The family of murdered teen, Alize Henderson, 17, said while they are relieved they don’t have to re-live their daughter’s murder in a trial, they still want justice to be done.
Charges of murder against a juvenile girl were dropped Thursday.
“It’s not that I looked forward to a trial, but it would have been easier for me to accept, in the trial that, that was the decision of the judge, jury or however it may have been,” Alize’s dad, Ivan Williams, said. “It would have at least given me a chance to think that my daughter meant something and tried to be proven right or wrong.”
In early September, Henderson was fatally stabbed after an altercation with a 16-year-old girl.
The girl’s defense attorney said there were two factors that helped get the charges dropped; social media messages exchanged between Alize and the girl as well as the Castle Doctrine.
Castle Doctrine is a law that in part says, people has the right to defend his or their lives in their own homes if attacked, as long as they didn’t provoke the attacker.
The defense attorney blamed Alize’s friends for putting her up to the confrontation, but Alize’s parents said they aren’t placing blame at all.
“The blame would have to start with myself, so I’m not blaming anybody for it. I just hate that it happened that a young lady, a talented young lady, had to lose her life over some nonsense,” Alize’s stepmother Consuella Williams said.
Alize’s family members said they hope others won’t make the same mistakes and will be more careful on social media.
“We have to move on as a society and somebody has got to learn from this situation, somebody’s got to learn, and I hope it’s the young lady and I hope it’s Alize’s friends,” Williams said.
The Williams’ family started the Alize Memorial Scholarship Fund to be given to a senior at the Talkington School for Young Women Leaders. Alize would have graduated from there this year.
Click here if you want to donate.
