A Clark Atlanta University graduate accused of shooting one other driver in a hit-and-run crash has been freed after a month in prison.

Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams on Monday accused the Fulton County Circuit’s Office of dismissing the case against 32-year-old Ladavious Dashawn McNair, saying prosecutors withheld evidence exonerating the military veteran and college student for almost a year.

“I think this deserves a conversation with the district attorney because I agree with you that it is egregious,” Judge Adams said.

Prosecutors got here before the judge Friday with a motion to dismiss, saying their witness could now not discover McNair.

The shooting occurred in November 2023. The victim told police that he and McNair were involved in a minor accident and after they stopped, McNair got out of the automobile, pistol-whipped him and shot him within the leg.

McNair maintained his innocence from the start, and witnesses confirmed that he was at school when the incident occurred. His professor confirmed this.

After seeing the case on television, the witness contacted McNair’s lawyer, Marsha Mignott, and said he was not the attacker.

Mignott says the victim told her the lead detective wanted McNair to remain the prime suspect. The defense attorney called for “an investigation into all other matters touched by this tainted officer. How many other Ladavious McNairs are sitting on Rice Street? – said Mignot.

After his release on Monday, McNair was in no mood to forgive.

“There’s only a method to fix this. A handshake might not be enough. “An apology or ‘I’m sorry’ may not be enough,” McNair said.

“I experienced a lot of trauma because of this,” he continued. “He experienced things that no one should experience. As a veteran, I served my country and my community, and at that moment I felt like my community had turned its back on me.”

McNair’s family and friends fought hard for his release, taking his case to the media and insisting he was the victim of mistaken identity.

“It is imperative that we raise awareness of the Ladavious case and hold the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office accountable for its inaction,” he added. he wrote brother and friend of the fraternity Reginald Dominique. “Ladavious deserves to be free and we demand that the legal system immediately correct this mistake.”

Atlanta police have previously claimed to have video evidence, even though it was never released and apparently never existed in the primary place.

Last week, the family’s frustration reached its peak.

McNair was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday. Friends and family packed the courtroom only to learn he had been indicted by a grand jury the previous week, delaying the trial.

“We were ready,” Mignott said. “We had witnesses willing to present evidence that he was not the suspect on November 1, 2023.”

McNair’s fiancée, Nyla Thornton, was also within the courtroom Tuesday.

“I have no words,” Thornton said. “It is an injustice to keep an innocent man in prison. It’s unreal, it’s inhumane. “

In a statement last week, the U.S. attorney’s office said it had repeatedly tried to contact him, however the defense attorney didn’t respond to calls or emails.

“This office makes charging decisions based on the facts found in the investigation and applicable law,” wrote spokesman Jeff DiSantis. “We will hear the case in court, not in the media.”

Or in no way, because it seems.

I grew up poor in rural Granville County, North Carolina, Shaniqua McClendon She knew she would must make cash to survive. But her college profession at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, interrupted by witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina during her freshman 12 months and the election of President Barack Obama during her senior 12 months, modified her course endlessly.

“[Hurricane Katrina] “that was the first time I really started to understand the role that government plays in people’s lives,” McClendon says. “And this was a case of them not playing a good role in Black lives. I began to see that growing up in poverty was more about a set of decisions made by those in elected office – about what we would have access to and how the country and our world would function. We were a byproduct of that, and that’s why I got interested in politics. I truly believe that politics is a way to improve people’s lives.”

An internship at the White House during the Obama administration, followed by a job offer with U.S. Senator Kay Hagan, prompted McClendon to depart home for Washington. She also served as legislative director for Congresswoman Alma S. Adams; on this position, she led the charge to steer the creation of the inaugural Congressional Bipartisan Caucus for HBCUs.

McClendon continued to realize recognition. She earned distinction in her graduate studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, being the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Service. “My capstone project was how to get more voter-friendly policies in North Carolina,” McClendon explains. “Because North Carolina used to be a state where electoral policies encouraged people to vote, but after the v. decision we saw North Carolina do a 180 degree turn and start being a voter suppression state.”

Her mission has remained unchanged since graduation, she says, emphasizing the enduring goal she has set for herself in her work: “North Carolina has always been a state where I have made sure we invest.”

McClendon is currently in her sixth 12 months as Vice President of Political Strategy at Crooked Media, where she founded the Vote Save America program, which has raised over $57 million and activated over 600,000 voters, volunteers and grassroots donors across the country. Her approach is to seek out an area organization to partner on this effort. “They are here all year round, and they don’t just focus on picking one person,” he notes. “It’s really rare that you just agree with the whole lot an elected official, politician or candidate stands for, but in the event you work with a company around a difficulty you care about, it’s going to improve your entire community, not only one elected person.

