Racist Judges
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 30th, 2011
Shouldn’t that be an oxymoron?
Today I’m blogging a story about capital punishment, a man on death row. But to me, I’m looking at the story on another level..a deeper level. What got this man to death row? To me it’s another unbelievable story of racism.
I know that I have been blogging a lot about racism lately. But hey, if it wasn’t so prevalent in this country, I wouldn’t have the need to blog about it, nor fodder to report. Believe me, I would rather be blogging about things that make people happy….bring people joy, inspire a laugh or two…And I do. But sometimes a story that is being told, has got to be looked at in more ways than what is being reported. And this is one of them.
Although this story is about capital punishment, this is also a story about racism. A man, Abu-Jamal, who was found guilty of killing a police officer. The police officer was shot dead and Abu-Jamal, who was shot himself, was found laying next to him. The judge who convicted Abu-Jamal, was widely considered to be a racist. A racist judge.
Abu-Jamal was found guilty of his murder in a court case presided over by Judge Albert Sabo, who was widely considered to be a racist. In just one of too many painful examples, a court stenographer said in an affidavit that she heard Sabo say, in the courtroom antechamber, “I’m going to help them fry the n****r.”
If you ever think you’re having a bad day, consider being convicted of a crime by a racist judge and then spending the next 29 years of your life on death row. Tough enough? For the average person, yes. But Abu-Jamal is no average man.
Abu-Jamal, in spite of being convicted of a crime by a racist judge and living in solitary confinement for 29 years, he has continued his work as a journalist, with weekly radio commentaries that are broadcast from coast to coast. He is also the author of six books. Amazing yes? No doubt.
Here’s the write:
Capital punishment: America’s worst crime
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on death row for 29 years. Now, a court rules his sentencing unconstitutional. When will we learn?
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther party member, has spent 29 years on death row, convicted for the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner
The death penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal took a surprising turn this week, as a federal appeals court declared, for the second time, that Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was unconstitutional. The third US circuit court of appeals, in Philadelphia, found that the sentencing instructions the jury received, and the verdict form they had to use in the sentencing, were unclear. While the disputes surrounding Abu-Jamal’s guilt or innocence were not addressed, the case highlights inherent problems with the death penalty and the criminal justice system, especially the role played by race.
Early on 9 December 1981, Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner pulled over a car driven by William Cook, Abu-Jamal’s brother. What happened next is in dispute. Shots were fired, and both Officer Faulkner and Abu-Jamal were shot. Faulkner died, and Abu-Jamal was found guilty of his murder in a court case presided over by Judge Albert Sabo, who was widely considered to be a racist. In just one of too many painful examples, a court stenographer said in an affidavit that she heard Sabo say, in the courtroom antechamber, “I’m going to help them fry the n****r.”
This latest decision by the court of appeals relates directly to Sabo’s conduct of the sentencing phase of Abu-Jamal’s court case. The Pennsylvania supreme court is considering separate arguments surrounding whether or not Abu-Jamal received a fair trial at all. What the court of appeals unanimously found this week is that he did not receive a fair sentencing. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has decided to appeal the decision to the US supreme court, saying:
“The right thing for us to do is to ask the US supreme court to hear this and to make a ruling on it.”
As a result of this ruling, Abu-Jamal could get a new, full sentencing hearing, in court, before a jury. In such a hearing, the jury would be given clear instructions on how to decide between applying a sentence of life in prison as opposed to the death penalty – something the court found he did not receive back in 1982. At best, Abu-Jamal would be removed from the cruel confines of solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s death row at SCI Greene. John Payton, director counsel of the NAACP legal defence fund, which is representing Abu-Jamal in court, said:
“This decision marks an important step forward in the struggle to correct the mistakes of an unfortunate chapter in Pennsylvania history … and helps to relegate the kind of unfairness on which this death sentence rested to the distant past.”
His other attorney, Judith Ritter, a law professor at Widener University school of law, told me: “This is extremely significant. It’s a life or death decision.” I asked her if she had spoken to Abu-Jamal yet, and she told me that the prison failed to approve her request for an emergency legal phone call. I was not surprised, given my many years of covering his case.
