For sure there’s some bias involved. I often find the bias, though, to be geographic and economic, rather than inherently based on color. I’ve seen the same defending of character of non-black folk who’ve been murdered in a poor or violent area of town… “He/she was from an iffy part of town, but was nice, and didn’t deserve to die”. In this case, the family and media likely thought it fairer to the deceased to be on the offensive and defend her character before the inevitable armchair kneejerk reaction of people assuming it was drug-related, or otherwise. We’re starting to see the same extolling of virtues when a Muslim person is killed… to ensure that people don’t have that automatic negative reaction (ISIL, terrorist, etc.). It’s kind of ridiculous, and at it’s core a little insulting, but perhaps it does tend to bring our diverse communities closer together.