† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI.Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

Of Charles Ramsey and Stanley Tookie Williams ~
Redemption and Transformation, Part 1
by nancy a heitzeg

“People forget that redemption is tailor-made for the wretched.”
~ Stanley Tookie Williams December 2, 2005

Many tales of criminal injustice emerged out of Cleveland last week. As the 10 year ordeal of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Berry’s 6-year-old daughter came to an end, the horrors were revealed. Kidnapping. Rape. Torture. Forced miscarriages. False imprisonment.

Questions emerged too – about potential laxness on the part of the Cleveland police in investigating further both the missing women and suspicious activity around Ariel Castro’s home. Questions about the role of race and class generally in driving missing persons police action and media coverage. Questions about “The Missing White Woman Syndrome”.

But before the week was over the spot-light turned away from both victims and perpetrator to focus on one Charles Ramsey, the too honest neighbor and eventual rescuer of Berry and the others. From the very first interview, it was clear that Ramsey made the media nervous. His life at the margins of both race and class. His raw honesty about race and some “white girls” — Dead Give-away.

He wasn’t our typical hero. So first, the laughter, then the quick turn to viciousness, as smokinggun and others dug the dirt. Just as they thought, Charles Ramsey was “the criminal-black-man” after all. The cognitive dissonance was now melting away away — Maybe he wasn’t a “hero” after all?? How, in our culture of simplistic either/or binaries, could he be?

In all that has been written since the news broke out of Cleveland, it is Liliana Segura of The Nation who reveals the central questions in Race, Redemption and Charles Ramsey. (The piece is excerpted throughout this essay, but please read the original in its’ entirety.) She finds hope in the support that Ramsey has continued to receive from  many – hope that, by embracing him, we may be more generous to others as well.

The story of Charles Ramsey is a story of redemption that strikes deep at the heart of rigid social constructions of  “criminals” and the cultural charades we endure to maintain them. It is a story of the complexity of the human condition – one that defies all monolithic labels. And, so, it is a window into the possibilities of transformative justice.

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The Film

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, a new film from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. Directed and produced by Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns, the film chronicles the Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice. PBS

The Central Park Five will air on PBS Tuesday, April 16, 2013. To find where and when the documentary is showing at a theater near you, visit the Facebook page.

NYC’s Ongoing Denial of the ‘Central Park Five’ Is a Disservice to Black, Latino Men

I’m outraged at New York City. As a young black man recounting this case from the Central Park Five’s perspective, trying to not be outraged wasn’t even an option. I had the details to this story as I did Emmett Till, The Scottsboro Boys, Trayvon Martin and countless other cases of young black men being victimized by false claims of victimizing white people (specifically white women) — staying indebted to a historical and institutionalized hatred and fear of the black man. But beforehand, I didn’t have the details on this level, and I was mind-blown from start to finish of this documentary. So much it’s been a process to articulate it and put it in these words.

NYC owes the Central Park Five an apology (and their money — a $250 million civil suit filed in 2003), which really in itself won’t make up for the many years lost among the five men. But NYC refuses to give it — will not even acknowledge any wrongdoing in the case — some claiming that the actual serial rapist and murderer, Matias Reyes, was just the sixth missing person involved in the rape. NYC also asked for a subpoena of the documentary’s footage — claiming the filmmakers aren’t journalists and the documentary is one-sided. But the subpoena was denied being that the filmmakers are protected under freedom of speech. According to the documentary’s well-known filmmaker, Ken Burns, asked for the city of New York’s voice in the documentary, but prosecutors and police refused to give it.

More Than 100 Civil Rights Leaders, Elected Officials, Clergy, Former Prosecutors and Judges, Current and Past ABA Presidents, and a Former TX Governor Call for New, Fair Sentencing for Duane Buck

NAACP Calls Mr. Buck’s Death Penalty Case a “Blatant Example of Racial Bias”

(Harris County, Texas, March 20, 2013)
Today, 102 prominent individuals from Texas and throughout the country released a statement urging Texas officials to provide a new, fair sentencing hearing for Duane Buck.  Mr. Buck is an African-American man who was condemned to death after his sentencing jury was told that he posed a future danger because of his race.  The signatories write: “The State of Texas cannot condone any form of racial discrimination in the courtroom. The use of race in sentencing poisons the legal process and breeds cynicism in the judiciary. No execution should be carried out until the courts have a meaningful opportunity to address the evidence of fundamental injustice in Mr. Buck’s case. A new, fair sentencing hearing for Mr. Buck is absolutely necessary to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system.”