He has faced multiple obstacles as he has tried to have his voice heard. On 12 August 1999, as I was hosting Democracy Now!, Abu-Jamal called into our news hour, mid-broadcast, to be interviewed. As he began to speak, a prison guard yanked the phone out of the wall. Abu-Jamal called back a month later and recounted that:
“Another guard appeared at the cell hollering at the top of his lungs, ‘This call is terminated!’ I immediately called to the sergeant standing by and looking on and said, ‘Sergeant, where did this order come from?’ He shrugged his shoulders and said: ‘I don’t know. We just got a call to cut you off.’”
Abu-Jamal sued over the violation of his rights, and won.
Despite his solitary confinement, Abu-Jamal has continued his work as a journalist. His weekly radio commentaries are broadcast from coast to coast. He is the author of six books. He was recently invited to present to a conference on racial imprisonment at Princeton University. He said (through a cellphone held up to a microphone):
“Vast numbers of men, women and juveniles … populate the prison industrial complex here in America. As many of you know, the US, with barely 5% of the world’s population, imprisons 25% of the world’s prisoners … the numbers of imprisoned blacks here rivals and exceeds South Africa’s hated apartheid system during its height.”
The United States clings to the death penalty, alone in the industrialised world. In fact, it stands with China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Yemen as the world’s most frequent executioners. This week’s decision in Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case stands as one more clear reason why the death penalty should be abolished.
• Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
© 2011 Amy Goodman; distributed by King Features Syndicate
Readers: So…yeah, we need to look at capital punishment. But in my opinion, we need to really look at those that have the power to put people behind bars. And those that have that power should not be racists.
That’s it for me today. It’s your turn. Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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April 30th, 2011 at 9:34 am
Michelle, your blog is more than a series of stories or issues because you introduce them with heart. One can feel the emotional commitment you invest in the kinds of articles you select for your readers.
Your opening monologue made me want to read this article.
Lisa
April 30th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Michelle;
Here is an article by published by the Guardian. It purports to explain the “birther” phenomenon and the belief that most whites have that Obama is not a citizen of the US. Notice how he never mentions the simple explanation that his race are a bunch of racist bastards using whatever they can to deny the legitimacy of a black man being elected President of the United States of America.
How simple was that explanation? It was accurate and to the point. If the white press used that and moved on, this bullshit would be over. But they continue to push their sick racist shit into Obama’s and the OTWs’ face. It is their way of saying white america will never accept anyone but a white man as a legitimate president of the USA.
I especially like this sentence in his last paragraph below. Where he attempts to give normalcy to racist mindset of his race. “But in America, unfortunately, the conspiracy theorists are not just a few crazy people but millions of supposedly normal ones.”
He said nothing that any OTW in America couldn’t tell you. Millions of whites in this country are racists bigots. It may be something he and the rest of white of america can accept as normal, but we see it as sick.
Alexander Chancellor
The Guardian, Friday 29 April 2011
Article history
A couple of years ago I was noting with astonishment on this page that 28% of American Republicans believed Barack Obama had not been born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president.
A further 30% of Republicans were “not sure”, despite the fact that Obama’s birth in Honolulu on 4 August 1961 had been officially registered with the authorities at the time and his birth certificate published in two Hawaiian newspapers.
What, I wondered, could persuade these millions of Americans to accept a fact that had been repeatedly investigated and verified? The answer seems to be nothing.
No opinion poll has been published on the question since Obama produced his birth certificate for inspection this week; but a poll carried out by CBS News and the New York Times only a week ago showed that the percentage of Republicans believing that he was born in another country had risen to a staggering 45% (and that a quarter of all Americans, including Democrats, were of the same view).
This willful denial of a seemingly incontrovertible truth is bewildering. But the myth of the president as a sinister alien and secret subversive has gathered new strength since its adoption by Donald Trump, the real-estate tycoon who is wondering whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination. Obama may have hoped that Trump would be chastened by the sight of his birth certificate, but, if so, he was to be disappointed.
“Today, I’m very proud of myself because I accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish,” Trump said, claiming responsibility for its publication.
And he promised he would still go on digging into the president’s past, despite the media’s efforts to “protect” him. His next target would be Obama’s college records. Obama had reputedly been “a terrible student” at Occidental College in Los Angeles, said Trump, but he had nevertheless gone on to both Columbia and Harvard universities. “How do you get into Harvard if you’re not a good student?” he asked.
