The Associated Press is reporting that the former leader of a once influential Oakland, Calif., community group was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for ordering the killing of three men, including Chauncey Bailey, who was working on a story about financial trouble at the organization.
Yusuf Bey IV, 25, was given three life terms in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2007 murders of Bailey, Michael Wills and Odell Roberson in separate attacks. Bailey, 57, editor of the Oakland Post, was gunned down in broad daylight in downtown while walking to work.
Despite his conviction in June, Bey, the former head of Your Black Muslim Bakery, continued to assert his innocence in a statement read by his attorney Gene Peretti. Bailey was working on an investigative story about the bakery, known for its community work, which had become tainted by links to criminal activity.
“I want the people to know it has never been about truth and justice, it has been about perception and politics,” the statement said. “I do apologize to my family and the families of the victims for not making wiser decisions in allowing this to have occurred on my watch."
Bailey's legacy lives on. The verdicts, and now the sentences, are a powerful testament to his work, the Chauncey Bailey Project and the importance of investigative journalism.
Read more at News One.
In other news: Hurricane Irene Strikes Eastern Seaboard.