By STEPHANIE BEECKEN
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - The man sentenced to death for murdering Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom is now drawing the ire of his victims' supporters for his social media presence.
Lemaricus Davidson had a support Facebook page and a personal Facebook account until recently, when
someone in the community saw the page and shared the link.
Hundreds in the community took steps over the weekend to get the page taken
down.
Still, the "Supporters of Lemaricus Davidson" Facebook page
remains.
Robert Davis, a Facebook friend of Channon Christian's father, Gary, saw on Gary's page a message about Lemaricus Davidson's page. He clicked the links and found Davidson's
pages.
"It was just a normal Facebook page with Lemaricus Davidson's picture on it. The only one that you
could leave a comment on was the support page," said Davis.
Seeing the pages upset
Davis and many others.
"Channon and Chris are
gone. No Facebook page for them. He shouldn't have any Facebook page at all,"
said Davis.
So Davis and hundreds
of others called the Tennessee Department of
Corrections.
"I was able to make
someone aware of the page and I was told that they would look into it," said
Davis.
Dorinda Carter with
the Tennessee Department of Corrections said they received calls about
Davidson's Facebook page then took action.
"We work hard with the
people of Facebook to remove those pages as soon as they are discovered it's a
violation not only our policy but of Facebook policy," said
Carter.
Carter said according
to department policy, inmates are not allowed to access the internet while
incarcerated.
Facebook's policy does not allow convicted sex offenders to have a Facebook page and people cannot operate a personal page on another's
behalf.
While the Davidson's
page was removed, Facebook said the supporter page may remain.
"The page does not pose a material threat to anyone's safety,
and under our terms, has been allowed to stay up," a Facebook spokesperson told 6 News.
It's a policy that
doesn't sit well with Davis.
"I'll do what I can to get the support
page down, because it doesn't need to be there," he said.
The
Tennessee Department of Corrections said Davidson's personal Facebook page may
have been created by his family or friends or he may have illegally gained
access to a cell phone and created it.
Carter said disciplinary action will be
taken if corrections officials determine Davidson had a cell phone.
Hundreds in the community took steps over the weekend to get the page taken down. Still, the "Supporters of Lemaricus Davidson" Facebook page remains.
Facebook's policy does not allow convicted sex offenders to have a Facebook page, but a spokesperson said they would not take down Davidson's support page.