Like other leading “birthers”, as those questioning Obama’s origins are called, Trump also refused to accept the birth certificate at face value.
He would examine it for authenticity, he said; as did Joseph Farah, the editor of an Obama-obsessed website, who declared that “it raises far more questions than it answers”.
Another prominent Obama critic, Orly Taitz, questioned the certificate’s authenticity because it gave Obama’s father’s race as “African”. “It sounds like it would be written today, in the age of political correctness, and not in 1961, when they wrote white or Asian or ‘Negro’,” Taitz said.
Be that as it may, the controversy seems doomed to continue. As the Washington Post put it yesterday: “Conspiracy theories have the self-sustaining gift of ramification: they sprout new tendrils, like a mad vine that has invaded from another continent.
For the committed conspiracy theorist, there is always another angle to explore, another anomaly to scrutinize.”
But in America, unfortunately, the conspiracy theorists are not just a few crazy people but millions of supposedly normal ones.
The level of political debate in Britain is often dismal, as when an historic reform of the voting system is discussed mainly in terms of what it would cost and which political party it would hurt the most. But the world’s greatest democracy seems to take the cake.
Robert
April 30th, 2011 at 9:40 am
Michelle – I have learned that my country Iran is helping Syria put to control its people. The two countries have made a pact to come to the aid of the other should the UN intervene to help the people defend themselves from the two dictators.
Ahou
April 30th, 2011 at 9:47 am
PROTECT YOUR LIVER!
I’ve mentioned the danger that sugary drinks can pose to your liver previously in Daily Health News. And I’m here today to mention it again.
We’re all so aware of the damage that alcohol poses, it’s easy to overlook the threat from all those innocent-looking soft drinks and sweetened fruit juices that line the grocery store shelves.
With the summer season coming on and shopping carts piled high with soda bottles and cans of every color and size, I wanted to be sure that each reader understands the dangers in that colorful array.
A study reported last March from Duke University Medical Center found that daily consumption of fructose, the main kind of sugar added to soft drinks and sweetened juice drinks, increases liver fibrosis, which leads to scarring and progressive loss of liver function.
The increased consumption of fructose, as well as the increase in fibrosis, are both alarming new trends.
I’d spoken previously with Brent Tetri, MD, a professor of internal medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and an authority on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and I decided to check in again for an update.
No, he said — there’s no exaggeration here. Fructose and high fructose corn syrup are among the worst offenders in our diet and can definitely threaten the health of the liver.
Fructose is not metabolized well by other cells in the body, he explained, so the liver absorbs it and turns it into fat, some of which is stored in — and has the potential to damage — this organ, whose function is so important to every aspect of our health.
NAFLD is a condition that’s showing up with increasing frequency in the US, Dr. Tetri noted. In fact, about 30% of adults have fat accumulation in the liver that is not related to alcohol.
If there’s good news here, it’s that if damage to your liver hasn’t progressed far, the amount of fructose you consume is a factor that you can easily control.
If you lower your caloric intake, causing less inflammation and potential for scarring, the problem will reverse to a variable degree.
The liver has an amazing ability to regenerate, Dr. Tetri emphasized. Once it’s scarred, however, the scars hang around, and the liver has to regrow around the scars.
That’s why you don’t get your completely undamaged liver back once scarring has begun. So, don’t let that happen!
LIVER CARE
The liver doesn’t really ask too much of us in return. If we eat right, exercise and avoid excessive alcohol use and — now we know — excessive sugar and fructose, and manage to maintain a healthy weight, Dr. Tetri assured me, very little happens to the liver as we age.
The liver at 90 years can look and work much like the liver at nine. It is when you stray from this simple, straightforward formula and challenge your liver with poor diet and a lack of exercise that it runs into trouble.
Here’s what to do…
Make vegetables, whole grains, fish, fruit and olive oil the centerpieces of your diet.
A recent Middle Eastern study found that extra virgin olive oil in particular offers potent antioxidant protection against toxins that harm the liver.
Your liver-healthy hint: If you have diagnosed liver damage, avoid alcohol altogether. If not, you can enjoy red wine in moderation, due to the partially protective effect of the polyphenols.
