"Egregious Prosecution"-Wrongful Convictions!! | Beware: Open Season II

It appears we're headed for a watershed moment in american jurisprudence. Finally, a definitive deep-south statement on wrongful convictions-'EGREGIOUS',says Emily Maw of the Innocence Project of New Orleans. Definitive? Yes! Take the exculpatory evidence in the case of Michael Jarvis Cobb; the evidence was "lawyered" into the minds of the jurors.
Balko Reform Alliance? SCOTUS-9dec09 Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters and his then-assistant district attorney, Bobby DeLaughter, excluded DNA evidence in 1994hlr

"For this reason I find the Willis case particularly egregious—and we don’t normally say that about our cases.” -Emily Maw IPNO

Cedric Willis says he is happy that the state of Mississippi agreed to pay him compensation for wrongfully convicting him for the shooting death of Carl White in 1994, even though $500,000 doesn’t quite seem to cover it.

The Innocence Project, a national non-profit group, works to overturn wrongful convictions, largely through post-conviction DNA testing. The organization helped overturn Willis’ conviction in 2006. Innocence Project New Orleans Director Emily Maw, who led that effort said she applauded the restitution, but warned the state that restitution does not fix a broken justice system.

“We commend legislators who agreed to pass the law allowing people to be compensated and the attorney general who agreed that they should be compensated, but it does not absolve the state of Mississippi or its legal profession from reflecting upon how an innocent man was effectively framed by police and tried by prosecutors,” Maw said.

Maw pointed out that the Willis case was particularly insidious in that the wrongful prosecution was completely voluntary on the part of prosecutors, as opposed to accidental.

“The case of Arthur Johnson was a mistake in witness identification, pure and simple. But in Willis’ case, two entities knew it was the wrong guy and went ahead and prosecuted him,” she said. “In this case nobody has taken responsibility for their actions, and nobody has called upon responsible people to take responsibility for their actions. For this reason I find the Willis case particularly egregious—and we don’t normally say that about our cases.”

Maw added that she did not believe that the potential loss of compensation expenditures by the state would, by itself, discourage laziness in the courtroom: “No, they won’t be more careful. They waste money every day,” she said. “There is an absurd amount of wasted money in the criminal justice system, from poor scheduling, bad use of time and wasted resources in the prison system with the state’s incarceration policy. Unless the money is clearly coming right out of (criminal justice employees’) pockets, the court system won’t give a damn.”. ..from Jackson Free Press

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January 29, 2009 FULL VIDEO

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Left, Right, Left:Open Season | Be Aware!

Oct-Nov09 Heather | Memphis SCLC | Altgeld Gardens-Chicago | Detroit | Georgia | Derrion Albert | Richmond High
Just in case you're not getting it! Missouri Show-down? | "Line Cutter" March | Kennet
The Left as they call it - means you're a communist! Revolution means you're against the "american way."
7September09
I want you to know one thing about "gestapo-ism,"- it is controlling every & any thing you say or do. If you don't tow the "establishment correctness" you're out! Done! POTUS-Advisor quits,cites "lies & distortions"

Outcry of Justice | Christina Swarns-NaacpLDF | IP Summer'09 | dna.gov
^ Texas exoneree: "a nightmare," ''hell" and "slavery". New Texas law awards wrongly convicted.

Freedom Highway '65

A modern day Range War? America is re-visiting its inner self. No one should be caught off guard, however. Especially, those whose lives were ramshackled in late '63.

And after the bastards have accomplished their dastardly deed, they'll plead their innocence. The steady ramping-up of rhetoric has an end, and a purpose.

Guns, TNT & a rocket launcher were found in suburban Chicago. A so-called, "anarchist cookbook" was found, a father & son were arrested. It's about to get rough folks.
Home, home on the range still has to deal with criminal justice, immigration & poverty.


Only a Pawn in their Game
090909-Address to Congress

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Another Joe!?! An obvious
scoundrel
in an agreed
upon upheavel, a definite reminder of the former days. The "radicalization of amerika" the last.Racism in the Chamber!?!

Wilson turned a deaf ear to pleas from his party's leaders to apologize on the House floor Thursday, telling reporters his call to the White House had been sufficient and that his comments were "spontaneous" and the result of being overcome with emotion. Democratic leaders, though stunned, said they were not inclined to pursue an official sanction against Wilson

Sorry Folks: It's Just not the Same

Jan 20, 2009 "Reflecting Pool Freezes Over"

After some "forced fed" research last week, it has become evident that "equating the move of 16th century slave-chattel to 19th century 'emancipation' to 20th century negro 'freedom' marches and the subsequent advances; with current marriage activism as the same or similar; is not consistent with the facts of the 'then' and the 'now'.

"Now" with a downplayed event to occur in Jackson, Ms., & Lambert, Ms., spearheaded by Antoinette Harrell & 20th Century Slavery, as a fact is brought to bare in Harrell's Poverty Tour.

Her "movement" is long overdue. However, on one specific episode, what was seen in "the evolution of Dr. King's 'Poor People's Campaign' is juxtaposed" against current conditions.

The idea of 20th Century Slavery is appalling. But, the fear placed on individuals cannot be equated with the "voluntary acceptance of a lifestyle" which devolves to "teen & adolescent" bondage.

"Many of the countless missing boys & girls are in bondage in America in 2009, by the purveyors of images of youth in explicit depictions of bondage."

