Lily Burk: possible victim of the War on Drugs, incompetence (and naivete)
Alcoholic victim of the month:
Lily Burk’s body was found in a car in downtown Los Angeles. Her neck had been slashed a bit over 12 hours earlier. Shortly after her murder, Charlie Samuel, 50, was apprehended for public intoxication and having a crack pipe in his pocket. Two days later, Samuel was charged with Burk’s murder after police matched his fingerprints with those found in the car. Samuel was a drug addict with a “colorful” criminal history, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and robbery. He was given early parole because California’s prisons are arguably filled with too many non-violent offenders and, while he should have been tried and convicted on a third strike under California’s “three ...
