her family told ABC affiliate station WMUR in Manchester.
She was also a member of the University of Maine women’s swim team in the 2000-2001 academic year, according to the school’s alumni association.
As a teenager, Cail was a member of a women’s relay team that won a gold medal at the 1997 Pan Pacific Championships, according to SwimSwam.com, an online swimming news site.
Lindsay Mintenko, director of USA Swimming, the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United State, released a statement, saying, she and her entire organization “is saddened to hear of Jamie Cail’s passing.”
“Jamie was a proud member of our National Teams in the late 1990s and was a cherished teammate,” Mintenko said. “We extend our condolences to Jamie’s friends and family.”
Other friends and acquaintances of Cail posted tributes to her on the Facebook, describing her as being “a truly a sweet soul” and “a bright light.”
One friend wrote, “Her smile made you feel good even when you weren’t at your best.”
(WALTERBORO, S.C.) — The jury has reached a verdict in the double murder trial of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, who is accused of killing his wife and younger son at the family’s property in 2021.
The jury deliberated for about three hours Thursday after hearing five weeks of testimony from more than 70 witnesses — including Alex Murdaugh himself, who denied the murders but admitted to lying to investigators and cheating his clients.
The jury visited the family’s estate, Moselle, on Wednesday to see the crime scene ahead of deliberations. The bodies of Margaret Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s estate in June 2021, authorities said.
Alex Murdaugh, 54, who called 911 to report the discovery, was charged with their murders more than a year later. He faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors claim that Alex Murdaugh, who comes from a legacy of prominent attorneys in the region, killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and distract from his financial wrongdoings.
Meanwhile, the defense has portrayed him as a loving husband and father, and argued that police ignored the possibility that anyone else could have killed them. While testifying, Alex Murdaugh blamed lying to investigators on his addiction to painkillers, which he said caused “paranoid thinking.”
During his nearly four-hour closing argument on Wednesday, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters declared that Alex Murdaugh was the only person “who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes” and that his “guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.”
Waters told the jurors that credibility is important and painted Murdaugh as someone good at lying who was use to anticipating how jurors read things.
“This is an individual who was trained to understand how to put together cases, complex cases. He’s been a prosecutor,” said Waters. “He’s given closing arguments to juries before. So, when you have a defendant like that, be thinking about whether or not this individual is constructing defenses and alibis.”
Waters recounted a timeline investigators put together of the three Murdaughs’ cell phones the day of the murders, including a video from Paul Murdaugh’s phone that placed Alex Murdaugh at the kennels minutes before authorities believe the shootings occurred — contradicting earlier statements in which he said he was never at the kennels.
Waters said the last time Alex Murdaugh saw his wife and child alive was the “most important thing” he could have told law enforcement.
“Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that and lie about it so early?” Waters said.
The defense argued that the state had failed to meet its burden to prove guilt and that investigators “failed miserably” in the case, deciding immediately that Alex Murdaugh was responsible for killing his wife and son and never looking elsewhere.
Defense attorney Jim Griffin recounted to jurors during his closing argument on Thursday the multiple missed opportunities, pointing out evidence that investigators did not collect including foot imprints, fingerprints and DNA. He also replayed videos in which prosecution witnesses testified about how much Alex Murdaugh loved his wife and son.
“Which brings us to the question, why?” said Griffin, discounting the state’s proposed motive that years of lies and theft were about to catch up to Alex Murdaugh and the murders were a way to divert attention.
“Even if the financial day of reckoning was impending, if it was right there, he would not have killed the people he loved the most in the world,” he said. “There’s no evidence that he would do that.”
Griffin also addressed that Alex Murdaugh admitted to lying to investigators about his alibi the evening of the shootings.
“I probably wouldn’t be sitting over there right now if he did not lie. But he did lie, and he told you he lied,” Griffin told the jurors.”He lied because that’s what addicts do. He lied because he had a closet full of skeletons and he didn’t want any more scrutiny on him.”
