Clarence Brandley's Murder Case

“Another African American man accused of rape and murder”, a quite often used headline in the 1980’s. Clarence Brandley was wrongfully accused of the rape and murder of 16 year old Cheryl Dee Ferguson in 1980. Brandley was a custodian at Conroe High School in Conroe, Texas. Him and another custodian, Henry Peace, found the limp body in a loft above the auditorium. At age 29, Brandley was wrongfully convicted and punished with the death penalty. This case survived as a rather eye-catcher case to the media that had fixed police, terrible misconduct from the prosecution, and plain as day racism. Texas Ranger Wesley Styles was the leader of the police investigation for the murder of 16 year old Ferguson, he also told Brandley and Peace that “One of you is going to hang for this.” This truly distraught statement became true for Clarence Brandley, after saying the first statement by Styles he then proceeded to look directly at Brandley and said, “Since you’re the nigger, you’re elected” (Gross, A.). Without even investigating completely, fingers automatically pointed towards Brandley and that was the end for him, because no one would believe a black man. Racism was still a highly declared event in this day and age, to the media and the world, this murder, was literally just “another murder in the media committed by another black man.” …show more content…
So this case was certainly more along the lines of a race bias type, due to the fingers already being pointed at Brandley at the crime scene, there was no turning back. Even there was no suspicious activity that we know of but the Texas Ranger had already assumed that the person who killed Ferguson was certainly Brandley. After a long ways wait, Brandley did make it out and was truly proven innocent, yet the question still remains to who killed