← Previous Post: | Next Post:

 

From Gothamist.

Harvard’s pissed.

A Brooklyn woman who is a Harvard University senior has been barred from graduation next month due to her connection to the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old man in a university dorm last week.

Police have arrested Manhattan resident Jabrai Jordan Copney, 20, for the murder of Justin Cosby; police said Copney, whose girlfriend is a senior at Harvard, and two other men intended to rob Cosby of marijuana and money. Two (unidentified) female Harvard students are described as “the nexus between Cosby and Copney.”

A lawyer for the Harvard senior told the Boston Globe, “This is a highly educated, independent young woman who has literally been cared for since she was a teenager by Harvard – and now they have terminated her right to be on campus. There is no justification for it. She may have known the people involved, but you know, it’s not guilt by association in this country.”

The student was also kicked out of her dorm, Kirkland House, which is where the shooting took place; a previous report said that Copney’s girlfriend’s “gave Copney her dorm hall access card, which allowed him to float in and out of Harvard dorms.”

Margaret Soltan, May 24, 2009 8:31PM
Posted in: guns

Trackback URL for this post:
https://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=13317

6 Responses to “From Gothamist.”

  1. Cassandra Says:

    “This is a highly educated, independent young woman who has literally been cared for since she was a teenager by Harvard…"

    Is she "independent"? Or is she "cared for (since she was a teenager)"?

    In other words, is she responsible for allowing an unauthorized individual unlimited access to Harvard facilities (most likely a big no-no in the code of conduct)?

    Or is she completely blameless because Harvard was in loco parentis and allowed her to be irresponsible?

    It’s all a mess…and, for me, just an extreme example of what can happen when adults get nanny-ed by colleges.

    If there is evidence that the young woman violated university policy, then she should be held accountable…even before any criminal investigation.

    I do wonder about her right to a fair hearing on this issue, though, since she was kicked off of campus so quickly. Unless Harvard knows more than has been released to the public.

  2. Van L. Hayhow Says:

    A murder committed during the commission of a felony is murder one under the (very) old doctrine of felony-murder. In Mass. there is only one penalty for murder one which is life without parole. Given that accessories to a crime are treated the same as the principal, she could have bigger problems down the road. I am sure the police are asking the Nixon impeachment questions. What did she know? When did she know it? If the police come to believe that she gave him the pass at the time of the planned robbery, and for that purpose, she could find herself a co-defendant in a murder case. It will be interesting to see how they tie this together, if they do.

  3. Mr Punch Says:

    Van is exactly right. Harvard, meanwhile, is running out of time — its control is pretty much gone once the degree is awarded in 10 days or so. This is a murder case, not a drug case. Harvard is pretty relaxed about many transgressions, but does not like murder.

  4. Michael W. McNabb Says:

    Van is correct that the police will be asking the Nixon impeachment questions.

    Whoever aids in the commission of a felony, or is an accessory thereto before the fact by counseling, hiring, or otherwise procuring such felony to be committed, shall be punishable in the manner provided for the punishment of the principal felon. Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 274 sec. 2.

    Homicide committed during the commission or attempted commission of a felony punishable other than by death or life imprisonment is murder in the second degree, provided that the predicate felony is either inherently dangerous or committed under circumstances that demonstrate the defendant’s conscious disregard of the risk to human life. Commonwealth v. Burton, 452 Mass. 55 (2007).

  5. wayward Says:

    The girlfriend has been ID’d, but she’s not the woman who was kicked off campus. Some of the comments are ugly, and this is just beginning.

    http://www.nypost.com/seven/05252009/news/regionalnews/gal_pal_idd_in_harvard_murder_170875.htm

  6. David Says:

    Hey. How many murders have there been in Harvard’s hoary history? Hmmm.

Comment on this Entry

UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

Archives

Categories