Black Pennsylvania man acquitted on all charges after killing racist outside of bar
A Pennsylvania black man stood accused of killing a racist white man after a racial incident escalated, but a jury sided against racism
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A black man, who stood accused in a homicide which spawned from a racial conflict that started when one man refused to shake another’s hand, is free after a jury decided he was not at fault.
Stephen Spencer, 31, said he feared for his life outside of a bar in Pittston, Pa., after he and a friend were attacked by a group of drunken racists on July 9, 2017.
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Spencer, a licensed gun owner with no criminal record, fired one shot, killing one of the attackers, identified as Christopher Williams, 32, and spent the next 453 days in jail awaiting trial. Last week, in a rare of occurrences, a black man was acquitted of killing a racist white man by an all-white jury.
“I was fighting for my life for 15 months and I finally made it,” Spencer said. “Justice was served.”
Spencer walked out of the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Wilkes-Barre last Friday night after his acquittal on murder and manslaughter charges. Spencer long maintained that the shooting was in self-defense and added that he felt police never attempted an investigation.
“It was unjust for the situation I was in,” Spencer said minutes after his release. “Luzerne County detectives, Pittston police — no one ever did an investigation.
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“They looked at me, I was a black man, and they just thought I was just another black man that committed a murder without any justification or any purpose,” he added. Luzerne County is the mostly rural, majority white county about 150 miles north of Philadelphia.
According to The Citizen’s Voice, Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Tom Hogans claimed that Spencer had the opportunity and duty to retreat from the crowd outside the bar rather than pull his gun. He also claimed that Spencer should’ve warned the men he was armed.
Defense attorney John Pike argued Spencer, who is black, was defending himself after enduring a night of racial taunting by drunken bar-goers who were white. Witnesses said racial tensions were escalating all night at the bar after Williams’ cousin refused to shake Spencer’s hand after a pool game because he is black.
“What’s going to trigger a racist? A black man in their white bar,” Pike said. “In his mind, he was terrified and did what he had to do in those few seconds.”
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He said that the mob has charged toward Spencer saying “we’re going to get you n—er.”
Prior to his arrest, Spencer made more than $100,000 a year as owner-operator of a Bimbo Bakeries delivery truck franchise, but he has since “lost everything” due to his wrongful incarceration.
Spencer’s mother, Stephanie Evans, said the jury’s verdict was “a blessing.”
“Eighteen months, I couldn’t touch him, I couldn’t hug him, and I’m glad they see that my son didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “He did everything right. He tried to leave, they wouldn’t let him leave. It was horrible for him.”
Spencer, who said racism is a “terrible problem” in Luzern County, was also acquitted of charges of simple assault and terroristic threats for allegedly pointing a gun at a woman after shooting Williams.
Now that he’s free, he planned on taking it easy, seeing his kids, and getting his life squared away.
“My plan is just to go home, kiss my kids, tell them that there (are) ways to get out of jail, even when there’s an unjust society out there,” Spencer said. “And there’s hope.”
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