You probably have not heard the names Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
But I remember those names, and the tears that were brought to my eyes when I heard about what happened to them.
On January 7, 2007, the young white couple—Channon was 21, her boyfriend Chris was 23—was abducted, beaten, raped, tortured, and murdered. Chris eventually shot to death before being set on fire, and Channon left to die with a plastic bag over her head in a trash can. The perpetrators were all black.
If you have not heard their story, it's because the racial nature of that black-on-white crime was uncomfortable for the national media a decade ago. Even now, it's uncomfortable, as the delayed and reluctant coverage of the
Chicago tortures showed.
Here is their story.