Parents Of Bakari Henderson, Killed 2017 In Greece, Prepare For Assailants Retrial After Son Was Treated Like ‘Less Than A Man’ In First Trial
Bakari Henderson was simply on vacation in Greece with friends, having a good time and seeing the sights. But that trip turned tragic when he ran across a group of men and wound up in a deadly conflict with them. None of his attackers were found guilty of murder, leaving his loved ones angered and feeling cheated. But their story did not end there.
CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King interviewed Henderson’s parents, parents, Jill and Phil Henderson on Thursday (Feb. 10), ahead of their return to Greece for the retrial of seven men who beat their son to death.
Jill Henderson said it’s been a struggle to fill the void from their son’s death. She described the first trial as “an eye-opener.” It was conducted in Greek, so she and her husband couldn’t understand everything that was going on during the proceedings.
Nevertheless, it was important to be there in person “just so they know that Bakari is loved, and so we could support the outcome and see that justice was done,” Jill Henderson added.
They both believe that race played a role in their son’s killers receiving light sentences.
“I don’t think they view us, Black people, the same as they view white people over there. …They treated him [in the trial and the verdict] like he was less than a man,” Phil Henderson said.
Henderson, 22, of Austin, Texas was on a business trip on the Greek island of Zakynthos. He had recently graduated from the University of Arizona.
On July 7, 2017, while in the Greek resort town of Laganas Zakynthos, Henderson got into an altercation in a bar after a Serbian woman took a selfie with him and a friend, according to USA Today, citing an indictment in the case.
A man at the bar asked her why she would take a picture with a Black man when there were so many Serbs in the club. He threw a glass at the table. Henderson said something to the man who responded by slapping him, which prompted Henderson to retaliate by throwing a punch.
As he exited the bar, Henderson got into a heated verbal exchange with the man’s friends. They chased Henderson and assaulted him. The indictment said they punched and kicked him 33 times to the head, neck and torso. One attacker hit Henderson with brass knuckles.
The six men, five Serbian nationals and a British man of Serbian origin, were found guilty in 2018 of deadly assault but cleared of murder charges, CBS News reported. They received a sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
But a prosecutor in Greece ordered a retrial of those six men on murder charges. A seventh man, a Greek national, will also stand trial for murder.
Henderson was a fashion designer with big dreams. His mother said he was in Greece for a photo shoot. After his death, she discovered that he kept journals with his designs and others with lists of things he planned on doing and of people he would like to meet, including Robert Smith, the finance entrepreneur who is the wealthiest Black man in the United States.
Jill Henderson said she wants to be optimistic about the outcome of the second trial. “I hope this time, they view and treat Bakari like the child of God and the human that he is.”
