[imc-st.louis] Did the Army Cover Up Murder of a Black Private?

[Don Fitz]

Please let me know if you can join us at the press conference tomorrow, 
June 3.
Don Fitz


        Gateway Green Alliance


        P.O. Box 8094, St. Louis MO  63156


        *314-727-8554  E-mail: fitzdon at aol.com  www.gateway-greens.org*

*For immediate release: June 3, 2008*


        Contacts: Don Fitz, 314-727-8554; Lionel Nixon, 454-9005


        Press conference with father of first Missouri woman to die in Iraq


            Did the Army Cover Up Murder of a Black Private?

_June 3, 2008 -- St. Louis, Missouri._ 

LaVena Johnson, of Florissant, may be only 1 of over a dozen women to 
die under extremely suspicious circumstances while in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.  The increase in violence against women in the military is 
so sharp that Dr. John Johnson, father of LaVena Johnson, is working 
with US Representatives Ike Skelton and Lacy Clay to have a 
Congressional hearing to request a reopening of the Army's investigation 
of the death of LaVena Johnson.  

Dr. Johnson recently went to Washington DC as a part of effort to get 
the case reopened.  He will report on that trip at a press conference at

11:00 am, Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Legacy Books and Café, 5249 Delmar (near Union)

LaVena Johnson reportedly died in Iraq on July 19, 2005, days shy of her 
20th birthday.  The Army called it suicide.  From the very beginning her 
family did not buy that story and new evidence suggests their suspicions 
could be well-founded.

The Army did not want to release a CD ROM with color photos of LaVena's 
body after her death to her family.  But with prodding from Congressman 
Clay they received photos in April.  Close study by Joseph Johnson, an 
uncle of LaVena who has a degree in criminal science, lead him to 
conclude that the evidence was incompatible with a suicide. 

"There's more and more evidence that LaVena was murdered and the Army 
tried to cover it up," says Dr. John Johnson.  "The Army said she put an 
M-16 rifle to her mouth and squeezed the trigger.  That would have left 
a gaping wound in the back of her head that did not appear in the 
photos.  The photos showed that someone broke her nose and split her 
lip.  That's not suicide.  The evidence points to her being raped, 
murdered, and her body burned.  And then there's the thumb impression.  
A 5'1" woman who did not handle rifles would have to put tremendous 
pressure on the trigger, which would leave a death impression crossing 
the thumb.  The impression was on the finger, as if someone who didn't 
know anything about forensic investigations made a bad attempt at trying 
to make it look like suicide."

What is most disturbing is that LaVena Johnson's death may not be a 
fluke incident, but part of a trend of violence against women in the 
military.  According to retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright 1 in every 3 
women in the US military today is sexually assaulted.  LaVena Johnson's 
family feel that she could have been murdered to prevent her from 
revealing the person or persons who assaulted her.

At 7:00 pm on Wedenesday, June 4, a forum at Legacy will explore 
increased violence inside the US military.  It will feature:

*  Lionel Nixon, /African Newsworld/ newspaper [moderator]

*  Dr. John Johnson, father of LaVena Johnson

*  Redditt Hudson, American Civil Liberties Union

*  Michael McPhearson, Veterans For Peace

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