Murder of Eric Morse

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"Eric Morse" redirects here. For the author, see Eric W. Morse. For the Australian cricketer, see Eric Morse (cricketer).
Eric Morse
Bornc. 1989
United States
DiedOctober 13, 1994(1994-10-13) (aged 4–5)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Cause of deathHead injuries
Known forChild murder victim

Eric Morse (c. 1989 – October 13, 1994) was a five-year-old African-American boy from Chicago, Illinois, who was murdered in October 1994. Morse was dropped from a high-rise building in the Ida B. Wells Homes by ten-year-old Jesse Rankins and 11-year-old Tykeece Johnson. Morse's murder was notable for the young ages of the victim and the killers, and brought further national attention to the plight of children in Chicago's housing projects.[1] Rankins and Johnson, both minors at the time, were convicted for the murder of Morse and sentenced to five years' imprisonment each.

Murder[edit]

On October 13, 1994, two of five-year-old Eric Morse's schoolmates, Jesse Rankins (aged ten years old) and Tykeece Johnson (aged 11), had asked him to steal candy from a store, but Morse refused. At around 6-7 P.M. (CDT) that day, Rankins and Johnson took Morse and his eight-year-old brother Derrick Lemon to a vacant apartment on the 14th floor of a high-rise building in the Ida B. Wells Homes, a housing project in Chicago's South Side. Rankins and Johnson dangled Morse out of a window of the apartment, resisting attempts by Lemon to intervene, and then dropped him. Morse suffered massive head injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.[2]

Aftermath[edit]

Conviction and sentencing[edit]

The Illinois legislature enacted a law permitting 10-year-old children to be sentenced to prison. Rankins and Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder and were sentenced to the maximum term of five years.[3] Rankins served an additional nine years for sexually assaulting another inmate during a gang attack. After their initial releases, both men returned to prison repeatedly for other offenses.[4]

Derrick Lemon, Morse's older brother who struggled to save Eric in the moments before he was dropped, received a lawsuit settlement in Eric's death for more than $1 million from the Chicago Housing Authority and a private management company.[4] Lemon himself is now currently serving a 71-year murder sentence[5][dead link] for the fatal shooting of his aunt's boyfriend at a barbecue in 2006.[4]

Public reaction[edit]

Morse's death was cited nationally in speeches by politicians including President Bill Clinton[6] and then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.[7] Henry Cisneros, then Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, called it a clinching fact in the federal government's decision to take over the troubled Chicago Housing Authority.[7]

In Popular Culture[edit]

  • The 1997 Vertigo comic Uncle Sam briefly alludes to the murder as one of the United States' many institutional and moral failings, though no specific names are given and the incident is tied to New York rather than Chicago.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Peggy Cassidy, "Boy Killers: Never Released From Truth", NBC 5 Chicago
  2. ^ Susan Kuczka and Flynn McRoberts, "5-year-old was killed over candy", Chicago Tribune, 1994-10-15
  3. ^ Gary Marx, "Eric Morse mom tells of search for son, sad outcome", Chicago Tribune, 2001-05-30
  4. ^ a b c Gary Marx, "5-year-old Eric Morse's killers: Growing up behind bars", Chicago Tribune, 2009-03-24
  5. ^ Whet Moser, "The Derrick Lemon Timeline", Chicago Magazine, 2011-04-04
  6. ^ Carl Schoettler, ""Remorse": Two children of the Chicago projects have made a remarkable documentary on the life and death of 5-year-old Eric Morse, killed for refusing to steal candy. Their work will be broadcast tomorrow on NPR.", The Baltimore Sun, 1996-03-20
  7. ^ a b Brent Staples, "The Littlest Killers", The New York Times, 1996-02-06
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