Two separate societies: one in prison and one not
April 21, 2008
MARIE GOTTSCHALK, Houston Chronicle
- Forty years ago, the Kerner Commission concluded in its landmark study of the causes of racial disturbances in the United States in the 1960s: “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.” Today we are still moving toward two societies: one incarcerated and one not. The Pew Center on the States released a study in February showing that for the first time in this country’s history, more than one in every 100 adults is in jail or prison. According to the Justice Department, 7 million people — or one in every 32 adults — are either incarcerated, on parole or probation or under some other form of state or local supervision.
A 26-year-old secret could free inmate
April 12, 2008
SHARON COHEN, Associated Press
For nearly 26 years, the affidavit was sealed in an envelope and stored in a locked box, tucked away with the lawyer’s passport and will. Sometimes he stashed the box in his bedroom closet, other times under his bed. It stayed there — year after year, decade after decade.
Then, about two years ago, Dale Coventry, the box’s owner, got a call from his former colleague, W. Jamie Kunz. Both were once public defenders. They hadn’t talked in a decade.
And so, Coventry began reading aloud the five-line declaration the lawyers had written more than a quarter-century before: An innocent man was behind bars. His name was Alton Logan. He did not kill a security guard in a McDonald’s restaurant in January 1982.
Man indicted for making threats to Justice Clarence Thomas
April 10, 2008
Terry Frieden, CNN
The U.S. Supreme Court’s only black justice was the target of a racially motivated threat by an Ohio man who has been indicted in Cleveland, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.
An eight-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury charges David Tuason of Pepper Pike, Ohio, with making multiple threats against Justice Clarence Thomas and with threatening to blow up the Supreme Court building.
Tuason had made the threats in e-mails and mailed letters to the Supreme Court, as well as to Thomas personally, according to a source close to the case.
Local NAACP leaders speak out against inequality
April 7, 2008
CARL MARIO NUDI, Bradenton Herald
Local NAACP members spoke about the inequality in sentencing of blacks in the nation’s courts and in Manatee County this morning on the steps of the county courthouse.
“We’re here today to show our displeasure in the disparities in Manatee and Sarasota counties, in particular the Walker case,” said Trevor Harvey, president of the Sarasota County NAACP at a press conference at 7:30 a.m.
Michael Walker, 19, will go on trial Tuesday in the February 2007 shooting death of Daniel Ramsey, a retired Manatee County government employee.
Mumia Abu-Jamal’s supporters vow to keep up fight
April 4, 2008
Rosita Johnson, People’s Weekly World
Following the decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals that Mumia Abu-Jamal must be sentenced to life in prison or receive a new sentencing trial, his attorney and his supporters are vowing to continue the fight for his exoneration.
Abu-Jamal has been on death row for nearly 26 years, after being convicted in the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 27 that Abu-Jamal must be sentenced to life in prison or receive a new sentencing trial by jury in Philadelphia. By a 2-1 decision the panel upheld his conviction in the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.
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