If You Think Jackson Hasn't Changed Since the 60s . . .

If you think "nothing much has changed" in Jackson, Mississippi since the 1960s, check this out. From the website of Howard University School of Law in Washington DC, here is the short biography of Chokwe Lumumba, Councilman-Elect of Jackson, Mississippi (as submitted by Mr. Lumumba's law firm):

Chokwe Lumumba is the National Chair and a co-founder of the New Afrikan People’s Organization (N.A.P.O.). He has served as NAPO’s chairperson since its inception in 1984 having been re-elected to the position in 2004. As national chair of the organization, Lumumba now resides in Jackson, Mississippi. Lumumba was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.

Lumumba’s leadership helped NAPO to establish an office and organizational presence in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1989. Lumumba has been in the leadership of campaigns in Jackson against police terror, and has joined with others to stop the Ku Klux Klan march planned for Jackson in April of 1990.

Lumumba is co-founder and a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and was an officer and co-founder of the Jackson Human Rights Coalition. He served as the Vice-Chair of the Grassroots Convention in Jackson, Mississippi in 1994.

As a member of NAPO, Lumumba has led and/or participated in the organization’s community youth programs, anti-crime patrols, political education forums, legal service clinics, and various other community service activities. He has also partaken in political action campaigns against racist institutions, the U.S. bombing of Libya, and many other acts of economic exploitation, racism, and international lawlessness.

In July of 1969, Chokwe Lumumba became a conscious citizen of the New Afrikan nation in North America, and a legionnaire in the Black Legion of the Republic of New Afrika. He served as acting President and Vice President of the Republic of New Afrika.

* * * *
In September of 2005, Chokwe Lumumba co-founded the Mississippi Disaster Relief Coalition (MS-DRC) in response to Hurricane Katrina and assisted in the distribution of tons of material aid to Katrina survivors. He serves as the coordinator of MS-DRC and as a member of the Interim Coordinating Committee of the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, Oversight Coalition. He also serves on the coordinating committee of the Black Activist Coalition on Katrina.

He was the co-coordinator and co-organizer of the December 8–9, 2005 From Outrage to Action Conference in Jackson, which was attended by about 600 Katrina survivors and/or supporters, and of the December 10, 2005, Right to Return March on New Orleans which drew about 5,000 participants.

Brother Chokwe has not only pursued and protected human rights on the streets, but he has championed the same in the courts. Chokwe is an Attorney at Law. He graduated with honors from Wayne State University Law School in 1975 after finishing first in his freshman law class in 1973-74. Lumumba initially entered law school at Wayne State University in the fall of 1969 before leaving to work full time for the RNA in Mississippi and Detroit.

* * * *

In the early and mid 1990’s, Lumumba won a string of major victories in Mississippi Courts. He won an acquittal for DeWayne Boyd, a New Afrikan (Black) land development activist who was framed on arson charges after discovering and reporting dishonest schemes by white farmers to control and profit from DeWayne’s family’s land in Starkville, Mississippi. He and Oxford, Mississippi, Attorney Gail Thompson defeated the attempts by the State of Mississippi to put John Buford Irving to death for the alleged murder of a white store owner in 1976, by winning Irving’s 1995 death penalty trial.

He won a not guilty verdict for a 13 year old New Afrikan Youth, Elliot Culp, on May 10, 1996. Culp was charged with robbing and killing a 64 year old white woman. He was the youngest person ever tried on capital murder charges in Mississippi.

* * * *
Lumumba is a member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He also practices law in Michigan as of Counsel to Jeffrey Edison. From April 1991 until October 10, 2005 he practiced in Jackson, Mississippi.

I have some familiarity with the John Irving case discussed above. This was a truly remarkable victory. The all-white jury returned a unanimous life verdict for Mr. Irving, an African-American, for the homicide of a white store owner. The lesson: don't underestimate Mr. Lumumba's ability to persuade people of all races, classes and political persuasions. And don't underestimate his commitment It will make for an interesting term on the City Council.

Another One Bites The Dust -- New Mexico Abolishes Capital Punishment

Kudos to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who signed the bill repealing the state's death penalty late yesterday. Here's his statement:

Today marks the end of a long, personal journey for me and the issue of the death penalty. Throughout my adult life, I have been a firm believer in the death penalty as a just punishment – in very rare instances, and only for the most heinous crimes. I still believe that. But six years ago, when I took office as Governor of the State of New Mexico, I started to challenge my own thinking on the death penalty.

