Les Jones

Johnia Berry > Freweini Gebremicael and Johnia Berry

This week's The Nashville Scene has a cover story about the grisly murder of Freweini Gebremicael. S-townMike and Chris Wage are wondering if there would be more media coverage if Freweini had been white.

I don't know anything about Freweini Gebremicael's case, but I'm familiar with the Johnia Berry murder here in Knoxville. Johnia was white, but her story languished for months and months.

The only reason I knew anything about Johnia's case is that Chris Range emailed me an article from a newspaper in Johnson City (where Johnia was from). I blogged it, and people Googling for information about Johnia found the post and left comments with more information, which I then blogged.

It wasn't until our local alt-weekly, Metro Pulse, did an excellent front page story 10 months after Johnia's murder that I really knew all the particulars of what happened, saw the police sketch of the suspect, and felt the full tragedy of Johnia's murder. That's when I contacted the family and offered to help them with a blog.

The reward money languished at $10,000 until a year after Johnia's death. Then all of a sudden, thanks to attention gathered through anniversary stories, ongoing media relations, and the blog, the reward quickly shot up to $60,000 as multiple sources contributed money within a couple of months. That's a great reward, but bear in mind that it took more than a year to accumulate.

So while I can't say that race isn't an issue in coverage of Freweini's death, I can say that even when the victim is white media coverage can be dreadfully slow, and police investigations even slower. (Johnia's murder hasn't been solved, and there is ample criticism of the sheriff's office over foot dragging and their refusal to cooperate with America's Most Wanted.) Having The Scene pen a story within a month and a half of the murder is damned quick. Good on 'em.

Next, someone should contact contact America's Most Wanted. And someone should start raising a reward. If someone would put together a blog for Freweini Gebremicael, that would be very helpful.

The blog is, frankly, the easy part. In Johnia's case, her family has been tireless in pursuing her case with the sheriff's office (with whom they speak almost daily), with the local and national media (whom they speak to frequently), and with legislators. Governor Phil Bredesen is meeting the Berry family in Knoxville today to sign legislation that will provide additional funding to catch up on the state's backlog of DNA samples that need testing. It would be very helpful if Freweini has people working as tirelessly and patiently for her. I hope her murderer will be found quickly, but justice may be long in coming.