The Circuit Court of Crittenden County has granted a request for a special Grand Jury to look at the shooting death of DeAunta Farrow by West Memphis Officer Erik Sammis.

Officials say the court will extend an offer to special prosecutor H.G. Foster, to present the evidence to the Grand Jury, if he is available to do so.

DeAunta Farrow was shot and killed on June 22, 2007. Officer Erik Sammis told investigators he thought Farrow was holding a gun. Investigators say the gun found at the shooting scene was real.

Officer Sammis was cleared of any charges by the Arkansas State Police and the U.S. Justice Department.

In an order written by Circuit Judge Victor Hill, he states the Farrow case has been racially charged since the beginning. Judge Hill sites a past case in which a police officer was involved. In May 2000, Officer David Turner, who is black, became involved in an altercation with a white citizen, after the citizen approached him in during a traffic stop. The white citizen, Leo Calvallaro, Jr., suffered a fractured skull and eventually slipped into a coma and died from his injuries. Hill says Officer Turner was put on trial, which ended in a hung jury. He says during a second trial of the same officer, he was convicted.

"In that case, a panel of Crittenden County citizens, on two separate occasions, had the opportunity to pass upon the conduct of the black officer. In the instant matter [of Farrow and Sammis], the white officer approached the black citizen, who, from all accounts, was where he had every right to be, doing what he had every right to be doing, and the black citizen wound up dead. In start contrast to the former case, it appears that every mechanism allowed by law has been interposed to prevent the officer in the latter case from answering to a panel of Crittenden County citizens about the propriety or impropriety of his actions."

Judge Hill goes on to talk about problems he has had with West Memphis Police. In the order, he states he is the only black judge of eleven serving the Second Judicial Circuit.

"...there have been those persons in positions of responsibility and authority, who have made it known that they have only disdain for the rights of blacks and the authority of the sole black judge in the district. The assistance [sic] chief of police of West Memphis has filed a series of frivolous and racially motivated complaints against the only black circuit judge. In his most recent attempt, he was joined by the city attorney. Whether deliberately or subconsciously, these, and others like them have sought to make it clear that they haver no respect for the rights of blacks. The assistant chief's open racism has brought no sanction upon him."

Judge Hill writes that he believes Officer Sammis should have been tried before a jury panel, just as Officer Turner was in the case mentioned previously.

"They would have had the evidence placed before them and they would have passed upon the presence or absence of criminal liability on Officer Sammis' part, just as happened in Officer Turner's case, and the court believes, just as would have happened here if the officer involved were black and the child was white."

Judge Hill says presenting the case before a grand jury may be the only occasion the citizens of Crittenden County will have to hear a first-hand account of what really happened the night Farrow was killed.

Judge Hill concludes the order by saying, "The life of the young black citizen is no less valuable than that of the white citizen who died following an altercation with a police officer. Our system should tolerate not even the least suggestion that it is so."

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