Benjamin Crump

Benjamin Lloyd Crump (born October 10, 1969) is an American attorney at the Tallahassee, Florida based law firm Parks & Crump, LLC^[2] known for his association with the 2012-2013 George Zimmerman case.

Early life and education

Benjamin Lloyd Crump was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, a small city near Fort Bragg, where his biological father served in the United States Army.^[3] The oldest of nine siblings and step-siblings, Crump grew up in an extended family and was helped raised by his grandmother Mittie.^[4] His mother Helen, worked as a hotel maid and in a local converse shoe factory.^[5] His mother sent him to attend high school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he lived with her second husband, a math teacher, who Crump identifies as his father.^[6][5]

He attended Florida State University and received his bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 1992. He received his Juris Doctor from Florida State University in 1995.^[7]

Career

Crump is known for taking on pro bono cases with civil rights implications. A notable case was Trayvon Martin who on February 26, 2012 was killed by George Zimmerman who followed the unarmed African American teenager for blocks as he walked from a convenience store to his father's house before Zimmerman confronted and shot him. Crump represents the family of the deceased. Crump also represents the family of Alesia Thomas, a distraught 35-year-old single African American mother arrested after turning to the police to help her care for her two young children. Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chuck Philips reported that during the arrest Thomas was "slammed to the ground, handcuffed behind her back, kicked in the groin, hog-tied and stuffed into the back seat of a patrol car, where she died."^[8] The event was captured on videotape ^[8] The LAPD never released the videotape although Crump requested it and a Department of Justice inquiry on October 15, 2012 ^{[8] [9]} The LAPD finally released the video to the LA prosecutors office. Nearly a year after Philips' report, on October 10, 2013 one of the arresting officers was charged with felony assault of Thomas. ^[10] Other clients include Martin Lee Anderson, an African American teenager who died after a beating in 2006 by white guards in a Florida youth detention center, the family of Genie McMeans Jr., an African-American driver who died after being shot by a white state Trooper and Ronald Weekley Jr., a skateboarder beaten by police in Venice, California. ^[8]

References