The issue became more real to me because I knew the day would come when one of two things might happen: I would either have to take action on legislation to repeal the death penalty, or more daunting, I might have to sign someone’s death warrant. I’ll be honest. The prospect of either decision was extremely troubling. But I was elected by the people of New Mexico to make just this type of decision.

So, like many of the supporters who took the time to meet with me this week, I have believed the death penalty can serve as a deterrent to some who might consider murdering a law enforcement officer, a corrections officer, a witness to a crime or kidnapping and murdering a child.

However, people continue to commit terrible crimes even in the face of the death penalty and responsible people on both sides of the debate disagree – strongly – on this issue. But what we cannot disagree on is the finality of this ultimate punishment. Once a conclusive decision has been made and executed, it cannot be reversed. And it is in consideration of this, that I have made my decision.

I have decided to sign legislation that repeals the death penalty in the state of New Mexico. Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime. If the State is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong. But the reality is the system is not perfect – far from it. The system is inherently defective. DNA testing has proven that. Innocent people have been put on death row all across the country. Even with advances in DNA and other forensic evidence technologies, we can’t be 100-percent sure that only the truly guilty are convicted of capital crimes. Evidence, including DNA evidence, can be manipulated. Prosecutors can still abuse their powers. We cannot ensure competent defense counsel for all defendants. The sad truth is the wrong person can still be convicted in this day and age, and in cases where that conviction carries with it the ultimate sanction, we must have ultimate confidence – I would say certitude – that the system is without flaw or prejudice. Unfortunately, this is demonstrably not the case. And it bothers me greatly that minorities are overrepresented in the prison population and on death row.

I have to say that all of the law enforcement officers, and especially the parents and spouses of murder victims, made compelling arguments to keep the death penalty. I respect their opinions and have taken their experiences to heart -- which is why I struggled – even today – before making my final decision. Yes, the death penalty is a tool for law enforcement. But it’s not the only tool. For some would-be criminals, the death penalty may be a deterrent. But it’s not, and never will be, for many, many others.

While today’s focus will be on the repeal of the death penalty, I want to make clear that this bill I’m signing actually makes New Mexico safer. With my signature, we now have the option of sentencing the worst criminals to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They will never get out of prison. Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe.

The bill I am signing today, which was courageously carried for so many years by Representative Gail Chasey, replaces the death penalty with true life without the possibility of parole – a sentence that ensures violent criminals are locked away from society forever, yet can be undone if an innocent person is wrongfully convicted. More than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated in the past 10 years in this country, including four New Mexicans – a fact I cannot ignore.

From an international human rights perspective, there is no reason the United States should be behind the rest of the world on this issue. Many of the countries that continue to support and use the death penalty are also the most repressive nations in the world. That’s not something to be proud of. In a society which values individual life and liberty above all else, where justice and not vengeance is the singular guiding principle of our system of criminal law, the potential for wrongful conviction and, God forbid, execution of an innocent person stands as anathema to our very sensibilities as human beings. That is why I’m signing this bill into law.

New Mexico joins New Jersey as recent converts to abolitionism. Maryland isn't far behind. Could this be the beginning of the end for this barbaric practice?

Quacks With Bite: Forensic Fabrications Exposed

While we're waiting for the verdict in United States v. Melton, please pause for a bit and consider another possible criminal violation of the civil rights of Mississippians. A little more than a year ago, Reason magazine's Radley Balko published his devastating expose of pathologist Stephen Hayne and forensic dentist Michael West, who practiced misanthropy as State experts in Mississippi criminal cases.

www.reason.com/hayne

Then in Spring 2008, the exonerations of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks demonstrated the human cost of false forensic testimony -- two men sent to Parchman's death row for over a decade (although one was resentenced to life due to mental retardation). When they were finally released, District Attorney Ben Creekmore, appointed special prosecutor in the cases, apologized for the wrongful incarceration on behalf of the State.

Now Mr. Balko has dropped another bomb. In the attached article, he posts a video tape of an autopsy at which Dr. West is seen pressing a defendant's dental mold into the face of a young girl's corpse. Dr. Hayne is present. The link is to Balko's story; the video can be found there. DO NOT WATCH THE VIDEO IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE UPSET.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/131527.html

Balko reports:

"Reason recently obtained shocking video from another Hayne and West collaboration that may shed light on the question. In 1993, the two conducted an examination on a 23-month-old girl named Haley Oliveaux of West Monroe, Louisiana, who had drowned in her bathtub. The video shows bite marks mysteriously appearing on the toddler's face during the time she was in the custody of Hayne and West. It then shows West repeatedly and methodically pressing and scraping a dental mold of a man's teeth on the dead girl's skin. Forensic scientists who have viewed the footage say the video reveals not only medical malpractice, but criminal evidence tampering."

