Hello listeners, I'm your host Amara, and this is Black Girl God, a true crime podcast.

On this episode of Black Girl Gone, I tell the story of 15-year-old Latasha

Harlands who was shot to death on March 16, 1991 in South Central Los Angeles. The day she was

murdered, Latasha went to a local convenience store to buy orange shoes, but when she went to the

counter to pay for it, the store owner accused her of shoplifting. A fight broke out and Latasha

tried to get away, but the store owner put out a gun and shot her as she turned to leave.

The store owner was arrested and convicted, but she never went to jail.

Latasha's murder and the lack of justice that followed since shockwaves throughout Los Angeles.

32 years after her murder, not much has changed. This is Latasha's story.

When Latasha Harlands was murdered 32 years ago, the world looked different than it does right now,

but in many ways things haven't changed very much at all.

Latasha's murder and the miscarriage of justice after is a story that should never be forgotten,

because it's a story about the senselessness of a 15-year-old girl's murder,

but it's also about how the justice system in America often fails black people.

32 years ago, or today, what happened to Latasha Harlands in 1991 could have easily happened to

her in 2021, and the results would have been exactly the same. A devaluing of black lives in

order to justify their murders is something that has continued. If you're too young to remember

Latasha's story, or just are not familiar with it, you have watched history repeat itself,

especially over the last several years. Latasha's story was a complicated one.

At 15 years old, she had already been through a lot and had seen things no child should.

Finding out about her life makes her brutal murder even more unfair, because

Latasha deserved so much more.

...