Eric Morse ( – October 13, 1994) was a five-year-old African-American boy from Chicago, Illinois, who was murdered in October 1994. Morse was dropped from a high-rise building in the Ida B. Wells Homes by ten-year-old Jesse Rankins and 11-year-old Tykeece Johnson. Morse's murder was notable for the young ages of the victim and the killers, and brought further national attention to the plight of children in Chicago's housing projects.Peggy Cassidy, "Boy Killers: Never Released From Truth", NBC 5 Chicago Rankins and Johnson, both minors at the time, were convicted for the murder of Morse and sentenced to five years' imprisonment each.
Murder On October 13, 1994, two of five-year-old Eric Morse's schoolmates, Jesse Rankins (aged ten years old) and Tykeece Johnson (aged 11), had asked him to steal candy from a store, but Morse refused. At around 6-7 P.M. (CDT) that day, Rankins and Johnson took Morse and his eight-year-old brother Derrick Lemon to a vacant apartment on the 14th floor of a high-rise building in the Ida B. Wells Homes, a housing project in Chicago's South Side. Rankins and Johnson dangled Morse out of a window of the apartment, resisting attempts by Lemon to intervene, and then dropped him. Morse suffered massive head injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.Susan Kuczka and Flynn McRoberts, "5-year-old was killed over candy", Chicago Tribune, 1994-10-15
Aftermath
Conviction and sentencing The Illinois legislature enacted a law permitting 10-year-old children to be sentenced to prison. Rankins and Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder and were sentenced to the maximum term of five years.Gary Marx, "Eric Morse mom tells of search for son, sad outcome", Chicago Tribune, 2001-05-30 Rankins served an additional nine years for sexually assaulting another inmate during a gang attack. After their initial releases, both men returned to prison repeatedly for other offenses.Gary Marx, "5-year-old Eric Morse's killers: Growing up behind bars", Chicago Tribune, 2009-03-24
Derrick Lemon, Morse's older brother who struggled to save Eric in the moments before he was dropped, received a lawsuit settlement in Eric's death for more than $1 million from the Chicago Housing Authority and a private management company. Lemon himself is now currently serving a 71-year murder sentenceWhet Moser, "The Derrick Lemon Timeline", Chicago Magazine, 2011-04-04 for the fatal shooting of his aunt's boyfriend at a barbecue in 2006.
Public reaction Morse's death was cited nationally in speeches by politicians including President Bill ClintonCarl Schoettler, ""Remorse": Two children of the Chicago projects have made a remarkable documentary on the life and death of 5-year-old Eric Morse, killed for refusing to steal candy. Their work will be broadcast tomorrow on NPR.", The Baltimore Sun, 1996-03-20 and then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.Brent Staples, "The Littlest Killers", The New York Times, 1996-02-06 Henry Cisneros, then Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, called it a clinching fact in the federal government's decision to take over the troubled Chicago Housing Authority.
Legacy the 2002 Showtime TV Movie Our America is dedicated to Eric Morse, and also depicts his death.
See also List of homicides in Illinois Robert Sandifer, 11-year-old murdered in Chicago a month before Morse Dantrell Davis, 7-year-old accidentally shot and killed in Chicago in 1992
References