I used to think I was jaded, but I could never have dreamed that even Drs. Hayne and West would so boldly manufacture false evidence -- and record it on video.

For those of you who may think Mayor Melton should be acquitted because he is fighting the drug trade and "the end justifies the means," this video shows why we have to hold Government accountable to follow the law.

For those of you who think that prisoners who claim to be "framed" are delusional or mendacious, this video will make you re-think that attitude.

And for those of you who are still for the death penalty, remember this: false expert testimony could have sent two innocent men to their death. In our name.

It's time to get damn furious about those who misuse the public trust, and to change the criminal justice system to ensure that the all-too-human tendency to cut corners, assume guilt, and rush to judgment is curtailed and controlled by the rule of law.

Memo to our next United States Attorney: In Illinois, they indicted detectives who manufactured evidence in homicide cases.

http://www.mcall.com/topic/chi-020103trial3,0,4080114.story?page=1&track=rss-topicgallery

Sounds like a good idea for Mississippi.

An Idea That Has Run Its Course -- Prison Population Explosion

Federal judges in California have ruled that the state must cut its prison population by 40 percent, possibly requiring the early release of 58,000 prisoners. CNN's story is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/10/california.prisons/index.html

The court says that the prison population explosion has resulted in unsafe and unsanitary conditions that threaten the health and lives of prisoners and corrections personnel.

At the same time, California's budget crisis have led many to wonder if capital punishment is worth the cost. The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, a bipartisan group created by the State Senate, reported last summer that the death penalty process is "dysfunctional." At that time, the Los Angeles Times reported:

Although commissioners strongly disagreed on some issues, they were unanimous in concluding that the current death penalty system was failing and in agreeing that a large amount of money was needed for significant change. The report offers alternative proposals for reform.

The commission did not advocate abolishing the death penalty but did note that California could save $100 million a year if the state replaced the punishment with sentences of life in prison without possibility of parole. Death row prisoners cost more to confine, are granted more resources for appeals, have more expensive trials and usually die in prison anyway, the commission said in its 117-page report.

The full story is here: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/01/local/me-death1

The costs have become so staggering that even in Marin County, which stands to gain from the proposed construction of a new death row facility at San Quintin, the local paper advocates abolishing capital punishment on cost grounds:

In these times of unprecedented budget shortfalls and financial crisis, it's important to understand how the state is spending that $250 million on the death penalty:

- $117 million is for the extra costs of death row housing, attorneys for the prosecution and defense, and court costs. These are the extra expenses we pay every year to have the death penalty in California-expenses that would disappear if we replaced the death penalty with permanent imprisonment (which has no opportunity for parole), but expenses that are required as long as we have a death penalty.

- $136 million is to begin construction of a new death row facility. We are forced to build a new death row because our current facility is overcrowded and broken down. The total estimated cost for completing the project is now $400 million and the costs for running the facility are estimated at $1 billion for the first 20 years.

The full Marin Independent Journal editorial is here: http://www.marinij.com/opinion/ci_11441239

This is not just a California phenomenon. The criminal justice system in the United States is based upon the application of two ideas -- mass incarceration and capital punishment -- that have repeatedly failed to achieve the goals of rehabilitation or deterrence.

It's time for a fresh, no-holds-barred analysis of what we CAN do, after a person is proved to have broken the law, to keep our communities safe, restore the offender to a society, and heal their victims.

New ideas, anyone?

Does Death Penalty Defense Really Pay?

As you may realize, the Blogspot web manager allows a blog like mine to sponsor ads. Google picks the ads based on some computer program that matches the content of the blog with the ad. So lately, the ads in my World feature several lawyers who advertise, "Facing the Death Penalty? Call me, yada, yada, yada."

Some helpful information for the folks posting the ads:

1. People facing the death penalty rarely have access to the Internet.

2. People facing the death penalty rarely have funds to hire lawyers.

3. Lawyers who try to get paid privately for handling death penalty cases rarely know what the hell they are doing.

In any event, if you or your loved one ARE facing the death penalty in Mississippi, don't call these slobs. Just ask your local PD to have the Mississippi Office of Capital Defense Counsel represent you. (www.capdefcounsel.com) . Andre deGruy, the Executive Director of the Office, is the best trial lawyer handling capital cases in the State. He's free, and you or your loved one are probably eligible to hire him.

