In February 2024, Mahogany Jackson, a 20-year-old woman and mother from Birmingham, Alabama, was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in what authorities described as a heinous and sickening crime. Her mother, Gail Shearer, later spoke of her grief, saying, “I get sad thinking about how much life she still had ahead of her that’s gone. There is nothing I can do about it.”
The ordeal began on the night of February 24, 2024, when Jackson was held against her will at a Birmingham
apartment. Over several hours, she was subjected to a brutal series of assaults that her attackers recorded and shared on social media. The videos showed Jackson being beaten, spit upon, stripped naked, handcuffed, and sexually assaulted at gunpoint. In the early hours of February 25, Jackson sent a text message to her mother, telling her she had been kidnapped and providing her location. Investigators believe her captors became aware of the message and moved her.
On February 26, shortly after 2 a.m., police found Jackson’s body at an illegal dumping site near the intersection of 17th Street Southwest and Laurel Avenue. She was found underneath a mattress and had been shot in the back of the head. The Birmingham police chief called the crime deplorable, and the district attorney described it as one of the most gruesome murders he had ever seen.
In the days that followed, police arrested eight individuals in connection with the crime: Brandon Pope, 25; Francis Harris, 25; Jeremiah McDowell, 19; Blair Green, 26; Si'Niya McCall, 24; Teja Lewis, 26; Giovannie Clapp, 24; and Airana Robinson, 23. While their initial charges varied, by October 2024 a grand jury had indicted all eight on capital murder charges. Several also face additional charges of kidnapping, robbery, and sodomy.
Prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty for all eight defendants. In December 2024, all eight pleaded not guilty at their arraignments. The state has since declined to offer any plea deals. As of June 2026, the case remains pending trial.
