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MEDIA ALERT

For Immediate Release

Contact: Erica Pippins Franklin


334-832-1653

June 2, 2020
Statement from Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl D. Bailey

Montgomery County, Alabama – Below is a statement from Montgomery County District


Attorney Daryl D. Bailey regarding charges filed against four Montgomery citizens for taking
down a statue of Robert E. Lee that was displayed at the entrance of Robert E. Lee High School:

“Racism has no place in our society. I recognize that our nation, our state and most
especially our city has a complicated and often deplorable history in relation to race and racial
equality. I know that the sins of our past will dictate our future if we do not continue to push for
change.

I want to make clear that as your District Attorney, I am charged with seeking justice. It is
my honor and my duty to do so. In these difficult times it is imperative that the law be administered
fairly, accurately, and impartially.

This morning the Montgomery Police Department filed charges against four Montgomery
citizens for taking down a statue of Robert E. Lee that was displayed at the entrance of Robert E.
Lee High School. I have reviewed the warrants and affidavits and have found them to contain legal
errors that would make the crimes for which these four have been charged not prosecutable. I am
not making any determination as to rightfulness or wrongfulness of these charges being filed.

I have advised the Montgomery Police Department that if the City of Montgomery and the
Montgomery Public School Board desire to continue prosecution of these individuals that my office
stands ready to advise on how these errors can be corrected.

This decision should not be seen or interpreted as endorsing citizens taking the law into their
own hands. There is a process when trying to settle grievances with our Government and those
should be litigated in our Courts not our streets.

-more-
I firmly believe that if these individuals had opened dialogue with City and County leaders
that they would have listened and done everything in their power to address these concerns in a
lawful manner.

I want to thank those who have protested in Montgomery for remaining peaceful. They have
every right to protest and to demand change in their government. However, these protests must
remain calm, peaceful, and safe as they have up to this point.

We must continue to search for ways to have productive conversations coupled with action
to move our community forward. We must refrain from activities that stifle progress and are
criminal. I am dedicated now more than ever to being an accessible, fair-minded District Attorney,
community leader and community servant.

We will fail as a society if we do not learn to love each other and live together peacefully.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as
fools.”

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