I guess I won't get much ad revenue on this thing. Oh well.

Uncle Tom's Courtroom

Folo collects two stories about the new Assistant District Attorney in Lafayette County:

http://www.folo.us/2009/01/24/colorful-court-talk-in-oxford/

Tom Levidiotis was formerly the part-time Public Defender in that county. He was also formerly a staff attorney at the Mississippi Office of Post-Conviction Counsel (MOCPCC), toward the end of the years that Robert Ryan was Executive Director. Ryan's tenure marked some of the most shameful mis-representation of clients that has ever been seen in Mississippi death penalty jurisprudence.

Note: the JFP story I wrote about the execution of Earl Berry, and Ryan's woeful work, is at
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/comments/the_execution_of_earl_wesley_berry/

The JFP's Ronni Mott did her own excellent reporting on the subject of MOCPCC:
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/dereliction_of_duty_070908/

But back to the land of Faulkner. Folo connects us to the Oxford Eagle's website (http://www.oxfordeagle.com/archives/2009/0109/011909-012309/012309/news1.html), where we experience this bit of courtroom drama:

The trial against the man accused of murdering University of Mississippi track star Rodney Lockhart has been postponed for an undetermined amount of time after the state announced it would be seeking additional charges against Christian Bonner during a pre-trial hearing Thursday.

Bonner was indicted for capital murder in December 2007 for allegedly shooting Lockhart in the head on Sept. 29, 2007, during a robbery.His trial has been postponed several times. The case was set for trial Monday, but Bonner’s attorney, Kevin Camp of Jackson, filed a motion asking for a continuance because he had other trials pending in Jackson.

* * * *

[Circuit Judge] Howorth said he would continue the case for a short period of time but was interrupted by Assistant District Attorney Tom Levidiotis who announced the state’s intent to supersede the indictment with new charges — which apparently took everyone by surprise. What the exact charges are or whether they were related to the state seeking the death penalty against Bonner were not being released by the District Attorney’s Office.

The state had announced last year it was not seeking the death penalty in the case, but Thursday Levidiotis hinted that could change and that decision would be up to the grand jury on Feb. 9 — not the state.“If the grand jury says that Mr. Bonner needs killin’ then by God, I will prosecute it that way,” he said in court.

Of course, as an experienced criminal lawyer should know, the grand jury does NOT decide whether the defendant in a capital case "needs killin." It is the prosecutor's prerogative to seek either death or life without parole when a grand jury indicts a defendant for capital murder.

One wonders whether this latter-day "Uncle Tom" had this much killer instinct when he was supposed to be defending capital murder defendants. Maybe that explains the poor performance of MOCPCC?

Too bad the original Uncle Tom didn't have this one's flexibility. He would have enlisted in the Confederate Army.

Holding Prosecutors Accountable -- Could It Happen Here?

From the Death Penalty Information Center (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/), an interesting news item:

Death Penalty Misconduct May Force District Attorney's Office into Bankruptcy

The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office in Louisiana may file for bankruptcy because of a multi-million dollar law-suit award stemming from the office’s misconduct in a death penalty case. John Thompson, a former death row inmate, was awarded $14 million after he was exonerated due to the withholding of evidence by the former District Attorney. Thompson spent 18 years in prison, including 14 years on death row in Angola. The jury award was recently upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The District Attorney’s office said it can’t pay this and other settlements and will resort to bankruptcy in an effort to stay open. “If those funds aren’t there, those people can’t afford to work for free,” said Rafael Goyeneche of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. “That means it shuts down the district attorney’s office, but it also shuts down the entire criminal justice system.”

The District Attorney’s office was already financially troubled, recently asking the City Council for $2.5 million to avoid laying off 20 workers. “It’s been hard so far – very hard,” said District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro. If the office goes bankrupt, the state's attorney general would have to assume prosecution of cases, but that would take months of preparation and expense since that office does not ordinarily perform this function. ("Orleans Parish DA's Office Faces Bankruptcy," MSNBC.com, January 8, 2009).

My Question:

Do the Federal and State Courts in Mississippi have the political courage to hold prosecutors and other law enforcement officials accountable for misdeeds and constitutional violations? The recent lawsuits against Dr. Stephen Hayne and Dr. Michael West may start a new trend here -- unless our judges turn a blind eye to injustice . . .

