The Telegraph is reporting that a message from the parents of murder victims James Cooper and James Kouzaris was read after 17 year-old Shawn Tyson, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for murdering the two men who were vacationing in Florida last April.
Cooper and Kouzaris had just finished a night of drinking when they accidentally wandered into the housing project where Tyson lived. Witnesses said Tyson told them he saw two "crackers" - a derogatory name for white people - and that he intended to rob them. However, when Cooper and Kouzaris told him they had no money, he pulled out a gun and said, "Since you ain't got no money, then I have something for your ass." As Cooper and Kouzaris begged for their lives, he proceeded to shoot them multiple times then left them dead in the street.
A statement from the parents of the slain tourists was read outside the courtroom on Wednesday, just minutes after a jury convicted Tyson of murder.
Delivered by two friends of the family, Paul Davies and Joe Hallett, it criticized Obama, saying the deaths of their friends was "not worthy of ten minutes of his time."
Davies said:"We would like to publicly express our dissatisfaction at the lack of any public or private message of support or condolence from any American governing body or indeed, President Obama himself.
"Mr Kouzaris has written to President Obama on three separate occasions and is yet to even receive the courtesy of a reply.
"It would perhaps appear that Mr Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time."
The rebuke follows Obama's personal intervention into the shooting death last week of a young black teenager by a white neighborhood watch captain. The death of 17 year old Trayvon Martin has sparked nationwide protests with his supporters claiming he was the victim of a racist attack.
Obama interjected himself into the controversy last week by saying if he had a son he would have looked like Martin.
Thus far, the White House has made no comments about the Cooper-Kouzaris murders.
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