ATLANTA (AP) - NAACP leaders Monday demanded the release of a Georgia man imprisoned after killing another man on his property.
The rally at the Georgia Capitol was the African-American leaders' latest effort to free John McNeil, who is serving a life sentence for the 2005 shooting death of Brian Epp. McNeil is black. Epp was white.
McNeil maintains that he acted in self-defense. Police found Epp outside McNeil's Cobb County home. Epp had a knife. Police determined McNeil had not committed a crime, but Cobb County District Attorney Patrick Head still won a murder conviction.
NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said McNeil's case proves that self-defense laws in the United States are not equally applied across racial lines.
McNeil is in a state prison in Oglethorpe, while his conviction is appealed.
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9/10/2012 4:11:17 PM (GMT -4:00)