"The Boston Globe Right around closing time outside a Hyannis bar last March, Alex Greene allegedly held a gun to Tony Johnson's face and pulled the trigger. The single gunshot, fired so close that police say some of Johnson's blood ended up inside the barrel of the gun, killed him. Cape Cod authorities quickly charged Greene with first-degree murder, and he was ordered held in jail, facing the possibility of life in prison without parole."
"But race and socioeconomic status add other dimensions to the bail decision: Greene is white, a firearms instructor at a popular local gun range who was set to begin working as a Barnstable County sheriff's deputy that week, with the financial means to obtain a high-powered legal team and post high cashbail; Johnson was Black, an ex-con who floated between jobs and most recently worked at Home Depot, UPS and Dollar General."
""If it would have been my child who shot a white person in the face, he would have had no bond," Johnson's mother, Mattie Johnson, 60, told the Globe. And, she said, the unusual decision to grant bail in a first-degree murder case makes it feel like her son's life and death don't matter. "My baby was a human being," Johnson said. "Don't let this go undone and don't let this go unnoticed.""
Alex Greene allegedly held a gun to Tony Johnson's face outside a Hyannis bar last March and fired a single shot that killed him; police reported Johnson's blood ended up inside the gun barrel. Cape Cod authorities charged Greene with first-degree murder and he was ordered held in jail, but in December Greene posted $100,000 cash bail and was released wearing a monitoring bracelet. Greene is white, a firearms instructor slated to start as a Barnstable County sheriff's deputy, and had resources for a high-powered defense. Johnson was Black, an ex-con with intermittent employment. The district attorney requested reconsideration of the bail; a hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30.
Read at Boston.com
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