“The diverse chorus of voices calling for a new, fair sentencing hearing for Duane Buck reflect how Texas’s disturbing appeal to racial bias fundamentally undermines the integrity of the entire criminal justice system and makes each of us less safe,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, Director Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. which represents Mr. Buck, along with the Texas Defender Service and attorney Kate Black.  “For anyone to trust the criminal justice system, it must be fair to everyone.”

“Mr. Buck’s hearing was tainted by racial discrimination,” stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, a signatory to the statement.  “He deserves a new hearing that is not the product of race-based fear mongering posing as reasoned fact.  This case is a blatant example of racial bias being allowed to seep into a justice system that is supposed to be fair and equitable to all.”

RACE: New Study Shows Racial Bias in Seeking the Death Penalty in Harris County

A new study regarding the use of the death penalty in Harris County, Texas, was released in conjunction with the filing of an appeal by Harris County death row inmate, Duane Buck. The research was conducted by Professor Raymond Paternoster of the University of Maryland, who examined over 500 murder cases in the county. The study found that, in cases with circumstances similar to Buck’s and during the time in which he was tried, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office sought the death penalty 3.5 times more often when the defendant was African-American than when the defendant was white. When the cases were submitted to Harris County (Houston) juries, the net result was a greater proportion of African-American defendants ended with death sentences than white defendants. Buck’s case is also controversial because an expert witness testified at Buck’s trial that he was more likely to pose a future danger to society because he is African American, and hence more likely to commit violence. Read full study.

Action: Petition and Thunderclap Campaign

Please go to http://thndr.it/WGPhK8 and sign up to join the Thunderclap to help Duane Buck.

If we get 100 people to join us, Thunderclap will post 100 Tweets or Facebook statuses at the exact same moment on April 3, 2013 at 12 Noon Eastern.

• Click on “Support with Facebook” and / or “Support with Twitter.”
• Then take the next step and let your friends and followers know that you are helping.

That’s it. Thunderclap will do the rest! On April 3, 2013 at 12 Noon Eastern, the message will appear in your news feed, but don’t worry — Thunderclap will not spam you or your friends.

Sign the petition at Change.org petition asking for a new, fair hearing.

† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

 The Death Penalty Crumbles ~ Maryland and Beyond
by Emma Weisfeld-Adams for Equal Justice USA (EJUSA)

On Friday the State House in Maryland voted to pass legislation to repeal the death penalty with a vote of 82-56.

The State Senate already passed the legislation and the governor has promised to sign.

Maryland will become the sixth state in six years to end the death penalty.

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† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

“[T]he Eighth Amendment prohibits a State from carrying out a sentence of death upon a prisoner who is insane.” Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U. S. 399, 409–410 (1986) .  ~ Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in Panetti v. Quarterman (2007)

Andre Thomas is Both Mad and Now Blind, As is the System About to Murder Him…
by nancy a heitzeg

Much of the nation continues to move away from the machinery of death ; Death Penalty Information Center reports a near record low number of death sentences and executions as well as additional states considering abolition. Still, Texas marches on. The state  continued to lead the nation in both executions and , perhaps, controversy, including sending to death in defiance of Atkins v Virginia, one Marvin Wilson, IQ 61.

And, now,  Andre Thomas – a man with a documented life-long history of extreme mental illness, a man who, hearing the voice of God,  killed his estranged wife and 2 children , a man who himself then later removed first his right eye, according to Biblical proscriptions, then later removed his left, and ate it – awaits word from a federal district court in Beaumont, Texas as to whether he is sane enough to die.

Andre Thomas at Arrest, After removal of his Right Eye while awaiting trial; and After the removal of his Left Eye on Death Row, 2008

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Julie Green: “The meals were so personal, they humanized death row for me.”

New York Times/ see Slide Show

That the world knows what a condemned person was served — indeed, that such information is often part of the narrative of the execution itself, posted on Web sites and in news articles from the prison — is what initially caught Professor Green’s attention…

The number of executions has declined in the United States in recent years, from a modern-era high of 98 in 1999 to 43 in 2012. Texas, which has put more people to death than any other state since capital punishment was restored in 1976 by the United States Supreme Court, stopped offering special last meals to the condemned in 2011. But the number of Professor Green’s plates keeps growing: She plans to continue painting as long as there is a death penalty.

“The Last Supper” closes in Corvallis, Ore., on Feb. 16, and will then travel to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, in Eugene, Ore.

† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

“A Life Lived Deliberately”
by Mumia Abu-Jamal,
Graduation Speech at Evergreen State College, June 11, 1999

Reprinted in The New Abolitionists: (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, Joy James, editor, and The Radical Philosophy Review

Editors Note: As I reflected back on 2012, The Year of the Vote, a year book-ended by the murder of Trayvon Martin and the massacre at Sandy Hook, I was struck by both the victories and the on-going struggles.

But mostly, I was grateful. For this space, for those who frequent it, for a multitude of organizations who persist in  seeking transformative solutions to the monstrosities of criminal injustice, those who resist the lure of the quick-fix “confidence men” and remain committed, in the face of tremendous odds, to liberation, to Abolition.

Thank you especially to Seeta Persaud, Kay Whitlock, Angola 3 News, Project NIA and Prison Culture, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity, Victoria Law, Critical Resistance , The Real Cost of Prisons Project, Solitary Watch and Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. Many more…

You all could be anywhere, doing anything but you have made a Deliberate Choice.

So too, have you readers. The subject matter of this series is difficult, rarely uplifting, but I am so grateful you choose to read, to engage, here and elsewhere, to pass the information and action calls on.

In that spirit, I offer tonight the speech Mumia Abu Jamal delivered to the graduating class of Evergreen College in June of 1999, the first graduation speech delivered by a death row inmate. (Mumia has since had his death sentence lifted and is serving life without parole. He has not been freed or silenced.) Students made the choice to invite him and they fought long and hard to have that finally honored. They lived the speech before he gave it – as it should be.

Whatever you think of Mumia’s case, or MOVE or militancy or the rest, the spirit of these words is right. So many stumble through life, deciding not to decide. Just surviving through either poverty or privilege – on the Mean Streets or Wall Streets, in the suites or in the ivory towers of academia. Some think it is easier to turn away — to avoid the pain or the obligation that always comes with knowledge and especially comes with privilege – but Not You.

You Live Life Deliberately and I Love You for It.

Thank You ~ Honored to be with you in the Struggle.

Here’s to 2013.

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† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

Dismantling the PIC
by nancy a heitzeg

The results of Election 2012 provide some glimpse of hope that the War on Drugs, aka The New Jim Crow, may be waning in popularity, the costs  at last possibly outweighing the benefits perceived by the public. Both Washington and Colorado passed ballot measures that legalized marijuana. And while a proposition to abolish the death penalty failed, California, that epicenter of the PIC, finally finally finally revised it’s draconian Three Strikes legislation. It now applies to violent felonies only.

The three strikes measure, which passed 69 percent to 31 percent, sought only to bring California’s law more into line with the 24 other states with similar laws rather than repeal it.

Now, an offender’s “third strike” must be a serious or violent felony to garner a prison sentence of 25-years-to-life in prison. Previously, any third felony conviction — regardless of severity — triggered the sentence. Proposition 36 will cut costs through fewer parole hearings and shorter sentences for many and some 2,800 prisoners serving life sentences can now apply for sentence reductions.

Still. despite such glimmerings, undoing the tangled web of profit, punishment and collusion that is the PIC remains a daunting task. As we prepare to move forward, just take another look

The Corrections Documentary Project offers an excellent visual and interactive (click here!) view of these connections.

Same story — in words:

“The prison industrial complex is a self-perpetuating machine where the vast profits (e.g. cheap labor, private and public supply and construction contracts, job creation, continued media profits from exaggerated crime reporting and crime/punishment as entertainment) and perceived political benefits (e.g. reduced unemployment rates, “get tough on crime” and public safety rhetoric, funding increases for police, and criminal justice system agencies and professionals) lead to policies that are additionally designed to insure an endless supply of “clients” for the criminal justice system (e.g. enhanced police presence in poor neighborhoods and communities of color; racial profiling; decreased funding for public education combined with zero-tolerance policies and increased rates of expulsion for students of color; increased rates of adult certification for juvenile offenders; mandatory minimum and “three-strikes” sentencing; draconian conditions of incarceration and a reduction of prison services that contribute to the likelihood of “recidivism”; “collateral consequences”-such as felony disenfranchisement, prohibitions on welfare receipt, public housing, gun ownership, voting and political participation, employment- that nearly guarantee continued participation in “crime” and return to the prison industrial complex following initial release.) ( Brewer and Heitzeg 2008)

In the weeks and months ahead, CI and CMP will say more on concrete actions that we all can take to began to dismantle this mess. Surely that will need to address both the political and economic under-pinnings of the PIC.

Take a look at interactive graphics linked above.. Tell us your thoughts regarding future actions, potential pieces here and possible partnerships.

Then let’s do it..