It should be noted, we are in the 21st Century! "Some years ago, at one of her many speaking engagements on the importance of tracking family history (even the painful parts), Antoinette Harrell was approached by Mae Louise Wall Miller, who told her that she was raised in what amounted to slavery and only escaped in 1963. That's right. Not 1863, but 1963.
Miller's family lived in a remote setting in Mississippi, far from cities or even roads, not being able to read or write and completely cut off from outsiders. The story Miller tells is harrowing and, as she told it at the premiere, you could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium.
Miller talked about how they were treated worse than dogs. How they all spent their every waking moment "picking cotton, pulling corn, picking peas, picking butter beans, picking string beans, digging potatoes; whatever it was, that's what you did for no money at all." How the "Boss's" table scraps were tossed into a tub for days and then set out under a tree for them to eat out of like hogs." It is evident a great amount of effort was employed to subject folks in that time, "then".

But right at this prevalent time, this enigma approaches us from the woodworks of yesterday, to give us the incompleteness of efforts to distance ourselves from the past. Plagued with Latina & Black issues of Justice & Economics, subprime schemes & Bankrupt automakers plus who can or cannot marry.

"Now" some want to equate "today's" watershed issue with "then".

"So, Pettus Bridge was about really exposing a system of southern mistreatment of negroes at the hands of others. All along the Delta's plantations, poor blacks were "forcibly" held in a neuvo captivity."

The political means of Hamer, Evers & countless others in Mississippi, the Congress of Racial Equality in Baton Rouge in 1961, the Montgomery Bus Boycott & the many unsung-ed "rights" events; still kept the depraved conditions forced upon negroes, hid.

Still, in Selma the backlash of deprivation is evident when you take a closer look. All along "freedom's trail", the stench of backlash from Detroit to Denham Springs remains. The change then was to end "enslavement". The issues of inequality are starkly different. No one is attempting to keep any "so-called consenting adults" trapped in poverty, beginning with forced slavery and continued to this day through institutionalized mechanisms of devaluation.

When I now see, the well known of the "consented lifestyle", the culminating finality of insobriety the defiant deviance brings about is self-inflicted. No slave, thought upon himself to become one.
This defiant deviance further emboldens others, to deeper depths. Thusly, our children are trapped in a "new-age slavery", a slavery of its own making. This is not the slavery, forced upon others by the Code Noir.
Recently, photos were released of Rihanna. Proportedly nude. We were already aware of the leather. It is a consented lifestyle.

But, there are others, who are forcibly held captive in this lifestyle. Their faces are on milkboxes. Their parents are told they are runaways. Adults pay to see them on the internet.

Sorry Folks, It's Just not the Same!!

Prevailing Justice?!

Jan 20 2009 "Reflecting Pool Freezes Over"



Legislation speaks to persistent racial and ethnic disparities within the federal criminal justice system.

originally published 2-26-09 Brennan Center for Justice


Washington, D.C. – Today, Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Arlen Spector (R-PA) introduced critical legislation that speaks to persistent racial and ethnic disparities within the federal criminal justice system. Inspired in part by a 2007 Brennan Center and the National Institute for Law and Equity report, the Justice Integrity Act (JIA) of 2008 seeks to ensure equal treatment for all citizens involved in the criminal process.

Originally introduced by then-Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), the JIA is intended to restore public confidence in the fair and equitable application of justice. The proposed legislation grew, in part, out of a report released by the Brennan Center and the National Institute for Law and Equity, Prosecutorial Discretion and Racial Disparities in Federal Sentencing: Some Views of Former U.S. Attorneys, which identified ways for U.S. Attorneys' to address racial disparities in sentencing and to mitigate the effects on communities that are disproportionately impacted by high rates of incarceration.

"The Justice Integrity Act provides a non-partisan, objective mechanism through which law enforcement officials can take a close look at whether we are achieving the goal of ensuring fair and equal treatment for all citizens that find themselves involved with our criminal justice system—which is the promise of our democracy," says Nicole Austin-Hillery, Director and Counsel of the Brennan Center's Washington, D.C. office.

The JIA would create a pilot program that would be implemented by United States Attorneys in ten federal districts, who with the assistance of "advisory committees" comprised of prosecutors and defenders, judges and correctional officers, among others, would be charged with the responsibility to collect and examine data illuminating racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice policies within the selected districts. The advisory committees would also study ways to reduce unwarranted disparities and make recommendations as to how to ensure fairness in the criminal justice system.

Recognizing that African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated across a range of offenses, Melanca Clark, counsel in the Brennan Center's Justice Program, stated: "We've become desensitized to the over-involvement of black and brown men in the criminal justice system, and the related human cost to individuals, families and communities. The JIA is a critical step towards real, color-blind, Justice."

The advisory committees will offer recommendations to inform the creation of plans that will help ensure that law enforcement priorities and initiatives, charging and plea bargaining decisions, and sentencing recommendations are not influenced by racial or ethnic stereotyping, and that facially neutral laws or policies are applied without actual or unconscious bias.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Nicole Austin-Hillery or Melanca Clark, please contact Jeanine Plant-Chirlin at 212-998-6289 or at Jeanine.plant-chirlin@nyu.edu.

Critical legislation introduced!

Prosecutorial Discretion and Racial Disparities in Federal Sentencing.

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Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law | 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor | New York, NY 10013
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