And some folk still struggle to believe that this "Free Nation"
provides "Liberty and Justice for All!"
Two things to post on your refrigerator, if you're lucky enough to
have one, would be: First, The return to America's Greatness, promised
by Donald Trump, is that same world which sent those innocent black
and brown men to prison. Second, Working Class Americans, Black,
Brown or White, are not protected by the nation's Justice System. The
laws are designed to protect the Rights, mostly material Rights, of
the Oligarchy...the American Empire's Ruling Class. If you are a
working class person, and you have been told you have protection under
the Law, do not believe it. You are exactly what the Laws were
designed to protect the Ruling Class from.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/8/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8146/814653.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 46 December 11, 2017
19 victims of cop frame-ups exonerated in Chicago
BY JOHN HAWKINS
CHICAGO — Within the course of one week in mid-November 19 men framed up
and convicted on a variety of crimes had those convictions thrown out
after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit urged
courts to overturn them, shining a spotlight on the class bias of the
so-called criminal “justice” system.
All 19 were from working-class neighborhoods in Chicago, all either
African-American or Latino. And all but two were victims of what is
proven to be a common practice by Chicago cops and others across the
country — the use of coercion, from psychological abuse to torture, to
elicit false confessions or create “testimony” to convict people of
crimes they did not commit.
According to data compiled by the National Registry of Exonerations, at
least 146 people had been freed from prison after being framed up and
convicted by cops and prosecutors in Cook County. Many spent decades
behind bars. The 19 released this week make the total 165.
On Nov. 14, Arthur Brown, 66, was released from prison after 29 years,
convicted of murder based on a false confession that cops beat him into
signing.
The following day Jose Maysonet, 49, was released after 27 years in
prison for murder. After his conviction was overturned, prosecutors put
him back on trial, but five retired cops refused to testify, invoking
the constitutional protection against self-incrimination. Among the five
cops was Reynaldo Guevara. Numerous convictions in which he played a
role were overturned because he beat suspects and coerced witnesses.
On Nov. 16 the Cook County State’s Attorney threw out the drug-related
convictions of 15 men. They were framed by police Sgt. Ronald Watts and
his crew. Watts and an officer under his command were sent to federal
prison in 2013 for stealing money from a drug courier working as an FBI
informant.
Speaking at a news conference, Joshua Tepfer, the Exoneration Project’s
lead attorney for the 15, said that Watts and his associates were
involved in as many as 500 convictions.
Also addressing the media was Leonard Gipson, one of the 15 exonorees,
who described how Watts framed him on drug charges in 2003 because he
refused to pay him “protection” money. After Gipson filed a false-arrest
complaint against Watts, the cop framed him up again on heroin-related
drug charges. He spent two years in jail awaiting trial, finally
yielding to the advice of his attorney and pleading guilty.
The day these convictions were thrown out, the Chicago Police Department
put seven cops who had been associated with Watts on desk duty. A police
spokesperson claimed the department would investigate their conduct.
Then on Nov. 21 Nevest Coleman and Darryl Fulton were released from
prison after new DNA evidence cleared them of 1994 rape and murder
convictions that had kept them incarcerated for 23 years.
The Exoneration Project and others continue to press to absolve and win
freedom for hundreds of others framed up by Reynaldo Guevara, Watts and
his associates, infamous former Chicago Police Department detective Jon
Burge and his “midnight crew,” and other cops.
“For 19 people to be exonerated in less than a week is great,” Esther
Hernandez, mother of both Juan and Rosendo Hernandez, who were framed up
for murder and attempted murder in 1997, told the Militant. “But it also
shows the scope of the problem. It’s not just Burge or Watts or Guevara.
It’s how the cops and the justice system work.”
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