Thanks to FRIDA (Feminist Response in Disability Activism), the AAPD Justice for All blog , and Gina McCauley at the What About Our Daughters blog for closely following the case. The following is from McCauley's What About Our Daughters blog:I wrote about the case of Dorothy Dixon on this blog almost a year ago. I also mentioned Dorothy Dixon in an article I did for the September issue of ESSENCE magazine about maternal homicide.
For those who don’t know, Dorothy Dixon was a pregnant mentally disabled Black woman who was tortured for months allegedly by the people who who lived off her Social Security check: Although her main torturer appears to have allegedly been a White woman, this case got almost NO media attention because two Black teens were also implicated in the crime. Thus “technically” Dixon fell into the relm of a victim of Black on Black crime, thus she gets no attention. Michelle Riley worked at a state facility where Dixon lived and eventually took up residence with Dixon, collecting Dixon’s Social Security check and serving as a ring leader in the ongoing torture of Dixon. They literally used Dorothy Dixon for target practice, the coroner removed BB pellets that were embedded into her skin.
Now the media trail that was cold following Dixon’s death has grown ICE COLD in the intervening months so I took it upon myself to check in with the court handling the case and surprise, the first jury trial in this case is scheduled for 9 a.m. on April 6, 2009. Judy Woods is the defendant. The trial of the suspected ringleader, Michelle Reilly, is scheduled for April 13, 2009. Interestingly enough they have both been assigned different judges same prosecutor.
ALTON, Illinois -- Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a
mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor.
Five adults and a 12-year-old child were charged with Dorothy Dixon's murder.
Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.
They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.
Dixon -- six months pregnant -- died after weeks of abuse. Police have charged two adults, three teenagers and a 12-year-old boy with murder in the case that has repulsed many in this Mississippi River town.
"This is heartbreaking," police Lt. David Hayes said. "It was almost as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering. This woman was almost like living in a prison."
Investigators put much of the blame on Michelle Riley, 35, who they said befriended Dixon but pocketed monthly Social Security checks she got because of her developmental delays.
Dixon saw little, if any, of the money, Hayes said. For months she weathered the torment to keep a roof over her head and that of her year-old son, who weighed just 15 pounds when taken into state custody after his mom's death.Hayes watched the autopsy and found her injuries disturbing. X-rays revealed roughly 30 BBs lodged in her. Deep-tissue burns covered about one-third of her body -- her face, her chest, her arms and feet -- and left her severely dehydrated. Her face and body showed signs of prolonged abuse. Many of her wounds were infected.
None of the injuries, Hayes said, proved singly fatal to Dixon. Her system already was taxed by her unborn baby.
"The autopsy sort of indicates her immune system just shut down," he said. "It was not capable of fending off any more."
In the rental home's basement, Atkins said, he found spots of blood in a shower and tiny smears on the concrete floor, washer and dryer.
"It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame."
