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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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100989
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10098900.044
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1990-09-18
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NATION, Page 37American NotesOKLAHOMANot a Murder, A Mistake
Tawanah Jean Griggs, 17, was lying on the sofa in her mother's
living room in Bartlesville, Okla., last May 1 when her cousin Neil
Ennis walked in, carrying a 12-gauge pump shotgun. Ennis leveled
the weapon at the girl. "Shall we put her out of her misery?" he
asked a mutual friend standing there. The gun went off, killing
Griggs. Her photograph was featured on the cover of TIME's July 17
investigation into the deaths of the 464 people killed by guns in
the U.S. during the week of May 1-7.
Last week Ennis, 20, pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree
manslaughter and was ordered to spend six months in jail, work 480
hours of community service and pay $3,000 in fines.
Although Ennis was initially charged with second-degree murder,
the shooting "was clearly an accident," said assistant district
attorney Perry Newman. Ennis was joking when he pointed the shotgun
at his cousin, and his finger apparently bumped the trigger. Like
more than 60 other shooting victims in TIME's survey, Tawanah Jean
Griggs was the victim not of a crime but of a recklessly casual
attitude about guns.