In the months following his wife’s and son’s murders, Alex Murdaugh resigned from his law firm, which sued him for allegedly funneling stolen money from clients and the law firm into a fake bank account for years. He also said he entered a rehab facility for opioid addiction.
Alex Murdaugh faces about 100 other charges for allegations ranging from money laundering to staging his own death so his surviving son could cash in on his $10 million life insurance policy. He was also charged for allegedly misappropriating settlement funds in the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who reportedly died after a falling accident at the Murdaugh family home in February 2018.
(WALTERBORO, S.C.) — A jury has found disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh guilty of brutally murdering his wife and younger son at the family’s property in 2021.
The jury reached the verdict after deliberating for nearly three hours Thursday after hearing five weeks of testimony from more than 70 witnesses — including Alex Murdaugh himself, who denied the murders but admitted to lying to investigators and cheating his clients.
He was found guilty on all four counts — two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in the commitment of a violent crime.
The jury visited the family’s estate, Moselle, on Wednesday to see the crime scene ahead of deliberations. The bodies of Margaret Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s estate in June 2021, authorities said.
Alex Murdaugh, 54, who called 911 to report the discovery, was charged with their murders more than a year later. He faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors claim that Alex Murdaugh, who comes from a legacy of prominent attorneys in the region, killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and distract from his financial wrongdoings.
Meanwhile, the defense has portrayed him as a loving husband and father, and argued that police ignored the possibility that anyone else could have killed them. While testifying, Alex Murdaugh blamed lying to investigators on his addiction to painkillers, which he said caused “paranoid thinking.”
During his nearly four-hour closing argument on Wednesday, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters declared that Alex Murdaugh was the only person “who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes” and that his “guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.”
Waters told the jurors that credibility is important and painted Murdaugh as someone good at lying who was used to anticipating how jurors read things.
“This is an individual who was trained to understand how to put together cases, complex cases. He’s been a prosecutor,” said Waters. “He’s given closing arguments to juries before. So, when you have a defendant like that, be thinking about whether or not this individual is constructing defenses and alibis.”
Waters recounted a timeline investigators put together of the three Murdaughs’ cell phones the day of the murders, including a video from Paul Murdaugh’s phone that placed Alex Murdaugh at the kennels minutes before authorities believe the shootings occurred — contradicting earlier statements in which he said he was never at the kennels.
Waters said the last time Alex Murdaugh saw his wife and child alive was the “most important thing” he could have told law enforcement.
“Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that and lie about it so early?” Waters said.
The defense argued that the state had failed to meet its burden to prove guilt and that investigators “failed miserably” in the case, deciding immediately that Alex Murdaugh was responsible for killing his wife and son and never looking elsewhere.
Defense attorney Jim Griffin recounted to jurors during his closing argument on Thursday the multiple missed opportunities, pointing out evidence that investigators did not collect including foot imprints, fingerprints and DNA. He also replayed videos in which prosecution witnesses testified about how much Alex Murdaugh loved his wife and son.
“Which brings us to the question, why?” said Griffin, discounting the state’s proposed motive that years of lies and theft were about to catch up to Alex Murdaugh and the murders were a way to divert attention.
“Even if the financial day of reckoning was impending, if it was right there, he would not have killed the people he loved the most in the world,” he said. “There’s no evidence that he would do that.”
Griffin also addressed that Alex Murdaugh admitted to lying to investigators about his alibi the evening of the shootings.
“I probably wouldn’t be sitting over there right now if he did not lie. But he did lie, and he told you he lied,” Griffin told the jurors.”He lied because that’s what addicts do. He lied because he had a closet full of skeletons and he didn’t want any more scrutiny on him.”
In the months following his wife’s and son’s murders, Alex Murdaugh resigned from his law firm, which sued him for allegedly funneling stolen money from clients and the law firm into a fake bank account for years. He also said he entered a rehab facility for opioid addiction.
Alex Murdaugh faces about 100 other charges for allegations ranging from money laundering to staging his own death so his surviving son could cash in on his $10 million life insurance policy. He was also charged for allegedly misappropriating settlement funds in the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who reportedly died after a falling accident at the Murdaugh family home in February 2018.