Limit unhealthy fats. Despite all their well-deserved bad press, trans fats still are added to many processed foods — and when Dr. Tetri fed mice a hefty dose of these fats, they quickly developed liver inflammation that can lead to cirrohsis.
Your liver-healthy hint: Don’t rely on any claims of “zero trans fats” on food packaging, even on a product’s nutrient label, because the law allows food manufacturers to round trans fat content down to zero as long as there is less than one-half gram per serving.
Instead, read the ingredient list, which must still include such trans fats as partially hydrogenated oils if they are added during manufacture.
Don’t take unnecessary medication. For instance, acetaminophen, the active ingredient in many pain pills such as Tylenol, can damage the liver if it is taken in excessive doses.
Keep moving. Exercise adjusts the body’s metabolism and will help you burn fat that might otherwise end up in your liver.
Your liver-healthy hint: If you’re overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight — whatever you weigh — has enormous liver benefits and quickly improves NAFLD.
If you are sedentary, Dr. Tetri says that walking is a good place to start working out… but the reality is that you need to step up your activity level enough to get sweaty and out of breath at least four times a week to see real benefits.
We’re lucky that our livers are so forgiving, lets give them a break, too.
Source(s):
Brent A. Tetri, MD, professor of internal medicine, director, division of gastroenterology and hepatology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
April 30th, 2011 at 10:50 am
The legitimizing the racists elements of America with this statement “Like other leading “birthers”, as those questioning Obama’s origins are called, Trump also refused to accept the birth certificate at face value.” is just another example of white america denying their racists attitudes towards OTWs in America.
April 30th, 2011 at 11:20 am
I agree with your concern about the hidden motivations of those that dispute the president’s citizenship. However, I am equally concerned about the media frenzy surrounding this issue and the public’s appetite for this type of news. When did we become so shallow that we (as a people) no longer have the attention span to focus on real issues? Is it a problem with the news services or there is an underlying problem with the way that we process news? Is it a coincidence that news reporting is becoming nothing more than ‘sound bites’?
April 30th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Michael:
I know that my comment is not exactly about the post today,but i feel it needs to be said.
The Royal Wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in England was a special occasion for the British.
The English love anything to do with the Royal Family. It is something they are very proud of.
Here in America we have a president who was challenged about his place of birth and actually folded and showed the world exactly when and where he was born and that he IS an American Citizen
Does anyone really believe that President Obama could have attained his position while hiding his heritage? Nonsense!
Here in the USA we have movie stars and celebrities instead of Royalty. We watch their every move and this is considered Big News.
Now, if everyone in politics did their jobs instead of pointing fingers and making silly accusations, Politicians could tackle the many problems we face here in America … we could re-obtain the status of ‘Super Power’ once again. We could raise The quality of life for ALL Citizens and live the ‘American Dream’ once again.
Our Nation’s infrastructure is falling apart. America’s Roads, Bridges, Tunnels, Levies, Sewer Systems, etc. were not maintained properly because Corporations did not pay their fair share of taxes so there just wasn‘t enough money for maintenance. Instead, the Rich got fatter. Now even the Super-Elite will reap what they have sewn when everything begins to fall down like London Bridge — When they do not have clean water to drink.
It is sad that GREED killed our Nation. It has taken away our homes, our jobs, our Industries, and now our infrastructures are showing their lack of maintenance as well.
When will we wake up and do something about it? Republican or democrat, it is obvious that some money needs to go to the PEOPLE of this once-great nation.
HOWIE
April 30th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Sorry, I mean to write Michelle … Oops.
HOWIE
April 30th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Howie I agree. We are a bankrupt society – morally most of all.
I have a hard time seeing Americans waking up to their reality and really
working together to overcome what they have (for some) blindly created.
Granted there are some wonderful pockets of people trying to be conscious in their living foot print but they are too much in the minority. Most Americans don’t think about how their decisions affect their own lives much less the rest of the US and the globe economically politically socially morally zooalogically biologically – it’s all connected. Americans would rather think they are the center of their own universes just like they feel about their country. “Everything revolves around us.” isn’t that the White morality? How whites have always been conscious? Look at the news programming – every major channel carries the same stories as their counterparts – all crammed into 1/2 hour or hour – and then it’s the same stories repeated all day long. Americans do not want to think. They really don’t care to think about things not in their immediate vicinity or that doesn’t affected them personally. Even when it does they are often too lazy to act. I would say they are alot like zombies.