2009 Legislation on Capital Punishment Issues

From Mississippians Educating for Smart Justice (http://www.mesj.info/):

2009 Legislative Update: Capital Punishment

The United States Supreme Court has said that any criminal punishment, including the death penalty should reflect the “conscience of the community,” and its application should be measured against society’s “evolving standards of decency.” Events in our state in 2008 should trouble the consciences of Mississippians. In the past year, we have seen:

· the exoneration of Kennedy Brewer, an innocent man who spent 13 years on death row;

· the exoneration of Levon Brooks, another innocent man who was convicted of murder and imprisoned for 16 years;

· the execution of Earl Berry, a mentally retarded man;

· the execution of Dale Bishop, a mentally ill man who was merely present during a killing while the actual murderer received a life sentence; and

· the forced resignation of Dr. Stephen Hayne, the de facto State medical examiner whose testimony has been crucial in condemning many of the prisoners on Mississippi’s death row.

Thoughtful Mississippi must contemplate the absurdity of continuing a system that has delivered such horrific injustices. Proposals expected to be introduced in the 2009 Legislative Session address these issues.

Compensate the Innocent. More than 120 people have been freed from death row since 1973, after their innocence was vindicated by DNA analysis and other proof. Polls show that the American public is deeply concerned by the prospect of sending more innocent men and women to their deaths. Many are skeptical of such claims, but in the wake of the State’s admission that Kennedy Brewer was innocent of the charges that held him on Death Row for 13 years, we are faced with the likelihood that there are others like him in Parchman.

State Representative Willie Perkins has introduced House Bill 189 and House Bill 200. These bills would compensate people wrongly convicted of crimes. Mississippi is one of the few states without such a system; we send wrongly incarcerated people home with only an apology. To be certain, compensation will never fully redress the wrong inflicted on innocent prisoners and their families, but it will reflect a measure of repentance for that wrong. It may also serve to hold the State’s agents – whether prosecutors, law enforcement officers, or appointed defense counsel – accountable for their misconduct.

Both of Rep. Perkins’ bills have been referred to the House Corrections and Appropriations Committees. They can be followed at:

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2009/pdf/history/HB/HB0189.xml

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2009/pdf/history/HB/HB0200.xml

Stop the Executions of Those Who Do Not Kill. The bipartisan outcry against the unfairness of executing Dale Bishop, a mere accomplice, while the actual killer in the case was sentenced to life, proves that Mississippians do not support the arbitrary application of the death penalty. Of the over 1,100 prisoners executed in the United States Since 1976, Bishop was only the eighth person to be executed who was not either the actual killer or the payor in a murder-for-hire.

As the Clarion-Ledger reported in July 2008, neighboring States such as Louisiana or Alabama would not permit a mere accomplice to be executed. Representative John Mayo has introduced House Bill 29, which would adopt this rule in Mississippi. It has been referred to the House Judiciary En Banc Committee. It can be followed at:

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2009/pdf/history/HB/HB0029.xml

Moratorium. These two proposals, of course, are merely the beginning of a moral response to capital punishment in Mississippi. Those who work with Death Row prisoners know that capital punishment does not deter crime; most persons who commit murder are seriously mentally ill, high on drugs or alcohol, or desperately impoverished. They do not undertake a “cost-benefit” analysis before killing their victim.

The death penalty is not needed to prevent repeat murders. Society is more than adequately protected by incarcerating murderers for life without parole. In that event, if later proof shows the prisoner is actually innocent, he would be alive and could be released and compensated. That is certainly not the case today. And the families of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment can continue to visit their loved ones; when a prisoner is executed, his or her family suffers as well.

If deterrence and the protection of society are insufficient to justify the death penalty, why keep it? Some argue that the families of victims deserve retribution. This is doubtful both factually and morally. Although the cost per execution varies from state to state, the fact that prosecuting, appealing and inevitably executing those sentenced to death costs much more per case than that of those given a life without parole sentence is indisputable. With 64 death row prisoners in our state, can we afford to continue such a costly and fallible practice?

Spending that same money on assisting the families of murder victims, such as college funds established for minor children of murder victims, low interest mortgage loans, retribution payments, would be a far more Christian response than fostering revenge.

The fact is that more study of these issues is desperately needed. Representative Mayo has sponsored House Bill 145, imposing a moratorium on executions pending such a study. The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary En Banc Committee and can be followed at:

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2009/pdf/history/HB/HB0145.xml

Conclusion. These bills should be important to Mississippians who seek to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before [their] God.” Micah 6:8. They are commended to your further study and support.