Courtesy: Facebook.com
The lawyer representing Graeme Harris, a former Ole Miss student who was indicted last Friday on charges related to the desecration of the James Meredith statue, has cited easy access to alcohol as contributing directly to the incident.
“If a college boy in, say, Kincannon (Hall) had a well-stocked bar which he shared with his whole floor, he’d be royally booted out of the university,” David Hill told The Daily Mississippian in an email interview Monday. “But less than a quarter-of-a-mile away, a fraternity can have a well-stocked bar, and everybody just sort of looks the other way.”
Harris was a member of the Mississippi Alpha chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Following the incident his membership was revoked. The chapter was later shut down due to hazing.
Hill said he was made aware of Harris’ indictment earlier last week.
“I informed the government that (Harris) would surrender himself without being arrested,” the lawyer explained. “He did that on Friday. He then appeared before a federal judge who set his bail, which was promptly posted, and he was released pending further activity in this case.”
A Department of Justice official declined to comment since the matter is ongoing.
An official for The United States Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Mississippi declined to comment beyond the release issued by the Department of Justice last Friday.
Hill had previously asked to meet with the U.S. attorney from the northern district of Mississippi in an effort to keep criminal charges from being brought against his client and to ask that Harris not be treated differently from the other men involved, to no avail.
“Graeme (Harris) and his family are crushed daily by the nightmarish reality of being singled out for prosecution,” Hill said.
Harris was arrested on two charges: one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using a threat of force to intimidate black students because of their race or color. According to Hill, count one of the indictment is a felony and carries a maximum prison term of 10 years, and count two is a misdemeanor and carries a maximum prison term of one year.
“I can emphatically say that Graeme Harris did not place a rope around the neck of the James Meredith statue, and he did not tie the other end to a storm grate,” Hill said.
Harris is thoroughly remorseful that he has offended anyone, his attorney explained, and would do anything to take it all back.
“(Harris) is ashamed of himself and so sorry that people may forever see him as somebody he is not,” Hill said. “Additionally, he is especially troubled by what this thoughtless event has done to his own family”
