Murder In Memphis: Don’t Blame The Victim

Eliza Fletcher

There’s only one question we should ask about the murder of 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher in Memphis last week:

Why the hell was this monster - the man accused of kidnapping and killing her in the early hours of Friday morning - out of prison?

Cleotha Abston - a serial predator who kidnapped an attorney at gunpoint, forced him into the trunk of a car for hours, drove him to multiple ATMs, making him withdraw money from each before the terrified victim managed to escape - ought to be behind bars.

Yet, despite a guilty plea in 2001 to “especially aggravated” abduction, Abston  didn’t get the maximum sentence of what appears to be 60 years under Tennessee law. Instead he got 24 years. And he was out in November of 2020.

If he’d served all of his sentence, Abston would still be locked up.

Let the newly elected Democrat District Attorney for Shelby County, Tennessee - Steve Melroy - explain once again why he objects to his state’s “Truth in Sentencing” law that took effect on July 1. Melroy, a former civil rights lawyer, claims the newly minted law that requires those convicted of certain offenses to serve every day of their sentences won’t reduce crime.

Eliza Fletcher, if she were still alive, might disagree.

Let’s back up.

At 4 a.m. last Friday morning, a Memphis kindergarten teacher, marathoner and mother of two young children laced up her running shoes and left home for an early morning run near the University of Memphis.

About half an hour later, according to surveillance cameras, a man jumped out of a  black GMC Terrain, attacked Fletcher, threw her in the passenger seat and took off. A few hours later Abston arrived at his brother’s house where he washed his clothes in a sink and proceeded to thoroughly clean the passenger side of his car for about an hour.

Law enforcement arrested Abston Saturday after they claim they detected his DNA on sandals left at the scene of the kidnapping.

No doubt they had Abston’s DNA in a databank given his extensive criminal history. In addition to the kidnapping conviction, he’d been charged with numerous crimes as a juvenile including five charges of aggravated assault, rape and theft. This guy has been a menace to society since he was a kid.

Late Monday afternoon Fletcher’s body was discovered behind a vacant duplex miles from where she was abducted. Searchers were led to her remains by the stench of death.

Instead of absolute outrage about the audacious abduction and slaying of a jogger by a complete stranger, social media brimmed with blame-the-victim types, wondering why Fletcher left home before dawn.

Don’t take my word for it, here’s what Rolling Stone reported:

While authorities spent the holiday weekend searching for Fletcher, social media erupted into its typical cesspool of gossip, judgment, and conspiracy theories. People went after Fletcher for jogging too early, for being outside by herself, for wearing the wrong clothes. “Don’t dress like that exposing yourself, be a little bit more modest so as not to attract that kind of energy,” one person tweeted. Fletcher was last seen that humid August morning jogging in purple shorts and a pink sports bra, her hair in a tight bun.

As soon as I read the accounts of the abduction I knew exactly what Fletcher was doing: Getting in a run before the kids got up and before the heat became oppressive.

I know this, because I was once a young working mother with kids born just 17 months apart. If I wanted to run in the mornings - and I did most days - I had to head out before daylight, too. Or late at night, after they were in bed.

Last time I checked, America wasn’t run by the Taliban. There isn’t a curfew on females. And the mere presence of a woman alone and in workout clothes is not considered an irresistible enticement to criminals.

If your first thought was that this woman was asking for trouble by running in the dark, check your moral compass.

All of our outrage should be directed at the soulless animals in society who prey on the innocent and the authorities who keep putting them back on the streets.

As I was writing this story Wednesday night, news broke that a 19-year-old man had been apprehended in Memphis after he terrorized the city that evening by engaging in numerous shootings while broadcasting his acts on Facebook live. When the crime spree ended four people were dead and three were wounded.

The suspect’s name is Ezekiel Kelly, and “his criminal history also includes attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Those charges stem from an arrest in 2020.”

Why isn’t HE behind bars?