Introduction[]
Moriander Brown was the assassin of US Senator and presidential candidate Barak Obama. He was arrested on the 11th of November, 2007, and tried in February 2008. He never denied the crime and was executed on 7th October, 2008.
Background[]
Moriander was born on 15th August, 1965, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a low-income family. His father, Derek Brown, was a small business owner, and his mother Eliza left home when he was young. He attended school locally up until the age of 13, when he dropped out of school to join a street gang, moving away from his father's control to live with friends in the city.
For the next 6 years Moriander was in and out of local jails for minor offenses. He was arrested twice for vandalism and once for Grand Theft Auto, along with a variety of other offenses. A number of the crimes he committed seemed to be racially motivated and indeed members of his gang would be arrested for hate crimes during this period.
In 1984 Moriander was put away for violent assault on an African-American pharmacist. He spent 8 years in jail before being released, after which he seemed to be a temporarily reformed character, the spate of good behaviour lasting four years before he was again in front of a judge for racially motivated assault, this time against a Hispanic woman he had attacked in a supermarket in Ilinois, apparently on a psychotic impulse.
Moriander was sentenced to 15 years for his attack but via appeals he managed to shorten the sentence, eventually leaving prison after only 11 years served.
November 2007 Assassination[]
Shortly after being released in March, Moriander heard about Barak Obama's presidential campaign. He was heard to mention that he would 'rather die than see a nigger in power' and several of his companions later reported that during the months leading up to the assassination, he planned to kill the Senator, coming up with several 'crazy and violent schemes' to do so.
According to testimony, Moriander procrastinated over actually carrying out his claim. It was only the night before the
assassination that he bought the revolver he would use, from a back-street dealer who had recently acquired it illegally in a covert trading circle.
On the 11th of November, 2007, Moriander Brown walked openly into the crowd around Senator Obama, pushing his way to the front. His weapon was concealed inside his coat.
The presidential hopeful was walking through the crowd, shaking hands and talking with members of the public. Eyewitnesses report that he turned to Moriander, who looked nervous, and held out his hand, smiling. Moriander did not hesitate, but immediately drew his revolver and fired three shots into the Senator's chest at close range, rupturing a lung and damaging blood vessels. Immediately, he turned to run, but his progress was hampered by the crowd, and he was captured within a few minutes of firing the shots.
Trial and Execution[]
The interrogation of Moriander Brown began immediately after his arrest, as police officials were eager to discover whether any further attacks were planned against presidential nominees. Once it was established that Moriander was not working with any coalition or terrorist organisation, further questioning was suspended until proper proceedure could be followed.
Throughout his questioning and trial, Moriander never denied that he had committed the crime, or appeared to be at all regretful. His statements were always to the effect that he felt he was a patriot for killing Obama and removing the African-American from the presidential race.
Faced with his past record, and the highly politicised and controversial nature of of the crime, it is not surprising that Moriander was sentanced to death. His trial was prompt, due to the lack of denial and evident pleasure the criminal took in his crime. He was sentanced in late February 2008 and executed by lethal injection on the 7th of October 2008.
Controversy[]
Some Civil Rights movements at the time contended and continued to contend that Moriander was a free agent, claiming that he worked for conservative interests in the government, and was convinced to 'take the glory for himself', gaining a form of martyrdom while the conservative interests removed Obama.
Despite the allegations, there is little evidence to support these claims, and most agree that it is highly unlikely that Moriander Brown worked for any government or extra-governmental agency, his motives seeming mostly personal.