Judge says black suspect needs a ‘tree and a rope’, gets ordered to racial sensitivity training

(Facebook)

A Texas judge is under fire and has been formally reprimanded for posting on Facebook that a “tree and a rope” were needed to take care of a man who has been accused of shooting a San Antonio police detective to death.

James Oakley got the reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Oakley, who is Burnet County’s top administrator, has to now complete a 30-hour training program for new judges as well as four hours of racial sensitivity training.

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He says that his comments were meant to show his personal feelings and that the killing should “qualify for the death penalty.” According to him, it had nothing to do with race even though he is white and the suspect is black.

The commission says it has gotten 18 written complaints about Oakley’s statements with some of them mentioning the racist overtones of his comments. In the end, they concluded that Oakley’s remarks “cast reasonable doubt on his capacity to act impartially.”

Oakley deleted the post not long after posting it and admitted that it was both “curt and harsh.”