ABC News’ Janice McDonald contributed to this report.
(HOUSTON) — A Texas inmate sentenced to 25 years for assault was retaken into custody on Wednesday after being let go a day earlier due to a clerical error from the Harris County Jail, authorities said.
The Harris County Sheriff’s office asked for the public’s help on Wednesday through its social media accounts to help recapture the convicted inmate, 61-year-old Marcelo Perez Campos.
Authorities found Campos that night, according to a tweet from Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. The sheriff’s office said he was taken in without incident in the southeast area of Houston.
“He will now be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,” a release said. According to ABC affiliate KTRK, in Houston, Campos was convicted of shooting a family member multiple times in February of 2021.
“An internal investigation will be conducted to determine if any possible policy or procedural violations occurred,” the sheriff’s office said on social media regarding the error.
Harris County jail has been subject to criticism in recent months. In a letter from Brandon S. Woods, executive director of the Texas Commission of Standards, the prison failed to meet standards during an inspection. According to the letter from September of 2022, violations included inmates being locked in cells for 48 hours and having a lack of provision in hygiene as well.
“You are hereby notified that the jail in your county fails to comply with minimum standards established,” the letter said.
There have also been a number of inmate deaths inside the Harris County Jail. According to custodial reports from January and February of 2023, at least 20 inmates have died from either suicide or law enforcement.
The Harris County sheriff’s office didn’t respond to ABC News for comment on the custodial reports or letter from the Texas Commission of Standards.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Less than two months after the death of Tyre Nichols, a California skatepark could be named after the Sacramento native.
Nichols, 29, died ten days into the year, three days after he was allegedly beaten by five Memphis police officers after a traffic stop.
Nichols’ mother RowVaughn Wells, and stepfather Rodney Wells have recounted how skateboarding was one of their late son’s passions.
Now, since the Regency Park’s state park currently does not have a name, the City of Sacramento’s Parks and Community Enrichment Commission said it sees this as an opportunity to honor the skateboarder.
“I would love to see if we can maybe refresh that area and add some features, you know, in honor of Tyre, and many of the kids that I see out there,” said Sacramento City Councilwoman Lisa Kaplan.
A bronze plaque is also set to be featured on a concrete pad at the skatepark, city officials said.
The commission will vote Thursday evening on sending the naming idea to the City Council for their final approval, with overall planning still in its early phases.
“Tyre Nichols has a strong connection to the skate park at Regency Park and spent numerous hours of his youth skating and building friendships there,” the Commission’s discussion item states. “The tragedy of his death has elevated his name to national significance and as such underscores his connection and contribution to Sacramento, the community of North Natomas and Regency Park.”
The discussion item details that although the nomination is under the one-year timeframe, the facility’s naming policy provides an exception in cases with “special circumstance, need or opportunity,” allowing the early submission.
According to the discussion item, the city’s facility naming policy allows for facilities to be named for historical significance, distinct developmental features, neighborhood, community, or access streets, or an individual who has contributed substantially to the community or the facility, with priority for a deserving local individual.
“In this case, the public outpour and support for Tyre Nichols and his family has coalesced support for immediately naming this skate park in his honor, before the usual one-year time frame stated in the policy,” the discussion item stated.
Around Nichols’ birthday in June, city leaders said they also hope to have a dedication ceremony with his mother and other family members in attendance.
The proposed budget for the Tyre Nichols Skate Park is $20,000.
Five police officers were indicted by a grand jury in connection with the death of Nichols.They were each charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated kidnapping, resulting in bodily injury, among other charges. Two other Memphis police officers and three city fire officials were fired in the wake of the incident.
All five officers who were charged have pleaded not guilty.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 24 years ago Nancy Hopkins, a molecular biologist and MIT professor, alerted her colleagues and supervisors about sexism she says she experienced on campus.
Her letter and the ensuing movement were highlighted in a Boston Globe article by Kate Zernike and later revealed similar hostile work environments on campuses across the country.
ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke to Hopkins and Zernike about Zernike’s new book, “The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science,” which chronicles the issue.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Nancy, I’d like to start with you. You’ve obviously made great strides in your cancer research. You were looking at the world of science like a meritocracy, right? And then there was a certain point where you realized the sexual harassment, the assault was not necessarily just an exception for you, but more like the rule. At what point did you realize that it was a pattern for not just you, but many of your female colleagues?
NANCY HOPKINS: I took about 20 years. I was so certain that if you did a good enough experiment, none of it would matter. So I saw it from the beginning, but I didn’t know what it was. And I just thought, ‘Well, it’s just some obstacle. I did something wrong. Maybe I ran into a difficult person. I’ll just keep going. Keep going.’ And it really took a while. So after a while, I said, ‘Well, wait a minute.’
You know, this is really a little too difficult. And some of the things are sort of obvious that have to do with being a woman. But I didn’t think they mattered. But there were some I just didn’t know. And so I started looking at how other women were treated. And that was what opened my eyes to it. I said, “Wait a minute, that woman is just as good as that man. How come he’s the genius and she’s sort of invisible?” I mean, this doesn’t make sense, really. And I had to see enough examples so that I really finding it was true and there weren’t many women, so it took a long time. But the interesting thing was that even when I saw it was really all those other women, I still was able to convince myself that it wasn’t happening to me and that my problems were some individual problem or whatever. I done something wrong [it was] somebody else, something very hard to face [or] the fact that this was happening to you.
ABC NEWS LIVE: I’m curious if I can play devil’s advocate here for a moment. At what point, because you said that yourself initially you thought, ‘well, maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s just an issue that I’m having.’ At what point did you decide and really you were clear that it was about your gender and not you personally?
HOPKINS: Well, I think it took about 15 years to realize it was all other women except me. And then it made this big switch. And then I realized, yes, OK, it’s happening to me, but I can still overcome this if I can just get through this one difficult problem.
And then there was the last straw moment when I just realized I couldn’t continue to actually work that way. I’d run out of energy to fight these battles.
ABC NEWS LIVE: At what point did you realize? Was it kind of like a call, knock at a door when you went to a female colleague and said, are you having these struggles? Like how did that all transpire?
HOPKINS: I just had all local administrators and I wrote a letter to the president of MIT. I said, “Dear sir, I’m sure you’re a well-meaning person, but I see you’re discriminating against all the women faculty here, and I think you ought to do something about it.”
And so I really looked up to this woman, but I thought she’ll think I’m a loser and a wimp, but I’m going to show her the letter anyway and just see whether it’s dignified and the president might even read it. So we go out to lunch and we’re sitting at this tiny little table, and I’m watching her and she’s reading so slow. So slow. And I’m waiting for to say, “oh, that Hopkins woman, she’s no good.”
She puts it down on the table and she says, “I’d like to sign this letter. And I think we should go see the president because I believe this for a long time.”
ABC NEWS LIVE: That’s great.
HOPKINS: And that changed my life. It changed MIT. And we looked at each other and we said, “I suppose it could be others who feel the same way. Do you?” Well, guess what? They were.
ABC NEWS LIVE: How did you first hear about Nancy’s story?
KATE ZERNIKE: So I was a reporter at the Boston Globe and I just got a very generic tip. I still to this day can’t remember where it came, through several people. Call this woman Nancy Hopkins, there’s something about discrimination and women at MIT. And I thought, OK, it’s 1999. It’s probably a lawsuit or something. How bad could it be, right? 1999, we’re on the verge of a new century. So I called Nancy and she said that they had produced this report about discrimination. But what really got me was that MIT was going to acknowledge that it had discriminated.
And the reason they had done this is because the women had been so careful to gather data, to gather stories, to make their case. And the president at MIT said this is a real problem.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Were you all expecting the headlines and the shockwaves when you first revealed this?
ZERNIKE: No, I thought it was a great story because, as I said, MIT was admitting this. I loved the way these women had gone about this scientifically. It just struck me as this very meaty story, and I was really impressed by them. But I didn’t think like it showed up on the front page. So I did a story for the Boston Globe, which shows up on the front page. I didn’t think it was going to show up on the front page in The New York Times two days later.
