By Michelle Wirth
Atlanta, GA – The National NAACP and members of the Georgia and North Carolina chapters are calling on the state’s board of pardons and parole and Georgia’s Governor to free African-American businessman John McNeil.
In fall of 2005 court records say McNeil and his wife Anita purchased a home in Kennesaw from building company owner Brian Epp. Both parties argued over completed work. In December of the same year, McNeil rushed home and called 911 after his son phoned him and claimed Epp was refusing to leave their yard and had pulled a knife on him. After arriving home, McNeil got a handgun from his glove compartment. Witnesses say he asked Epp to back up. McNeil then said he fired a warning shot but Epp kept advancing and McNeil shot him in the head.
National NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous says McNeil acted in self-defense.
“John did what anyone one of us would do if a man who had threatened his son earlier in the day turned around and charged us with the same knife.”
The NAACP says immediately after the shooting, Cobb County detectives chose not to arrest McNeil because they also believed he was acting in self-defense. But McNeil was later charged and convicted on murder charges. The lead detective and several neighbors testified on McNeil’s behalf. Jealous believes McNeil was prosecuted because Cobb County District Attorney Patt Head had political motivations.
“Something is very wrong when a DA with ambition goes to a man who did his duty and charges him with murder even when the officers, as they did, say we will testify on the stand that this man is innocent.”
A spokesman for the District Attorney Pat Head’s office says Head does not let politics influence the cases he’s involved in. Prosecutors claim Epp had a knife in his pocket but was not holding it when shot. In 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld McNeil’s conviction saying the evidence in the case was sufficient to find McNeil guilty. Former Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears dissented. McNeil is serving a life sentence and has been in prison for nearly 5 years.
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