On July 8th outside of Atlanta’s posh Capital City Club, 34-year-old Christian Broder was shot during a robbery and later died. His alleged killer, 17-year-old Jayden Myrick, now faces a life prison sentence. However, there’s a bigger picture to this horrible crime: The case underscores the weak link of Georgia’s criminal justice system.
Judges all too often are now relying on private “rehabilitation” organizations to monitor and “turn around” a criminal, rather than opt for a long prison term. Yet these programs operate with little or no oversight—a fact especially highlighted by the Broder case.
Ironically, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs decided last year to give Myrick a shot at rehabilitation rather than sending him to prison. Some background: Myrick was arrested three years ago for his role in an armed robbery and agreed to a negotiated plea of 15 years, to serve seven years in adult prison, according to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office. But after two-and-a-half years in juvenile detention, Downs made a fateful, permissive decision. She inexplicably put Myrick on probation— going against pleas from the prosecution– and placed him with an outfit called Visions Unlimited whose director claimed her program could keep tabs on him and reform him.
“I don’t want anybody else to be held at gunpoint by this man,” the judge exclaimed when a prosecutor objected. The transcript reads: “I want to end it. You’re interested in punishment. I’m interested in rehabilitation and community safety for the future…”
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office pointed out that Myrick had 32 misconduct violations while in juvenile detention and that his violence-prone behavior was still unpredictable. But Downs, according to the transcript, told Myrick, “I am expecting you to become a changed person” through Visions Unlimited. Yet Visions Unlimited did virtually nothing for Myrick that it promised. And no one knew any different. The program was obviously not vetted by any officer of the court and Visions Unlimited (after Broder died) issued a terse, weak statement that “Visions Unlimited is not responsible for Jayden or for any other students during their personal time spent away from the program.”
In fact, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that just 20 days after the judge’s hearing, the DA’s office asked that Myrick’s probation be revoked based on Instagram posts showing him with guns, known gang members and a video showing him holding a baggie of pills for sale.
But, because of his actions on “personal time” as Visions Unlimited explained, Myrick is now charged with felony murder. As this is written, Downs has refused all comment.