HOPKINS: I thought, OK, but it’s just these kind of places like Harvard and MIT, which think they’re so great, and that’s it. But it didn’t occur to me, actually, that it was true everywhere. I mean, this is, how naive can you be? I’m sort of embarrassed to say it, but I have to be honest here. So then when Kate’s article came out, this deluge happened. I mean, it was just overwhelming. And women were writing from all over the country and the world and saying, thank you. Thank you for telling the story. It’s my story.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And this was back in 1999. Why did you decide now was the time? We’re talking more than two decades later for a book to really expand on this.
ZERNIKE: So I was, in 2018, I was watching the fallout from the MeToo movement. And I thought, OK, it’s great that we are understanding now that this egregious sexual assault can happen. That’s great. That’s obviously a huge revolution, but it struck me that this marginalization, that the women at MIT had talked about in some ways was a more pervasive problem and a more stubborn problem because it is so hard to see. And so I thought if I could tell this really intimate story about what happened to Nancy and these women, people would begin to understand the problem and do something about it.
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — The families of 24-year-old Dylan Lyons and 9-year-old T’yonna Major, who were gunned down in a series of shootings near Orlando, Florida, came together in grief at a heart-wrenching news conference Thursday, sobbing, hugging and leaning on each other for support.
After embracing T’yonna’s father, Gary Lyons said through tears that his son, TV reporter Dylan Lyons, “Wanted to be the next David Muir.”
“He always told me he wanted to tell stories for the people,” Gary Lyons said.
“He’s a devoted son and it’s impossible to describe the relationship he had with my wife. I was often the third-wheel,” he joked.
“Dylan so much wanted to be a husband and a father,” Gary Lyons said, and said his son “was a stand-in father” to his nieces and nephews.
“I wish I could’ve taken the bullet,” he said, weeping.
T’yonna’s father, Tokiyo Major, said, “My soul is gone.”
“I can’t believe it. My poor baby,” T’yonna’s mother, Brandi Major, said
The 9-year-old “wanted to be remembered for the love that she gave,” her mom said. “She also wanted equality for homeless people and she wanted to give to all the little children.”
“She was my heart, my angel, and I’m gonna miss her so much,” Brandi Major said.
“She was the best little girl. She did gymnastics and she excelled in that,” she said.
Brandi Major then broke down in tears, saying, “I can’t do this,” before leaving the room halfway through the news conference.
Dylan Lyons’ mother, Beth Lyons, called her son a “special, special soul.”
“Whatever he could do to help others, he was there,” Mary Lyons said, as she clutched a pillow with a photo of her and her son. She said he gave it to her last year on Mother’s Day.
She said when her son died, “I died, too.”
“He was supposed to bury me. I was not supposed to bury him,” she said.
Dylan Lyons’ fiancee, Casey Fite, said, “Dylan and I shared a love people search their whole life for. True love.”
“You see gun violence all over the country and you never think it’ll happen to your family,” Fite said, overcome with emotion. “Life is too short and I would do anything to have my Dylan back in my arms.”
The shootings began on the morning of Feb. 22 when 19-year-old Keith Moses allegedly shot and killed 38-year-old Nathacha Augustin, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
That afternoon, Lyons, a reporter for Orlando’s Spectrum News 13, was shot and killed and photojournalist Jesse Walden was shot and injured while they were reporting on Augustin’s killing, the sheriff’s office said.
After Lyons and Walden were shot, T’yonna was gunned down in her nearby home, and T’yonna’s mother was shot and injured, according to the sheriff’s office.
Moses was arrested on Feb. 22 in connection with all three shooting scenes and he faces charges including three counts of first-degree murder.
The families’ attorney, Mark NeJame, also spoke at the news conference, calling out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Sen. Rick Scott. Mark NeJame said the politicians are focused on their own ambitions, and if they “truly cared about these victims,” they could have reached out to the families and addressed gun violence and “reasonable and sane gun legislation.”