“Because if the person you help get elected through this organization disappoints you in a major way, you and the organization can work to replace them,” he adds. “It’s much better to be involved with an organization that’s active year-round and stay involved in the community, not just when it’s time to choose a candidate.”

McClendon’s passion for her home state is abundantly clear – North Carolina is a continuing theme. “I always think this is an important state we should focus on, but this year a few people will agree with me,” he notes wryly. “I all the time made sure that if I could ever help North Carolina, I might.

“For a long time, I felt enormous guilt about leaving home, a place I loved and wanted more than anything to make it better,” McClendon continued. “I could have stayed and used my talent there. But over the last few years, I’ve realized that you don’t have to be home to go to the place you call home. My two jobs on Capitol Hill were with members of Congress from North Carolina. In my current role, I have directed a lot of resources and attention to my home state. And I will continue to do so.”

Moreover, McClendon remains committed to supporting the rights of black women. “It became clear to me,” she says, “that black women are at the bottom of privilege in this country. Only we seem to take our needs seriously, and in a way that works for real change and improvement in our lives, not just political point-scoring or performative allyship.”

Bottom line: “We need to elect more black women,” she states. “With the presence of Black women in these spaces, we will see that we are paying much more attention to the issues that affect us.” Ultimately, McClendon notes, “Black women will always fight the hardest for everyone, not just people who look like them.”

Looking back, McClendon recalls what her achievements meant to her as a black woman with a recognizable black name. Even before research on naming bias became commonplace, she was keenly aware of her success. “I’m really happy that I’m not burdened with a lot of stereotypes associated with my name,” she says.

Of course, not everyone received this memo. During the campaign, former President Trump ally Laura Loomer issued a special warning, saying, “I’m talking about Kamala Harris, Letitia James, and Fani Willis… all without credit DEI Shaniqua talking the same way.”

In response to Loomer’s comments, McClendon recalled, “I think of Kamala Harris running and the deliberateness with which people mispronounce her name or don’t even try to pronounce her name correctly.” McClendon believes these are subversive efforts intended to perpetuate stereotypes of black women, especially those with ethnic surnames, as unskilled and undeserving of praise.

“There is no one named Shaniqua of political prominence to even add that surname,” McClendon notes. “There’s just a cultural association with the meaning of the name Shaniqua, and that’s often the punchline.” Never again.

While Kamala Harris awaits her fate in becoming America’s first woman and Black woman president, the vp is leading an extended list of Black women who will likely be on the ballot across the country in the upcoming general election.

In addition to Harris’ presidential bid, dozens of Black women are running for president, including U.S. Senate candidates Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland.

According to Higher Heights for America, approx 600 black women will likely be on the ballot in Tuesday’s general election.

Glynda Carr, co-founder and president of the Higher Heights Leadership Fund, said this historic moment in which black women rose and fell in the elections was “ten years in the making.”

Since 2014, when Higher Heights and the Center for American Women in Politics officially monitored the status of black women in politics, it has seen a “gradual increase in the number of black women.”

Statistics from 2014 show that “only 18 black women have served in Congress. We now have 31 of them,” Carr emphasized.

In 2016, Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate and Lisa Blunt Rochester was elected to the House of Representatives. Now Angela Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester, together with Harris, have created what women’s advocates call a “pipeline” through which other black women can run.

If each Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks are elected to their respective Senate races, it should be the first time in history that more than one black woman has served in the upper house of Congress at one time.

Carr believes the first Black woman winner announced Tuesday night will likely be Blunt Rochester of Delaware. Polls indicate that Blunt Rochester, the current Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, suggestions his Republican opponent by more than 20%.

As we consider the historical possibilities of this election, additionally it is essential to recollect the legacy of former U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for president in 1972. Chisholm predicted that women and minorities would find a better path in politics “because I helped pave it.”

In 1974 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Chisholm he said“Black women have an obligation to move from the periphery of organized politics to its mainstream arena.”

Boykin-Towns clearly points out that historically, Black women have been the backbone of many social and political movements, and their perspectives are invaluable in shaping policies geared toward ensuring equality and justice for all.

“For the first time, we are seeing Black women in places where they can influence decisions on key issues like health care, economic reform, criminal justice and voting rights,” said Boykin-Towns, the highest-ranking Black woman in the society’s leadership NAACP. “This visibility not only inspires future generations, but also challenges old barriers in politics, demonstrating that diverse voices are essential to a strong democracy.”

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