Until more people reach a higher consciousness of personal awareness and the concept of Unity and working towards a common good is viable I just don’t see how America can get off this runaway train of ruin. My brother always says send an American to China to really absorb the reality of how much Americans are getting ripped off about the cost of living.
April 30th, 2011 at 11:18 pm
I agree with you both this country is being run by a bunch of crooks. Poor Obama is doing his best. But we have been running rather ruining this country since we wrote the constitution for our sole benefit. We as a race will not give up that privilege. I shouldn’t be so quick to claim my share. I am a white female as such I may have to wait for the equal opportunity also.
The media is just another arm of the ruling elite. They seek to distract us by supporting the racist ramblings of idiots. The real problem is where the money ends up. Follow the money and you will find the culprits. Presently the republican party as so emboldened them they fear no retribution for their greed will ever be forth coming.
We need to focus on the financial mess we are in. Obama is being attacked from so many fronts he can not be sure which to give his priorities to. I hope he finds his way before it is too late.
Janice
July 7th, 2011 at 6:51 am
This Is The Place
Author: Brandon Long
“The truth shall set you free, but anything you say can and will be used against you. Especially if it’s the truth”
The place where you can go from having no criminal history at all, to doing a 118 months sentence. This is the place where government agencies are afraid to investigate the various wrong doings by judges, prosecutors and deputies. This is the place where a judge will deny a motion after stating on record he’s “not familiar with that law” pertaining to it. The place where before sentencing you to 4 months less than the maximum allowed by law; the judge says “I don’t think you’re a violent person, I just think you had a lot going on in your life at the time”. This is the place where a man with a prior criminal history, can take a 11yr old boy to an abandoned apartment, get him to drink alcohol and sodomize him. But receives less time then me. The place where in max custody you do 31 hr. periods of lock down, when state regulation is 23 hours at a time. The place where you wake up to cold oatmeal and bread with mold on the crust. The place where a deputy will ask you, “why did the judge give you so much time?” The place where another deputy will tell you, “that sentence he gave you is some bullshit, he hit you with a B.I.O. (Black in Olathe)”. The place where the civilian who works in the law library offers to help you appeal the sentencing because “it’s too much time for a first time offender”. Johnson County is the place where it’s rumored that some of the judges actually own some of the land the jail sits on. The place where they are in direct violation of state and federal regulations, but no one will challenge the mighty Johnson County. This is the place where if you have any medical issue requiring you to be taken to the hospital; they blatantly ignore the Doctors’ orders on treatment. The place where an arresting officer will take you DNA before you are charged with any crime, without a search warrant or your written/verbal consent. Then lie and say you gave your permission in which there is no signed voluntary submission form, or an audio recording of consent. The place where prosecutors and judges work together to hang you to dry. The place where the term “railroading” directly applies. The place where they won’t give you requested addresses to any agency you attempt to report them to. The place where they are experts at covering their tracks of illegal bias sentencing, prejudice, lying, indecent and unusual punishment. The place where a white guy can start a bar fight and stab the person he is fighting and be put on probation after already being on probation and violating it. The place where the same judge who sentenced me to the max, rendered that sentence of probation to the man I just mentioned. The place where the only “equal” they know, is a sugar substitute that comes in package. The place where “fair” doesn’t exist and how dare a black man ask to be treated fairly. The place where you’re told you are looking at 50 years for robbery without touching anyone and a young white kid who participated in the death of a 18yr old girl gets 27 years and this is with a previous record. The place where they go against what their own laws because they know you don’t have the resources to do anything about it. The place where they are taking money away from the school system and putting it into the building and expansion of the jail. Thus continuing the cycle of poverty and crime that exists in this day and age. The place where a deputy can throw a black man down the stairs while he was handcuffed- fracturing his neck, but the deputy is promoted to Sgt a few years later. The place where they just picked up the rug and swept the dirt under it, threw some money at his family to keep them quiet and that’s the end of it. The place where this is just the tip of the “iceberg” as far as things I’ve experienced and seen personally in my 8+ months of incarceration in the county jail. This is the place of all these things and much much more. This Johnson County Kansas. Enjoy your stay!